Jump Rope

[MoochNNoodles]

Originally Posted by adymarie

Glad I could help - you wouldn't believe all of the kids stuff I have in my head from reading books over and over and over again.

eg,

I wish a fish could be my pet. I'd keep him fed, I'd keep him wet. I'd fill his bowl up to the rim and all day long he'd dive and swim. I'd feed him food from a little box, I'd watch him play amoung the rocks. Oh how I would love my goldfish so, as round and round his bowl he goes.

You sound like one of my friends. She's got the tallent for memorizing things she's heard very very easily. She can walk down a toy isle and any toy her kids have that makes sounds or says something she can imitate. She knows probably every kid movie they own by heart....I mean EVERY single word! Her parent's were Trekkies, so don't get her started on any of that stuff!

 

[white cat lover]

I did the Texaco one when I was little. Never heard of the others, though!

 

[carolpetunia]

Did anyone else play Chinese jump rope? We were an Army family, so it may have been something only kids at military posts knew. We used two long bamboo poles being clacked on the ground and then together in complicated rhythms... if you missed a step, your ankle got whacked!

The only playground rhyme I really remember is Ring Around the Rosie. A hundred points to the first person who knows the real origin of that rhyme! (Well... not everybody believes it, but it makes perfect sense to me.)

 

[leli]

Anyone else know:

(I would jump)
Sunday night the banjo
Playing in the alley-o
I like the radio
My best friend is....(I say) "Ady"

(Ady runs in and we both jump)
A is for Ady
Pretty little Ady
All the boys adore her
And kiss her good night
Sleep tight
Run out, Leli (and I run out)

(Ady would jump....)
Monday night the banjo.....etc

Ring any bells????

 

[leli]

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

Did anyone else play Chinese jump rope? We were an Army family, so it may have been something only kids at military posts knew. We used two long bamboo poles being clacked on the ground and then together in complicated rhythms... if you missed a step, your ankle got whacked!

The only playground rhyme I really remember is Ring Around the Rosie. A hundred points to the first person who knows the real origin of that rhyme! (Well... not everybody believes it, but it makes perfect sense to me.)

Wasn't it from some outbreak? Typhus or scarlett fever or something?

Ring around the rosy (every gathers around the sick person)
Pocket full of posies (something about protecting you)
Ashes Ashes (burning the person's possessions to prevent spread of infection?)
We all fall down (lots of people died)

Am I close???

 

[gemlady]

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

Did anyone else play Chinese jump rope? We were an Army family, so it may have been something only kids at military posts knew. We used two long bamboo poles being clacked on the ground and then together in complicated rhythms... if you missed a step, your ankle got whacked!

I understood that to be of Philipine origin, but I have seen it done.

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

The only playground rhyme I really remember is Ring Around the Rosie. A hundred points to the first person who knows the real origin of that rhyme! (Well... not everybody believes it, but it makes perfect sense to me.)

The black plague was the source of ring around the rosy. It tells about the signs of the infection.

 

[leli]

Apparently the bubonic plague thing is probably false. Google it. There are lots of reasons why, the most striking being that it didn't show up in print until the 1880s, which would mean it was passed on for over 5 centuries before anyone bothered to write it down....pretty unlikely. As well, there are several variations on the verse, all of which showed up around the same time, and many had no reference to the plague. It's hard to conclude that the one that can be described as veiled plague references was the original, or that it necessarily had anything to do with that event.

Still, it's an interesting idea, and I like it, so I'll keep believing it since it doesn't really affect my life either way

 

[gemlady]

Hmm, it's the story I always read. Oh, well.

 

[leli]

Originally Posted by gemlady

Hmm, it's the story I always read. Oh, well.

It's a good story, whether it's true or not.

 

[carolpetunia]

Yes, I've read the refutations, but some of the arguments they use just don't strike me as persuasive. They wonder why it wasn't written down earlier, but who says it wasn't? Not everything that was put into writing centuries ago has survived... and besides, literacy was not so common in those days, so stories and poems and songs were often passed down orally.

They also complain about the many variations that don't seem to relate to the plague, but that's not at all surprising, especially in something generated by children and passed along orally.

And somebody actually claimed that, if the rhyme were a reference to the plague, it would have been noted and commented on by people at the time, and not "discovered" centuries later. Well, gosh... that presumes an awful lot! Again, oral tradition, children's stuff... and sheesh, there was a plague going on!

People had bigger things to worry about than creating a scholarly analysis of a children's rhyme. So I find it just as easy to accept the story as not to.

Of course, I don't have a Ph.D., so my opinion doesn't count!

Anyway, my understanding is that the "ring around the rosy" is a description of the characteristic skin eruption; the "pocket full of posies" is a reference to the practice of stuffing flowers into the pockets of the dead in an effort to mask the smell of putrefaction; "ashes" refers to the practice of burning the bedclothes of the dead to stop the spread of infection; and "we all fall down" is a childish way of referring to death, of course. Or so some historians say.

So Leli and Gemlady, congratulations! Points arriving forthwith...

 

[gemlady]

Just remembered another jump rope chant.

It starts with swinging the rope back and forth and saying -
Bluebelle, cockleshells
Eevy, Ivy, overhead!
Then the rope is going like usual.
Down in the valley where the green grass grows
There stood (insert name of jumper) as sweet as a rose.
She sang, she sang
She sang so sweet
Then along came (insert name of cute boy who jumper likes)
swept her off her feet!
How many kisses did she get!
1-2-3-4-5-6 (and so on until jumper stops/trips)

Sometimes I miss those playground days.