•4:25 PM
Sometimes making a choice or a selection really should have a song associated to it.Back in 1979, when it came to deciding who was "it" for playing tag in the school yard, we had several inventive songs to choose from. You may remember some of these:
1. Eenie-meenie-miny-moe
2. One-potato-two-potato-three-potato-four
3. And my favourite - My Mother met you Mother...
If you're not familiar with it - the chooser would point at the kids for selection, pointing at one kid as he/she rang out the words. The last kid who was pointed at was removed from the group. This kept up until one was left - and that kid was "it". The song went something like this:
My Mother met your Mother while hanging the clothesMy Mother punched your Mother right in the noseWhat colour was the blood?YELLOW: (colour supplied by whomever the picker is pointing at)Y-E-L-L-O-W spells Yellow - and you are not it for ever and ever more!
The fun part was choosing the colour.
Do you remember any songs that you used in school when picking teams etc.?
1977
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4 comments:
1. Engine engine number nine
going down the county line
if the train jumps the track
send the engine engine back
This is count-out song below is quite racist nowadays but was sung by my black classmates and friends in Minneapolis circa 1969-early 1970's:
2. Eenie meenie miny mo
catch a ni--er by it's toe
if he hollars let him go
Eenie meey miny mo
After a few years the racial word ni--er was replaced with the word 'crook.'
3. One potato two potato
three potato four
five potato six potato
seven potato more
eight potato nine potato
ten potato more!
1. Engine engine number nine
going down the county line
if the train jumps the track
send the engine engine back
This is count-out song below is quite racist nowadays but was sung by my black classmates and friends in Minneapolis circa 1969-early 1970's:
2. Eenie meenie miny mo
catch a ni--er by it's toe
if he hollars let him go
Eenie meey miny mo
After a few years the racial word ni--er was replaced with the word 'crook.'
3. One potato two potato
three potato four
five potato six potato
seven potato more
eight potato nine potato
ten potato more!
Thanks Dawn - I had forgotten about Engine Engine number nine ... we used that one too! - funny how so many of these "selection" songs crossed borders. And yes, the "eenie meenie miny moe" was slightly racist up here in Canada too... how times have changed.
Very cool!
"Back in 1979, when it came to deciding who was "it" for playing tag in the school yard, we had several inventive songs to choose from. You may remember some of these:
1. Eenie-meenie-miny-moe
2. One-potato-two-potato-three-potato-four
3. And my favourite - My Mother met you Mother..."
I remember these three as well from my Ottawa schoolyard days.
Seem to think we also did Ring-around-the-rosie...
About Eeenie-meenie-miny-moe, we didn't use the n-word but learned it as catch a "tigger" by the toe, with tigger pronounced the same way. It always made me pause a bit in doubt as to why we were pronouncing tiger that way. Was only in later years that I came to understand the reason why.