What's a song or rhyme you remember incorporating within a game when you were a kid?

There were oodles on how to choose the person who would be ‘it’. One was,
My mother and your mother were hanging up clothes.”
My mother hit your mother right in the nose.
What color was the blood?
(the person picked names a color, then the selection process continues.)
B-L-U-E spells blue, and that means that you are IT!

@Pied_Pfeffer I like it, although can’t say i’ve heard it before. I recall stuff like…..

There’s a party on the hill will you come, come, come?
Bring a cup & a saucer & a bun, bun, bun
Who is your best friend?

Genius lyrics….no really!

jumprope rhyme
Cinderella, dressed in yella
Went upstairs to kiss a fella
Made a mistake and kissed a snake
How many doctors did it take?
count and jump until you trip

@Blueroses Now that one does sound familiar, not that I ever played jump rope games mind.

The hand game with…...

Miss Mary Mac, Mac, Mac, all dressed in black, black, black,
with silver buttons, buttons, buttons, all down her back, back, back, she asked her mother, mother, mother for fifty cents, cents, cents, to see the elephants, elephants, elephants, jump over the fence, fence, fence, they jumped so high, high, high,
they touched the sky, sky, sky, and they didn’t come back, back,
back, til the fourth of July July July.

@creative1 Another one i’ve not heard before, it’s a wonder those singing it didn’t develop a stammer with all that repetition going on.

One potato, two potato, three potato four. Five potato, six potato, 7 potato, more. My mother told me to pick this ONE or O-U-T spells out and out goes YOU.

“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me.”

@Sunny2 Yeah, that’s a keeper. We used to stand in a circle, arms outstretched, fists clenched for that one. Strange one but memorable nonetheless.
@smilingheart1 Can’t remember using that in a game, more of a reposte to a rude insult.

One bright morning in the middle of the night
Two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise
and ran to save the two dead boys.
And if you don’t believe it’s true,
ask the blind man, he saw it too.

@ucme Yes, and the person who was choosing would go around the circle hitting each fist with his fist. Seems to me we added more and more to the ending to try to control who got chosen.

Ring around the rosie
pocket full of posies
ashes ashes
we all fall down

Eenie meenie miney moe
Catch a tiger by the toe
If he hollers let him go
Eenie meenie miney moe
My mother said to pick the very best one and you are not IT!

One potato, two potato, three potato four, five potato six potato seven potato, OR
(or what? we weren’t very bright kids)

olley olley oxenfree

London bridge is falling down (am I showing my age?) falling down, falling down
London Bridge id falling down, my fair lady

Build it up with wood and clay,
Wood and clay, wood and clay,
Build it up with wood and clay,
My fair lady.

I learned from wikipedia just now that there are more verses than that… who knew?

We used to actually have a game to London bridge where we two of us would stand facing each other holding hands and someone would stand in the middle and we’d knock them about from side to side for falling down, to get them to, well fall down. I forget what we did with “wood and clay” but it probably degraded to throwing grass and dirt at one another. We did that a lot when I was a kid.

Another strange one we did, we’d take dandelions and sing “mama had a baby and its’ head popped off” and we’d pop off the flower from the dandelion with our thumb so that the flower would fly up in the air as we sang “popped off”

@christine215 Brilliant, remember them all.

Not really a game, but we would sing, “One, two, three, four… water buffalo!” To time whoever was in front of us at the water fountain.

We would sing this as our mantra while swinging back in Scotland:

Two four six eight
who do we appreciate!
Maggie Thatcher, put her in a bin
Close the lid and cello-tape her in
if she screams, bop’er on the ‘ead
now we know that Maggie’s really dead!

@unused_bagels “now we know that Maggie’s really dead!” Soon my friend…very very soon ;¬}

Iene miene mutte
Tien pond grutten
Tien pond kaas
Iene miene mutte is de baas.
A
F
Af!

“Here’s to brother (or sister) ________, Brother (or sister)........, Brother….... Here’s to brother….......whose with us tonight. So drink chug-a-luga, drink chug-a-luga! Drink chug-a-luga. Drink chug-a-lug-a! DRINK! Here’s to brother…...whose with us to night!

@rebbel It’ll come as no great surprise to you i’m sure, but that’s all double dutch to me i’m afraid.

@ucme It is the Dutch equivalent of Eenee meenee minee mo (or how that is written.)
But I am sure that you brake your tongue over it :-)

So nonsense crosses borders then it seems.

@ucme, perhaps it is rythm that surpasses boundaries?

@bkcunningham Really? Shudders!!

There were many, but the only one that comes to mind at the moment is “London bridge.”

The big ship sails through the eelie ally o
The eelie ally o, the eelie ally o
Oh, the big ship sails through the eelie ally o
On the last day of September.

I can’t remember the rest of it but we used to sing this in the school playground. There was a kind of ritual dance we did holding hands while singing these words.

dit dot do
cat’s got the flu
dog’s got chicken pocks
out goes you
(instead of eenie meenie miny mo..)

oh fightful enemy
come out and fight with me
and bring your dummies 3
climb up my poison tree
slide down my razor blade into my dungeon door
and we’ll be fightful enemies for ever more more more
so sorry enemy
i can not fight with you my dummys have the flu
boo hoo hoo hoo- hoo hoo
aint got no razor blade aint got not dungeon door but we’ll be fightful enemies for ever
more more more

(theres also a more friendly version” oh jolly playmate”)
(hand clapping game)

also miss susie had a steam boat…. etcetcetc

We sang this at the park when we were picking who was it, when playing tag. Each syllable moves the singer’s finger over a person, until the end of the song.

It pit bird shit you are not it, not because you’re dirty, not because you’re clean, but because you kissed a boy behind a magazine.

“Tattle tale, tattle tale, hang around the bull’s tail
When the bull goes to pee, have yourself a cup of tea.”

This is the thing that immediately popped in my head.
“My mother and your mother were hanging up clothes. My mother punched your mother right in the nose! What color was the blood?”
After doing that with hand slapping in a crisscross pattern, you would choose a color and spell it out. I think it was to decide who goes first as in Rock Paper Scissors.
The sing song melody was similar to Iko Iko. Love this version by Cyndi Lauper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI4Pdkix7oY