# Growing up in the South Bronx makes your childhood chants. . . different. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807 "2008-06-13T14:57:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/1 "2008-06-13T14:57:38Z")
At least that’s the impression I got when me and some co-workers were reminiscing about these things. Everyone was familiar with the diarrhea (cha cha cha) song and were comparing verses-- my favorites: Gotta run run real fast 'Cause it’s dripping out your ass No pain, no strain Just let it drain Also, Miss Lucy and her steamboat had a different variation for each person. The one I remember: Miss Lucy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell Miss Lucy went to heaven, the steamboat whent to Hello operator, please give me number nine and if you disconnect me, I’ll kick you in your Behind the 'frigerator there was a piece of glass Miss Lucy went to pick it up and cut her little Ask me no more questions, I’ll tell you no more lies A man got hit with a bowl of shit right between the Ikie and Mikey were playing in a ditch Ikie told Mikey, "You big fat son-of-a- b-i-t-c, b-i-t-c, b-i-t-c-- bitch! Well, that’s were me and my co-workers sort of parted company. They do not remember Miss Lucy’s song being quite so foul-mouthed. Boy, when I was in grade school we had a _bunch_ of foul-mouthed ‘diss’ songs. My favorite: I hate to talk about your momma But she’s in my class. She’s got popcorn titties And a rubber ass. She’s 99 She’s Frankenstein She’s the fattest motherfucker on the welfare line. We also corrupted regular songs. Like this one sung to the tune of She’ll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain. She was coming 'round the mountain doing 90 When the chain on her motorcycle broke (it broke!) She was found in the grass With the kickstand up her ass And her titties playing Dixie on the spokes! Don’t get me started on Barnicle Bill the Sailor. That one was triple X rated. How 'bout you guys? Did you all get vulgar in the schoolyard? What did you sing when no grown-ups were around? ---
**Author:** ![WomanofScorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@WomanofScorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WomanofScorn)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/2 "2008-06-13T15:43:59Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl] At least that’s the impression I got when me and some co-workers were reminiscing about these things. Everyone was familiar with the diarrhea (cha cha cha) song and were comparing verses-- my favorites: Gotta run run real fast 'Cause it’s dripping out your ass No pain, no strain Just let it drain Also, Miss Lucy and her steamboat had a different variation for each person. The one I remember: Miss Lucy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell Miss Lucy went to heaven, the steamboat whent to Hello operator, please give me number nine and if you disconnect me, I’ll kick you in your Behind the 'frigerator there was a piece of glass Miss Lucy went to pick it up and cut her little Ask me no more questions, I’ll tell you no more lies A man got hit with a bowl of shit right between the Ikie and Mikey were playing in a ditch Ikie told Mikey, "You big fat son-of-a- b-i-t-c, b-i-t-c, b-i-t-c-- bitch! Well, that’s were me and my co-workers sort of parted company. They do not remember Miss Lucy’s song being quite so foul-mouthed. Boy, when I was in grade school we had a _bunch_ of foul-mouthed ‘diss’ songs. My favorite: I hate to talk about your momma But she’s in my class. She’s got popcorn titties And a rubber ass. She’s 99 She’s Frankenstein She’s the fattest motherfucker on the welfare line. We also corrupted regular songs. Like this one sung to the tune of She’ll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain. She was coming 'round the mountain doing 90 When the chain on her motorcycle broke (it broke!) She was found in the grass With the kickstand up her ass And her titties playing Dixie on the spokes! Don’t get me started on Barnicle Bill the Sailor. That one was triple X rated. How 'bout you guys? Did you all get vulgar in the schoolyard? What did you sing when no grown-ups were around? [/QUOTE] Ahh…such wonderfull memories. My Miss Lucy was sang a bit different. The difference starting here: Behind the 'frigerator there was a piece of glass Miss Lucy fell upon it and cut here little Ask me no more questions, I’ll tell you no more lies The boys are in the bathroom zipping up their Flies are in the meadow, the bees are in the park Miss Lucy and her boyfriend are kissing in the dark. And the diarrhea songs we sang went more like: When you’re sliding into home and you feel something foam. When you’re climbing up the ladder and you feel something splatter. Ahh, youth. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/3 "2008-06-13T15:56:08Z")
Only in New York would anyone think they were the only kids in the country who sang filthy lyrics at recess. :dubious: > [@Biggirl](#): > > Ikie and Mikey were playing in a ditch > Ikie told Mikey, "You big fat son-of-a- > b-i-t-c, b-i-t-c, b-i-t-c-- bitch! That goes back to at least 1932, when the [Washboard Rhythm Kings](http://www.amazon.com/Washboard-Rhythm-Kings/e/B000AQ31WS/ref=ntt_mus_dp_pel) made a record of it (without the cusswords, just a long razzberry from the horn section). And probably way, way earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/4 "2008-06-13T15:57:29Z")
Our contribution to the diarrhea song was “Some people think it’s funny, but it’s really hot and runny.” We had a lot of songs that would probably get kids today arrested, like this one… “Glory, glory hallelujah Teacher hit me with a ruler Met her at the door with a Magnum .44 And there ain’t no teacher no more.” ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/5 "2008-06-13T16:06:50Z")
I spent the first 6 years of my life in the South Bronx in the early 1970s. My memories of this time period are relatively few, but vivid, and include being evacuated from my day care facility because the (abandoned) apartment building next door was burning down; empty lots filled with rubble, weeds and broken bottles (and probably worse); looking out of my apartment window into an empty lot next door; and playing with cockroaches in my bathtub. Also how perfectly normal all these things seemed to me at the time. There is no tinge of horror, sadness or anything negative in these memories, it’s just the way the world was. My family moved to Queens when I was 6 and I remember all these rhymes as well. I doubt NYC has a monopoly on rude children’s rhymes, songs and chants, but a few I assume were local, such as one loosely to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, sung against some group arrayed in opposition (boys vs. girls, team vs. team, etc.) that referenced a bridge between Queens and The Bronx: \*We’d like \ with a rope around their necks, A knife in their backs and a bullet in their heads We like \ with a rope around their necks, Hanging from the Whitestone Bridge Cut the rope! Drop dead! What the hell do we care? You don’t wear no underwear! You should see what’s under there!\* Rather chilling in retrospect, given that we were pre-teens, except for the last 2 lines which are more typically childish. And I suppose this song/rhyme probably exists in other places, referencing other local bridges or escarpments suitable for a lynching. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/6 "2008-06-13T16:15:26Z")
It’s not that I think NYC is special. All of my co-workers are from around here. It was just that, when I sang the “Hate to talk about your momma” song, they were all pretty aghast. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/7 "2008-06-13T16:15:30Z")
[QUOTE=robardin] _Cut the rope! Drop dead! What the hell do we care? You don’t wear no underwear! You should see what’s under there!_ [/QUOTE] I just remembered something else funny (in retrospect) about that: there were several kids who would cheerfully and loudly sing along to the earlier verses about knifing, shooting and hanging someone, but balk at saying “hell” and instead would sing “what the heck do we care”. What a f\*cked up country! ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/8 "2008-06-13T16:24:38Z")
Hey, I just remembered another version of Miss Lucy. Ikie and Mikey were playing in a ditch Ikie told Mikey you big fat son of a Bring down your children, don’t let them play with sticks 'Cause when they get older they’ll learn to play with Dickie had a son, he named him Tiny Tim He put him in a bathtub to teach him how to swim So he swam to the bottom, he swam to the top And when he swam around his father caught his Cocktail, ginger ale two cents a glass. . . And my memory fails here. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/9 "2008-06-13T16:55:54Z")
In elementary school in central New Jersey, 1971-1976, a popular one on the playgrounds went: _Boomchucka Willie from the bubble lagoon He’s a mean motherfucker, you can tell by his clothes…"_ And gets more obscene from there. Upon thinking about it, I thought it odd that what seemed like a version of “The Signifying Monkey” turned up in whitebread suburbia. A Googleization has just informed me that a version that begins “Up jumped a monkey from the Coconut Grove” (but is otherwise the same) is a well-known running cadence in the military, or was in the Vietnam era anyway. So there you go. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/10 "2008-06-13T18:49:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Behind the 'frigerator there was a piece of glass > Miss Lucy fell upon it and cut here little > Ask me no more questions, I’ll tell you no more lies > The boys are in the bathroom zipping up their > Flies are in the meadow, the bees are in the park > Miss Lucy and her boyfriend are kissing in the dark. … Dark is like a movie, a movie’s like a show, A show is like a program, and this is what I know I know, I know my mother, I know, I know my pa, I know, I know my sister with the 80-DD bra. I can’t remember what came after that, if anything. Some others: Deck the halls with gasoline, Spray them down with kerosene, See the school burn down to ashes, Aren’t you glad you played with matches? * * * Hello mother, hello father, I’ve been smoking marijuana, Coke is good here, crack is better, I’m so plastered I can hardly write this letter. I can’t find my missing drugs, I think that they’ve been eaten by the bugs, All the bugs, they are so high now They don’t even need to lose their wings to fly now. They have caught me, I’m in jail Please send my crack and my bail. For a toilet we use a pail, Please send my heroin air-mail. (I grew up in VA in the mid-80s, by the way.) ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/11 "2008-06-14T02:32:43Z")
I have a couple I learned from my siblings: Abraham Lincoln was a fine old man He washed his hair in a frying pan [not sure about this line] He jumped out the window with his dick in his hand and shouted “Hey, motherfucker, I’m Superman!” Admittedly, the mental image of the Great Emancipator acting so obscenely is pretty hilarious. 😃 Another one, more violent, sung to the tune of “You’re in the Army Now”: 1984, My teacher went to the war She sat on the grass She burned her ass That was the end of the war. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/12 "2008-06-14T03:33:16Z")
My kids’ friends had a version of Diarrhea where you had to do the rhyme with the last car you passed, i.e. “When you’re in a Mitsubishi and you feel something sqhishy…” (That’s the only one I remember) Nastiest song I heard as a kid, probably about 7th grade, rural Oklahoma, and this kid with a sailor uncle knew all the words to various stanzas of “Walking Down Canal Street” Dare I quote it? Could it possibly be copyrighted? “Walking down Canal Street, knock on every door, Goddamn son of a bitch, couldn’t find a whore” Found a whore, couldn’t get it in, couldn’t get it out “When I finally got it out, it was red and sore So the moral of my story is, never fuck a whore.” I was 12. This scandalized me. And yet…I memorized the lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/13 "2008-06-14T18:17:01Z")
I have never heard any version of the diarrhea song. I would ask my kids but … I’d rather not. 😛 I _have_ heard of Miss Lucy and her steamboat, though. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-up-in-the-south-bronx-makes-your-childhood-chants-different/452807/14 "2008-06-14T20:07:21Z")
[QUOTE=Hilarity N. Suze] My kids’ friends had a version of Diarrhea where you had to do the rhyme with the last car you passed, i.e. “When you’re in a Mitsubishi and you feel something sqhishy…” (That’s the only one I remember) [/QUOTE] “When you’re driving in your Chevy and you feel something heavy . . .”