Dipping Rhymes.

[the_great_she_elephant]

OK Folks, Let's go on a little nostalgia trip. What were the "dipping" or counting out rhymes you used in the school playground.

I can recall several from my school days in England,  but I'm sure those of you who grew up here or in other countries would remember different ones. Meep I'd love to hear some of the ones you and your friends used..

We had the ubiqitous "One potato, two potato .... ,of course,  but others I remember included:

Dip, dip, dip,

My blue ship,

Sails on the water

Like a cup and saucer

O U T spells OUT  (or occasionally IT)

and:

Inky, pinky, ponky,

Daddy bought a Donkey

Donkey died, Daddy cried,

Inky , pinky, ponky.

I also wonder, were the counting out rhymes used exclusively by girls, or did boys use them for their games too?

[*crikey*mate*]

I haven't ever heard of those, but I learned about dunking on CS a few weeks ago. That was a boy thing.

[the_great_she_elephant]

---

@my*favourite*poster wrote:

I haven't ever heard of those, but I learned about dunking on CS a few weeks ago. That was a boy thing.

---

These rhymes were for choosing who was going to be IT in games of chasey or hide and seek etc.

[*crikey*mate*]

I also learned about Duck Duck Goose on CS?

But apart from that, I must have lived a deprived child hood, cos we just did the old scissors/paper/ rock thing.

And these days, after the flying fox negligence case, I don't think kids are allowed to have fun anymore.

[j*oono]

The main one was Eeny, meeny, miny, moe but that one was very un pc.  I think the words have been changed now.

[imastawka]

I thought by now someone would have come up with

Eeny meeny miney mo

Catch a ****** by the toe

If he hollers

Let him go

Eeny meeny miney mo

[*crikey*mate*]

oh, I remember that one.

so not such a deprived childhood afterall.

[the_great_she_elephant]

We had a rather un PC one too:

My mother and your mother were hanging out clothes,

My mother gave your mother a punch on the nose,

What colour was the blood?

The child the count stopped on would then nominated a colour, e.g blue, and the count would continue;

B L U E blue - so out you go for saying so.

Where that one originated, heaven only knows. Children are such delightful little creatures

[the_great_she_elephant]

And here's another one - I m not sure if it was a dipping or skipping rhyme. It was collected by Iona and Peter Opie and included in their anthology THE LORE AND LANGUAGE OF SCHOOLCHILDREN. I never heard it used in a playground myself, and I would guess the school(s) it came from were probably in thes slum areas of big industrial cities such as London, Manchester or Birmingham. The implications in the rhyme and the casual acceptance of them by children are simply horrendous.

Down by the water, down by the sea,

Lily got a baby, blamed it onto me.

I told Ma,

Ma told Pa,

Lily got a hiding so ha ha ha.

[j*oono]

I think you are right about that one She_el.  It kind of reminds me of a book I read by Martha Long.  Ma, He Sold Me for a Few Cigarettes.  Martha was brought up in a Dublin slum.