# Silly rhymes your parents told you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751 "2013-06-11T21:03:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/21 "2013-06-13T14:17:09Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Once upon a time, > a goose drank wine, > A monkey chewed tobacco > on a street car line > > The street car broke, > the monkey choked, > And they all went to heaven > in a little green boat > > I have no idea what this was all about. > But my parents thought it was fun to sing in the car with a 6 year old kid . It’s the [Clapping Song](http://artists.letssingit.com/shirley-ellis-lyrics-the-clapping-song-ql3jfbc#axzz2W6ceJs8J). From Wikipedia,“The Clapping Song” is an American song, written by Lincoln Chase, originally arranged by Charles Callello and recorded by Shirley Ellis in 1965. The song was released shortly after Ellis had released “The Name Game”. The lyrics of “The Clapping Song” were borrowed from the song “Little Rubber Dolly”,[1] a 1930s song recorded by the Light Crust Doughboys, and also feature instructions for a clapping game. The song made it to #8 on the charts. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/22 "2013-06-13T14:19:25Z")
Alice, where art thou going? Upstairs to take a bath. Alice, you’re like a toothpick your head is like a tack. Alice stepped in the bathtub. She slipped on the soooooap. Oh my goodness, oh my soul there goes Alice down the hole. Alice! Where art thou going? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/23 "2013-06-13T14:19:58Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Passengers will please refrain > From flushing toilets in the train, > While the train is standing in the station." I’d heard: Passengers will please refrain From flushing toilets while the train Is standing in the station, I love you! Therefore we urge constipation While the train is in the station. If the train can’t go, then why should you? to the tune of Humoresque. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/24 "2013-06-13T14:20:08Z")
> [@Mauvaise](#): > > Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear > Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair > Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he? I thought my mother was the cleverest person in the world when she told me this. I was about five at the time. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/25 "2013-06-13T16:36:56Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > I’d heard: > > Passengers will please refrain > From flushing toilets while the train > Is standing in the station, I love you! > Therefore we urge constipation > While the train is in the station. > If the train can’t go, then why should you? > > to the tune of Humoresque. On a boat it doesn’t matter 'Cause it all goes in the water. Pretty sunsets make me think of you. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/26 "2013-06-13T16:44:33Z")
Eat your peas or I’ll kill you. On reflection, it may not have been a poem. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/27 "2013-06-13T17:04:29Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I know it as: > _One bright day in the middle of the night > Two dead boys got up to fight. > Back to back they faced each other, > Drew their swords and shot each other. > A deaf policeman heard the noise > And came to arrest the two dead boys. > If you don’t believe my lies are true, > Go ask the blind man, he saw it too._ > […] My Dad told it to us this way: _I was born at noon one night one morn As the whistles rang “Boom boom!”; I boiled a snake and fried a cake While the mudpies weere in bloom; If six and six is nine Ice comes from a mine; Old Black Joe is an Eskimo And pork’s from a porcupine! A pig or cow can bark “Meow!” And goldfish love to sing; I saw a frog swim up a log, He fell and broke his wing; And elephants fly up to their nests on the road to Mandalay!_ ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/28 "2013-06-13T17:26:28Z")
Porcupine pie, porcupine pie, vanilla soap A double scoop please Maybe I won’t, maybe I won’t, Maybe I’ll have The tutti frut, with frutti blue cheese. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/29 "2013-06-13T17:42:50Z")
Is that a rhyme you brang to us? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/30 "2013-06-13T17:59:23Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > I immediately recognized “Cheese digests all but itself” from Joyce’s _Ulysses_. [This reference](http://www.jjon.org/joyce-s-allusions/cheese) indicates that a variant of your grandmother’s rhyme was already considered an “old adage” in 1854. Ulysses?! :eek: Props, Ma Maw. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/31 "2013-06-13T18:07:14Z")
**Prof. Pepperwinkle** , No, but my mother was born in the late 20’s and I’m thinking that her mother recited it to her. So yes, I gathered that it was pretty old. Although at the time, I thought my mother made it up, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/32 "2013-06-13T18:31:58Z")
Maybe she did. I’ve never run across it before, and this is just the kind of silly stuff I’ve enjoyed for over a half-century! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/33 "2013-06-13T20:11:14Z")
> [@](#): > > I knew it as … > Twas midnight on the ocean > Not a streetcar was in sight > The sun was shining brightly > For it rained all day that night > 'Twas a summer day in winter > And the snow was raining fast > As a barefoot boy with shoes on > Stood sitting in the grass One fine October morning In December, last July The sun lay thick upon the ground, The snow shone in the sky The Flowers were singing gaily, The birds were in full bloom I went into the garden To sweep the upstairs room. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/34 "2013-06-13T20:16:14Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > I’d heard: > > Passengers will please refrain > From flushing toilets while the train > Is standing in the station, I love you! > Therefore we urge constipation > While the train is in the station. > If the train can’t go, then why should you? > > to the tune of Humoresque. Ah, now that was one my father (born 1926) sang to me! Except the last line was “When the train moves, darling, so can you!” Along with this line: My favorite pastime after dark is goosing statues in the park if Sherman’s horse can take it so can you! ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/35 "2013-06-14T02:45:10Z")
I think this is from my maternal grandmother. Ay tiddly ay tie, eat brown bread I saw a sausage fall down dead Up jumped a saveloy and hit him on the head Ay tiddly ay tie… brown bread! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/36 "2013-06-14T03:09:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Be kind to your fine feathered friends > For a duck may be somebody’s mother > They live in the swamps and the glens > Where it’s damp > > You may think that’s all > And you’re right! To the tune of The Star Spangled Banner. As sung by marching air cadets at the base she worked at during The War. Mairzy Dotes, too. And Across the Alley from the Alamo. but they were pop tunes of her youth. And Deck the Halls with Boston Charlie–but that was real, since we had a Pogo book… ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/37 "2013-06-14T09:37:30Z")
_The cough is cousin to the sneeze, cover them both with your handkerchief, please._ ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/38 "2013-06-14T14:53:57Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > And Deck the Halls with Boston Charlie–but that was real, since we had a Pogo book… Do you know “Parsnoops”? Oh, the parsnips were snipping their snappers, While the parsley was passing the peas. And parsing a sentence from handle to hand Was a hornet who hummed with the bees. The turnips were passing the time of the day By the night of the moon on the porch With the shade from the shadows so shortfully shrift That the scallions were screeched in the scorch! ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/39 "2013-06-14T15:00:21Z")
From my mother ``` THE PURPLE COW by: Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) ``` - ``` I never saw a Purple Cow, I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I'd rather see than be one.* ``` ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751/40 "2013-06-14T15:17:55Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > From my mother > > ``` > THE PURPLE COW > > by: Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) > > ``` > > - > > ``` > I never saw a Purple Cow, > I never hope to see one; > But I can tell you, anyhow, > I'd rather see than be one.* > > ``` It was a phenomenal hit. Poor Burgess had his brief poem recited at him wherever he went, prompting him to write: Ah yes, I wrote the Purple Cow, I’m sorry now I wrote it. But I can tell you, anyhow, I’ll kill you if you quote it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-rhymes-your-parents-told-you/660751.md?page=3)