Ring Around the Rosie. Rhys remembers childhood games.

RHYS BOWEN: A few weeks ago I read the obituary of a woman who had spent her life collecting children’s rhymes, jump rope jingles and games from around the world.

I’ve always found it fascinating that so many of the songs and chants have made it across the Atlantic. When I was a child we used the following jump rope jingle (skipping rope, we called it)

It went, “Teddy bear, teddy bear touch the ground.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around

Teddy bear teddy bear go upstairs

Teddy bear teddy bear say your prayers

Teddy bear teddy bear turn out the light,

Teddy bear, teddy bear say goodnight.

I was really surprised when my children jumped rope to an almost identical chant.

When I was growing up there were lots of such things, clapping games, jump ropes, bouncing balls. And my kids, mainly when we lived in Texas, used to play similar things.

Clapping games: cross down when Johnny was one (clap clap) he learned to suck his thumb

Thumb Johnny, thumb Johnny, half past one.

And so on up to twelve.

Do you remember that one?

Or how about Oh Mary Mack, Mack Mack, all dressed in black black black?

With silver buttons, buttons, buttons, all down her back, back, back.

And then all the jump rope games with counting: do you remember some of them? We had a big jump rope that two girls turned and we all had to run through.  One part that I remember:

Come, come to the fair. No no the fair’s not there

I must not miss a beat!

It is interesting to me how some of the rhymes have become altered or corrupted when they crossed the Atlantic. And some of them were not at all childish or innocent when they started out.

The well-known rhyme “Ring around the rosie, for example.

When it started out in England it was at the time of the great plague of 1665.

Ring, a ring of roses…. Was the rash that one got at the start of the plague

A pocket full of posies… you carried herbs to try to ward off the disease.

Attishoo, attishoo, we all fall down. .. you caught the plague, sneezed and died.

And in the US that has turned into something more harmless. Ashes, ashes.

But some have not changed. The farmer in the dell is the same in both countries.

Many of them were political comments at a time when criticism of a king could cost you your head. Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating his Christmas pie. He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said what a good boy am I.

John Horner was Henry VIII’s chief dissolver of monasteries. He kept the best property for himself—the plum.

When I was a child we played a lot of singing games at parties. Here we come gathering nuts in May. Poor Jinny is a-weeping. Oranges and lemons—that was another scary one. Two children made an arch. The others filed beneath it and the last verse was “Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head. Chop, chop chop chop, last man’s dead.” And the arch grabs the child.

 They have now vanished, haven’t they? But then parties were simple affairs, games like musical chairs, some sandwiches and cake. That was it. No theme parties to Disneyland or the roller rink or a sports event. Simpler times.

So I’m curious. Do you remember any of these games? Did boys play them or just girls? Did  your kids play them? And I’m really glad that somebody has assembled a collection of them. In fact I went on line and there are lots of children’s books with these games in them. But try getting today’s cool kids to hold hands and walk around singing “Poor Jinny is a weeping.”

I think not!