Another native South Texan, 26 years old, who never heard the “real” version of EMMM until several years ago when it came up in a conversation a lot like this thread.
We always said “tigger,” though. Not “tiger.” I guess b/c it rhymes better with the original version. Like most rhymes, the reasoning behind it, or lack thereof, was rarely explored.
Speaking of bigoted children’s games/rhymes, though, Mr. Levins says he remembers playing “Smear the Queer” on the playground. (He’s 34.) Basically it was a boys’ version of tag, where you tried to catch whoever was “it,” but then you also beat the crap out of them because they were “queer.” He says he had no idea what “queer” even meant. All he knew was that he didn’t want to be it, b/c it’s no fun getting your ass kicked.
Anybody else ever heard of this? It was news to me. I do remember walking hand-in-hand in first grade with my best friend and being called “gay,” but it took me several more years to discover what it meant.
And no one else has mentioned the most bizarre hand-clap “patty cake” rhyme I remember from my years on the black-top at school. All the girls in my elementary classes knew it but I have no idea where it came from or what the hell it means. We loved it; you started out doing the accompanying hand-interaction really slowly, and then you said it/did it over and over again, faster and faster, until you or your partner screwed up.
Bo-bo, ski watton-totton,
eh eh, eh eh boom boom boom,
Inni mini watton-totton,
Bo-bo ski watton-totton,
Bo-bo ski watton-totton
Boom, zoom.
That’s my rough phonic version of it b/c obviously none of those words exist. (Different schools had slightly different versions of it; you always knew those girls “were new at your school.”)
If nobody else remembers it I’m just going to chalk it up to the heat of South Texas summers. Hmm.