Tag Archives: elementary school

Rhyme – Connecticut

Nationality: American
Age: 55
Occupation: Photographer
Residence: Mystic, CT
Performance Date: April 20, 2008
Primary Language: English

“Salt, pepper, mustard, cider

How many legs has a spider?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight (speed of rope is increased)

Gypsy, gypsy

Please tell me.

What’s my sweetheart going to be?

Doctor, lawyer, banker, thief,

Sailor, soldier, Indian Chief?  (Repeat all at even faster speed)”

My mother told me that she used to sing this jump rope rhyme when she was a young girl at Hindley Elementary School in Darien, CT.  She told me that there were always two girls at the end of the jump ropes and that boys never sang this song or participated in the jump roping.  My mom told me that typically this rhyme was sung during recess with classmates or even in her street back home with her sister and neighbors.  They would repeat this until the person jumping rope either tripped or just decided to stop.  My mom said that the goal of the jumping was to get faster and faster and see how fast you could go.  She also said that often another person would join in the jumping or would replace the person jumping without the ropes being stopped or the song being sung.

In examining the words of the rhyme it is clear that only girls should be the ones who sing it.  By asking the gypsy which one of the following male professions would be their sweetheart, it is quite clear that no boys would want to jump in on the game.  Also, the fact that most lines rhyme with the one before give it the unique rhyming quality that also makes it fun for young girls to sing.

This jump rope rhyme enables young girls to start thinking about their future and start getting used to the idea of having a man sometime at a later point in life.  It is a good way to subconsciously allow girls to start talking about the subject and make it more comfortable while gossiping with their friends about who their husband may be someday.  I am not sure of the usage of this rhyme today, but I would argue that it has probably decreased mainly due to the fact that the idea of the American family has changed a lot over the last 40 to 50 years.  The odds of a couple staying together are much less than they were a few decades ago, and because girls may have seen their own mothers and fathers part they may feel less secure about searching for the right man to marry someday, making this rhyme more obsolete in today’s world.

Catch Riddle

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Barbara, CA
Performance Date: March 25, 2008
Primary Language: English

Instructions in performing the Catch Riddle titled “Stop & Pots”:

  • Subject 1 asks Subject 2 to do two things
    • When Subject 1 says “stop”, Subject 2 must spell out “S-T-O-P” out loud
    • When Subject 1 says “pots”, Subject 2 must spell out “P-O-T-S” our loud
  • Subject 1 randomly alternates between saying stop and pots, nearly ten times.  Throughout this time, Subject 2 is constantly spelling the two words repeatedly.
  • Finally, Subject 1 asks Subject 2, “What do you do at a green light?”
    • Subject 2’s tendency is to say, “stop” even though that is the wrong answer, thereby being the catch riddle.

Eric, now a student in Santa Barbara, “learned this catch riddle in elementary

school when another boy pulled the catch riddle on me [him].  I fell for the catch riddle and actually said stop.  Most people actually fall for it.  I tried it out on my family when I first found out about it, and everyone except my mom fell for it.  The funny thing is that I haven’t forgotten the riddle and have actually used it as I have gotten older.  And still, even when people aren’t in elementary school and are more intelligent they still fall for the catch.  Anytime I say the riddle it brings back vivid memories of when I actually first heard it on the blacktops of my school where we played basketball at recess.”

When I first asked Eric if he knew of any forms of folklore, specifically jokes and riddles, he responded by beginning the process of this catch riddle.  I fell for it myself and then he went into detail about how and when he learned it.  It seems appropriate that these catch riddles would spread throughout elementary schools because kids find them extremely fascinating.  However, I am not certain that most originate at elementary schools.  One theory I have is that most originate amongst older children, anywhere from middle school to high school students, and they proceed to try out the catch riddles on their younger siblings.  Then, the younger siblings find the catch riddles amazing and cool, only to spread them across elementary schools.  This catch riddle seems appropriate to say to people of all ages, which isn’t always the case.

Proverb

Nationality: Indian-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Saddle River, NJ
Performance Date: April 28, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Gujarati

“It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.”

This is a proverb that Amy said she learned when she was probably in elementary school.  She learned this proverb along with many other proverbs.  She noted that at the time, she did not really understand what the proverb meant, nonetheless what the purpose of a proverb was.  She told me that she does not really say this proverb that often; before she told it to me, she said she had to think about it for a while and then she remembered it.  Even though she rarely says the proverb, she likes what it means.  The way she described the meaning was that it is a different thing to actually do something than just stepping back and watching somebody else do it.

The way I interpret this proverb is that from a distance, everything looks easy and simple; however, once you face your fears or the task at hand, you have to try to make an effort to become brave.  Even though this proverb is not widely popular, it can apply to all different people if they are put in a situation where they have to overcome a fear.  In my interpretation, the proverb also challenges the audience to go an extra step and to be braver.

Also seen in: Aesop.  Aesop’s Fables. New York: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1990.

Game – Barrington, Rhode Island

Nationality: Polish, Italian, American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Barrington, RI
Performance Date: April 30, 2008
Primary Language: English

“There was a game we used to play during lunch at school where you would, uh, hold an apple by its stem. Then you would twist the apple, and with each twist you would say like ‘A, B, C…’ and so on. Whatever letter you said with the stem broke off represented the first initial of a boy. Then you would take the stem and start to poke and stab your apple with it, while saying ‘A, B, C…’ again. Whatever letter you said when the stem broke the skin of the apple stood for the second initial of a boy’s name. The two initials together were those of the boy you were going to marry.”

Catherine told me she would play this game in elementary school probably first learning it when she was about 8 years old in Barrington. She described that this game was always played with girls during lunch and they would giggle and laugh and try to guess what boy in school had the initials that you would get. If they could think of a boy with those initials then they would tease and say, “you’re gonna marry _____!” This could be embarrassing if you did happen to have a crush on that boy or if he happened to be a boy who was very annoying and you could not stand. Either way, it was all light-hearted fun that girls could joke about.

Catherine felt that this game was children’s way of making fun of the institution of marriage. It allowed her and her friends, who had little responsibility at a young age, to control their future with regards to a very serious and mature commitment such as marriage. She believed that it was their attempts to try and grasp adult notions of relationships but by making it a fun and amusing game to laugh about. Because this game was so silly, Catherine believes that it was a way to undermine the almost somberness that can come with a serious relationship and to liven it up with spontaneity in determining your future.

I noticed the symbolic significance of the apple in this game of future mates. Apples are associated with Eve and the Fall into Original Sin, implying temptation and lust for the mate that your apple would decide for you. Furthermore, it stresses the importance for girls to bear children, or the fruit of their loins so to speak. To do so, she would need a suitable mate with which to procreate. This game touches on issues of sexuality and female maturity, creating a situation where young girls can pretend to involved in adult issues but not actually have to deal with the responsibilities that come with marriage or motherhood.

Playground Rhyme – United States of America

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: January 24, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Miss Suzie had a steamboat

The steamboat had a bell

The steamboat went to heaven

Miss Suzie went to

Hello operator

Please give me number nine

And if you disconnect me

I’ll blow off your

Behind the ‘fridgerator

There was a piece of glass

Miss Suzie fell upon it

And broke her little

Ask me no more questions

Please tell me no more lies

The boys are in the bathroom

Zipping up their

Flies are in the meadow

The bees are in the park

Miss Suzie and her boyfriend

Are kissing in the D-A-R-K D-A-R-K DARK DARK DARK!

The dark is like a movie

A movie’s like a show

A show is like a TV screen

And that is all I know

I know my ma

I know I know my pa

I know I know my sister with the 80-acre bra!

My mom is like Godzilla

My dad is like King Kong

My sister is the stupid one who made up this whole song!

I learned this rhyme during elementary school, sometime during first or second grade (1994 or 1995). It was a popular recess chant, usually done in pairs (sometimes with variation for groups of three or four). As the chant took place, the participants would slap their partner’s hands, and alternately clap their own. This hand slapping pattern remains the same throughout the entire rhyme, except at the “DARK DARK DARK!” portion, when the partners slap each others’ hands three times in a row, punctuating each syllable.

I don’t think any boys participated in this activity. Thus, it was passed down solely from girl to girl, which fits the last line of the chant—implying that an anonymous “sister” made up the rhyme and passed it along to her sister or friends. When my sister learned this song (neither of us can recall if she learned the whole thing from me, or if she learned some of it from others on the playground), she took great enjoyment in saying that I was the “stupid one” as she completed the rhyme.

About a year and a half after learning this song, the recess attendants expressed their disapproval of this ditty, and if anyone was caught doing it, she would get in trouble. As a second or third grader, I thought this was very unfair—although “bad words” were hinted at, they weren’t explicitly said. Taboo words like “Hell” and “ass” were quickly saved by adding an extra syllable or sound to create “hello” and “ask,” respectively. This “Miss Suzie” chant is a good display of children trying to push the limits of authority: how far can you go without actually getting in trouble?

The idea of taboo words seems to leave the song after the proclamation “DARK DARK DARK!” Talking to some of my friends nowadays, the point after this line is where the most variety seems to appear. This implies that the rhyme was added to over time, though the additions maintained the rhyme scheme and rhythm present from the beginning of the song. In fact, I vaguely remember that this particular version of the rhyme is not the one I originally learned in second grade. I think the “godzilla,” “king kong,” and “stupid one” lines were added after I had initially learned the chant, sometime during third grade, probably.

After third grade, students typically stopped participating in chants like these at recess in favor of other games. Rather than being due to developmental changes or varying interests, this might have been due to the recess attendants who wanted to stop us from repeating this chant with its “bad words.”