My recent post about freeze-tag reminded me of something… when you were a kid and you were playing these kind of tag games, what method did you use to figure out who was going to be “it” ?
In my day someone would quickly call out “KING COUNTER NO HIGHER NO LOWER” and thus nominate themselves as the person who’d perform the counting-off song(s) to determine who is IT for the game we’ve just decided to play.
I thought I’d jot down the ones I remember.
One Potato Two Potato
Each person makes two fists and stands in a circle, holding their “spuds” in front of them. King Counter chants the following rhyme. (At the end to the rhyme, the last “potato” touched is out, and the rhyme starts over again at the next one. The last potato out is it.)
One potato
two potato
three potato
four,
five potato
six potato
seven potato
more.
Mickey
Mickey Mouse built a house,
How many bricks did he use? [At this point the person picks a number and King Counter continues going around the circle, counting as s/he goes. The last person touched is out.]
Engine Engine
[This is the weirdest one. What's with all the dirty? And the trash-talking of mothers?]
Engine Engine Number nine, going down Chicago line,
If the train goes of the track,
Do you want your money back? Yes or No? [The person has to choose - yes or no.]
Y-E-S spells YES [or N-O spells no]
And out you must go with your mother’s big fat dirty toe.
Not because you’re dirty,
Not because you’re clean,
Just because you kissed a boy behind a magazine.
Here’s another one I remember:
My mother and your mother were hanging the clothes,
My mother punched your mother, right in the nose.
What colour was the blood? [The person picks a colour and it is spelled.]
B-L-U-E spells blue.
Another way of picking someone to do to something (this one came about in later years) was the nose game. More often than not it was just an excuse to clobber someone. A bunch of us would be standing around when someone would suddenly touch their nose. The last person to touch their nose would get punched. (Ha ha!)
I’ve been teaching the girls the few of the counting-off rhymes I remember. (After all, there’s something to be said for passing our playground culture down to our kids, right?) This is the one we use around here the most often. The lyrics sometimes get changed to suit the situation:
Eeny, meeny, miney, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe,
If he hollers let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miney moe.
Other versions we’ve used include:
Eeny, meeny, miney, moe,
Catch a girly by the toe,
If she hollers make her pay,
Fifty dollars every day.
And:
Eeny, meeny, miney, moe,
Catch a girly by her toes,
If she hollers make her go,
Brush her teeth and blow her nose.
(That one was last used to decide who is supposed to go brush her teeth and get ready to bed first.)
Eeny, meeny, miney, mable,
Who will help mom set the table,
Daughter one or daughter two?
This little chick will have to do.
You get the idea. :)
Do you have a playground rhyme to share? I’m looking to expand our repertoire!
ETA: I often wonder if these rhymes are regional. If you have a new one to add or a different version of one of the above let me know how yours differs, and mention where you grew up. :)
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