Playground Games Part 1

It’s early morning. The bell hasn’t rung yet, but you’re lined up on the playground waiting for your teacher to come get your class. Look-there’s your friends Maria and Lucy. You decide to play the game. The playground monitors walk around to make sure everyone’s behaving, taking names, nodding here and there, checking their stopwatch or readying their whistle. They see you playing the game with your friends, and they smile, apparently pleased that you’re being so good and interacting so nicely with your peers. Healthy fun. Wholesome activities.

Or maybe it’s recess, and rather than playing dodge ball or hopscotch or tether ball, you see Shandra or Monique, and you play this other game instead. There’s that monitor again. They watch you, smile, maybe even add a little skip to their steps. They remember playing these games, too, perhaps. Maybe they even wish they could play them with you. You might ask them to join you, but they’ll be too busy checking on all the other children, the ones who may or may not be playing so nicely together, the other ones who may or may not be engaged in the game you’re playing.

What is the game?

Something children have been doing for generations: the type of playground games that involve two or more girls clapping, dancing, jump roping, singing and chanting in pairs or groups of three or more. Sometimes, the boys play, but usually, they watch. Good wholesome fun, right? Totally innocuous, right? Let’s take a closer lookâÂ?¦

In the introduction to THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF NURSERY RHYMES, editors Iona and Peter Opie state:

An oft-doubted fact attested by the study of nursery rhymes is the vitality of oral tradition. This vitality is particularly noticeable where children are concerned, for, as Jane Austen shows in Emma, and as V. Sackville-West has put it, children say ‘tell it again, tell it just the same’, and will tenaciously correct the teller who varies in the slightest particular from the original recital. It is this trait in children which makes their lore such a profitable subject for research. (2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. 7.)

I can’t help but wonder how many “researchers” find themselves on contemporary playgrounds to study the rhymes that I’ve heard while my daughter was in kindergarten, first, and second grades. If they are, then they are no doubt aware of the rich vein of oral tradition to be mined. Not only have I observed these rhymes-in-action, but I’ve also been invited to participate.

Recently, I asked my daughter to help me write them down. She was excited at the prospect of my wanting to preserve them as a “keepsake” of her childhood, as well as for a future one of “mommy’s columns”. Now that she’s in third grade, she informs me that while the rhymes are similar, now there are additional verses-some “made-up” by the girls themselves. “Inner-city” rhymes, if you willâÂ?¦

All of these are accompanied by “pat-a-cake-style” clapping, with quite intricate variations. I’m not going to attempt to duplicate or describe this aspect, but will provide the rhymes my daughter learned on the playground, and in some cases, discuss their more obvious origins.

The first rhyme is what the girls refer to as “Lemonade”. My first thoughts are that this one may “just” be about drinking lemonade on a hot day. Something refreshing.

Lemonade
Lemonade
Crunchy ice
Sip it once
Sip it twice
Lemonade
Crunchy ice
Sip it twice
Turnaround
Touch the ground
Freeze

This second one, “Shame”, however, is an indication that there is definitely more to these “rhyming games” than mere play. Not only are they in keeping with traditional nursery rhymes, many of which provided historical commentary and so forth on history events and persons (e.g., “London Bridges Falling Down” is about the burning of London Bridge in order to quarantine people with the bubonic plague.), but they provide contemporary commentary on current issues as they may or may not relate to these children.

Shame

Shame, shame, shame�
I don’t want to go to Mexico
no more, more, more.

There’s a big fat policeman
at my door, door, door.

He grabs me by the collar,
and makes me pay a dollar.

I don’t want to go to Mexico.
no more, more, more.

Shame!

“Shame” has a second verse:

Shame, shame, shame�
I don’t want to go to Mexico
no more, more, more.
There’s two cute boys
at the door, door, door.
They grab me by the hips,
kiss me on the lips.
I don’t want to go to Mexico
no more, more, more –
Shame!

Remember the song, “Rockin’ Robin”? While many of you may be more familiar with Michael Jackson’s, rather than Bobby Day’s original version (1958), here are the current playground versions:

First, though, there are two versions sung to this melody. Here’s “Ring Ching China”:

Ring Ching China
Went to Carolina
Went to buy a llama
For fifty-five cents

She missed
She missed
She missed like this:
Criss-cross-applesauce
Tell your boyfriend
To get lost.

This version, which has several verses, is referred to as “Rockin’ Robin”:

Ring Ching China
the rhythm of the beat
We’re gonna rock to the rhythm
all day long
a huffin’ and a puffin’
and I’m singin’ this song

Tweet tweet-a-leet
Rockin’ robin
Tweet-tweet-a-leet
Rockin’robin

Tweet-tweet-a-leet
Rockin’ robin

Momma’s in the kitchen
Cookin’ friend chicken
Daddy’s in bed
Half-way dead
Sis is at school
Actin’ all cool
Brother’s in jail
Eatin’ fruit cocktail

Tweet-tweet-a-leet
Rockin’ robin
Tweet-tweet-a-leet
Rockin’ robin

This one, “Judge”, also carries a disturbing message:

Judge

Judge
Judge
Call the judge
Cindy’s having a baby
Her boyfriend’s going crazy
Wrap it up in toilet paper
Feed it to an alligator
What’s it gonna be?
A boy?
A girl?
A twin or an alien?
Boy?
A girl?
Twins or an Alien?
A boy?
A girl?
Twins or an alien?

Here’s another version my daughter just told me:

Judge

Judge
Judge
Call the judge
Cindy’s having a baby
Her boyfriend’s going crazy
Wrap it up in toilet paper
Send it to an alligator
What’s it gonna be:
A boy?
A girl?
A monkey or a squirrel?
A boy?
A girl?
A monkey or a squirrel?

(NOTE: You may repeat the last section as many times as you want.)

Do these little girls realize the situational and contextual significance of their rhymes? When I asked them as a group, they giggled and laughed, teased each other, rolled their eyes and giggled some more. “They’re just songs,” one girl said. “It’s something to do while we wait for the bell to ring,” said another. Another one just shrugged. I do remember one of the girls was unusually quiet, though, turned slightly away.

I’ve tried to “grill” my daughter on this-in a non-judgmental fashion, of course. I ask her where she thinks the verses come from. Where did her friends learn them? From older sisters, cousins, neighbors.

“I don’t know,” she responds.

Even as contemporary music reflects the times, the times are affected by contemporary music; so, too, it seems, with these so-called playground games. History is reflected on the playground, but not, apparently, in the same way it is within the classroom. Imagine teaching these rhymes to children via handouts or with class participation through route. Imagine the teacher commenting on the issues that are being raised.

Here are a just a few of the socio-cultural issues that these teachers would need to discuss:

� being harassed by la migra, police, and other officials
� paying or extracting bribes
� serving time in jail
� been raped in jail (or elsewhere)
� other forms of sexual deviance
� alcohol and/or drug use
âÂ?¢ being in school and “actin’ real cool”
âÂ?¢ witnessed-or heard about – babies being aborted, flushed down the toilet and other forms of abuse
� alien abductions
� received sexual advances from older boys and adult males

I don’t think I need to ask the most obvious-and rhetorical-question, which is: would they?

We “all” know the answer to that one.

They most certainly would not.

Now to the second most obvious question:

Should they?

I leave you to ponder that one�