Specifically I recall as a child playing games like Tag and Hide and Seek and doing rhymes to determine who started out as being “It”. Rhymes like:
Eenie Meenie Miney Moe
Catch a Tiger by his toe
If he hollers let him go
Eenie Meenie Miney Moe
and also:
My mother and your mother were hanging the clothes.
My mother punched your mother right in the nose.
What color was the blood?
[Person names a color which is then spelled out]
Pretty gruesome when I think about it.
So what were some of the rhymes you used as a kid to determine who was “It”?
We used the potato song and :
(Engine, engine number nine
going down chicago line
if the train should jump the track
do you want your money back?
Yes or No?)
and then we would spell out yes or no.
We used “eenie-meeny” combined with either “my mother punched your mother” or “engine engine.” It took longer, but it was harder to figure out the answers to make “it” be someone else.
On my block, it was much simpler. If I was playing, I was it. That was my punishment for being the fat kid. Of course, that was only for the first round. Then whoever I tagged, found, whatever, got to be it. Assuming I tagged, found, or whatevererd anyone, that is.
I don’t know what they did when I wasn’t around.
In compensation for being the fat kid, I was blessed with a mighty kick which made me the most desirable kid to have on your kickball team. I was the Hank Aaron of kickball.
Bubble gum, bubble gum,
In a dish,
How many pieces,
Do you wish?
Inka binka,
Bottle of inka,
Pour it out,
And you stinka.
Not because you’re dirty,
Not because you’re clean,
'Cause you kissed a boy
Behind a dirty magazine.
In eenie meenie minie mo, we used “tailor” instead of “tiger.”
We each wrote down in secret a number between one and the number of kids playing. These numbers were totalled in full view of everyone, and a count-off began with the kid to the left of the totaller. We adopted this method after we figured out that the rhyme schemes always made for predictable Its.
Goin’ down the highway, doin’ 94 (this person would be asked a name and then the letters were spelled out on feet, in this example I will use Kenny ) k-e-n-n-y cut a big one, blew me out the door! Tires couldn’t take it, engine fell apart! All because of Kenny’s superconic fart!
(that person would not be it by the way!)
And so on until, by a process of elimination, I was it. Every time.
The problem with these rhymes is that you only have to practise a few times before you always know who to start with so as to rig the result. Far better to do what I do at the kids’ group I run now: just tap someone, declare them “it” and that in itself constitutes the beginning of the game.
Engine, engine number nine
Going down the Chicago line
If the train should jump it’s track,
How many engines to put it back?
Mickey Mouse built a house, and one brick fell OUT.
Eenie Meenie Miney Moe
Catch a Tiger by his toe
If he hollers let him go
Eenie Meenie Miney Moe My mother told me that you are it
You dirty old dish rag, you
I remember doing that, but we used to say “My mother told me that you are NOT it
you dirty dirty dish rag, you.”
Then we would do it again until there was one person left.
I’m remembering all these old rhymes. I remember using “One potato, two potato”, and also “Engine Engine Number nine”.
Now I’m remembering all the childhood games I used to play, including Hide and Seek, Straight Tag, TV Tag, Smear the Queer, Bloody Murder, etc. What a fun childhood I had.
Engine, engine, number nine
going down the railroad line.
If the train goes off the track,
do you want your money back?
(the person responds ‘yes’ or ‘no’, then the person doing the pointing continues:)
My mother told me you are not it (or 'not to be it, for variety) you dirty double dish rag you.
Continue until one person remains; he’s It.
A simpler one:
Inky binky, bottle of inky
what col-or was the ink?
