It’s the Clapping Song.
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.
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?
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.
I thought my mother was the cleverest person in the world when she told me this. I was about five at the time.
On a boat it doesn’t matter
'Cause it all goes in the water.
Pretty sunsets make me think of you.
Eat your peas or I’ll kill you.
On reflection, it may not have been a poem.
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!
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.
Is that a rhyme you brang to us? 
Ulysses?! :eek: Props, Ma Maw.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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…
The cough is cousin to the sneeze,
cover them both with your handkerchief, please.
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!
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!