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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: Rosa Xanthina on Tuesday 01 June 10 15:58 BST (UK)
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I wonder if there are any Liverpudlians out there who might be able to answer what may seem to be a rather daft question. I was born in 1942 and as a young child my mother, who was born and bred in Liverpool, taught me two pieces of nonsense prose. One went as follows: “Ar rar chicker rar, chicker rar rooney, rooney pooney ping pong piney, arra karra whisker, chinese chunk”. I remember liking the other one better as it was more challenging but I can’t bring it to mind. Does anyone remember anything similar from their childhood? I would be particularly interested to know the origin.
Rosa
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We used to chant one which sounded like this:
Eeny meeny macaraca,
rara ria dominica,
Chiraka lolipoopa
????? ???
can't remember the last line
Suz
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Eeny meeny macaraca
Er shnide dominaca
Gloriaca (something else acka ::)
Rum tom tush ;D
I googled the first line and it came up with this ;D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A271775
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I remember a horrible one that started off
yella bella custard, green snot pie :-X
I won't finish it off the beginning is bad enough, the rest will make you feel sick :o
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Oh I remember yella belly custard....!!
the other one I recall was "inky pinky ponky" ;D hehe good times.....
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I remember a skipping chant. A girl/boy took each end of a very long, very thick rope (probably a ship's rope) they needed two hands to turn it. It would hit the ground with a dull thwack....thwack....thwack...soon became expert at jumping in and skipping or suffer the consequences. :-X
The chant came with actions too whilst skipping:
Can you do the caseball, can you do the kicks..
Can you do the twirly whirly, can you do the splits(leg either side of rope!)
The Queen bows, the King salutes..
The girls show their knickers and the boys blow them kisses...
and they all shout hurray(jump out of turning rope, next in line jumps in)
Anyone else remember this or did I dream it..so long ago, happy days.
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No I remember it too! ;D
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another skippinng rhyme
We are the girl guides dressed in blue
These are the things we must do
Bow to the King
Curtsey to the Queen
And turn our backs on the boys in green
and a nonsense one
There they are see them go
Forty Lorries in a row
They aren't lorries they are trucks
Full of cows and hens and ducks
and do you remember the skipping one
Jelly on a plate, jelly on a plate,
Wibble wobble wibble wobble
Jelly on a plate
Sausage in a pan, sausage in a pan
Sizzle sozzle sizzle sozzle
Sausage in a pan
I'm sure there were more verses???
Suz
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:D Ahh, yes, I remember them well....carefree days, in my Liverpool home.
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There they are see them go
Forty Lorries in a row
They aren't lorries they are trucks
Full of cows and hens and ducks
Suz
This comes from a cod Latin verse:
civile si ergo
fortibus es in ero
gnoses mare thebe trux
vatis inem causan dux
"See, Willy, see 'er go
Forty buses in a row"
"No," says Mary, "they be trucks"
"What is in 'em?" "Cows an' ducks"
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I wonder if there are any Liverpudlians out there who might be able to answer what may seem to be a rather daft question. I was born in 1942 and as a young child my mother, who was born and bred in Liverpool, taught me two pieces of nonsense prose. One went as follows: “Ar rar chicker rar, chicker rar rooney, rooney pooney ping pong piney, arra karra whisker, chinese chunk”. I remember liking the other one better as it was more challenging but I can’t bring it to mind. Does anyone remember anything similar from their childhood? I would be particularly interested to know the origin.
Rosa
I remember that rhyme so well. We were always told it was the Chinese alphabet!! We believed it as well!!
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what about
I went to the pictures tomorrow
I had a front seat at the back
They gave me a plain cake with currants in
I ate it and gave it them back
Suz
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My mum used to repeat all kinds of these rhymes - her mum was from the Dingle.
There's also backslang, you can hear John Lennon talking in it in one of the Beatles' films (Hard Day's Night, I think...). Apparently when the police were trying to listen in to criminal Curtis Warren's phone conversations in the 1990s they had to get someone to translate because he used so much backslang. I remember me and my brother used to try and use it because it made us laugh ;)
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But as a Rochdalian I must say that many of these were familiar to us, too!
Gillg
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My mother was full of these nonsense poems - many of which have already been added. Try this one.
One fine day in the middle of the night
Two dead men got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other
John
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remember this one,
where youse going bob,
down the road bob,
what for bob,
a stick of ru bob,
can i come bob,
no bob,
why bob,
cause youve got yer your own stick of ru bob!
amazing the crazy stuff you remember isnt it!
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We used to sing a nonsense song..
Queenie eye eye coco,sell fishes we know
don't buy 'em don't buy 'em
they stink when you fry 'em...
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From a school text book in the 1950's.
Twas in the month of Liverpool,
in the city of July,
The rain was snowing heavily
And the streets were very dry.
The elephant is a pretty bird
It flits from bough to bough
It makes it's nest in a rhubarb tree
And whistles like a cow.
Don't ask me why, but we had to learn those off by heart........... ???
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if it takes a week to walk a fortnight how long does it take for a long legged spider in hobnailed boots and spats on to push a barrow load of darkness up a light passage
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Been following this thread with interest,
Love the last one Jane! Gave me a good laugh to start the day!! ;D
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That is brilliant Jane!
I can remember as a child how I would ask my uncle to talk back slang. He was still so good. My mum could do a little and she used to tell me how they would both talk in it to annoy their mother. Eventually someone would get a slap or something thrown at them. ::)
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Isay isthay ethay amesay ackbangslay athay ouyay ememberay?
We knocked off the initial letter if it was a consonant and put it to the end of the word then added ay. So Viktoria would become iktoriavay. You get quite good at it and can do it rapidly .Came in very handy at times--" oday ouyay antway emay otay acksmay ouryay egslay? ellway opstay isbehavingmay!" When the children were getting silly in public, egging one another on..People may have thought we were foreign visitors. My husband can`t grasp it at all. Iktoriavay.
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Oh that's it Viktoria. ;D
I was enthralled with my uncle's ability to do it just like that! Obviously my grandmother (who died before I was born but I got lots of stories about her from mum) was not quite so enamoured of her children's linguistic talents!
for my cheek I used to get the slap on the legs - not often but enough to remember the smarting! :D
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Am thoroughly enjoying this thread!!
The backslang you talk about we used to call "pig latin" and used it a lot as kids. I can still do it a bit, but have to think about it!!
I remember some of those rhymes too, and they came from my 5th generation Australian mother who was of mainly Irish descent. Goodness knows where she got them from.
There was one she couldn't remember except for the last line and I wonder if anyone could fill me in on it (after puzzling about it for most of my life)?
It ended up with "and when he hop he fly". Mum could never go back any further than that, but the silly line ended up as a pretty common family saying - meaning absolutely anything, but usually nothing at all ;D.
Philippa
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Never heard of the back slang, but remember all the skipping rhymes and I lived in Cheshire as a child.
Viktoria - Please translate your back slang, even with your instructions I can't work out what you've typed. ::)
Lizzie
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It's been a long time since I even attempted this, but see how I go with a translation.
"Do you want me to smack your legs? Well stop misbehaving!"
Close Victoria?
Philippa
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Thanks Phillipa, Now I get it. So the translation of the first sentence of Viktoria's
Isay isthay ethay amesay ackbangslay athay ouyay ememberay
would be:
Is this the same backslang that you remember?
Seems like hard work, but I expect for children it would have been very easy.
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That's it, Lizzie, and it's not as hard as it seems.
I found the trick is to say it out loud rather than just trying to read it - makes more sense faster that way.
From my grandmother down, when I was a kid the adults were very adept at this and there's no way we could keep up with them.
My husband wasn't a good "speaker" though, so our kids didn't get the same "benefit" from it as we did. As a result it's virtually vanished from our family (unfortunately).
Philippa
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You have got it ladies, try it out and you will become fluent----mind you when you will need it I can`t imagine!
Mention "smacked legs" today and you`d land up in court probably. It was one of my big guns I saved `til last and consequently never had to use.I think the kids concentrating on the translation calmed them down somewhat, they were nudgers who always said one of the others had started it
but when I think how quiet they did sit during services etc they really were well behaved .
Considering that many children nowadays spend so much time sitting at their pastimes and amusements it amazes me they can`t sit still anywhere else.I suppose that`s the answer--- they don`t let off steam naturally. We had a "Play Day" in our local park this week where children could maul about on bales of straw which were like a castle. Three wheeler cycles roaring round the tennis courts, lots of "old fashioned " activities and not a computer in sight. It was thoroughly enjoyed.Organised by the Council and Park Rangers and a group " Friends of the Park" it was so children could experience NATURAL PLAY------.You know we were lucky --all our play was natural wasn`t it.
Osay eeriochay orfay ownay. Iktoriavay.
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What a lovely experience for the Kids, Viktoria - so many these days don't even know what outside is any more, let alone that it's somewhere to play. I think for quite a large percentage it's only there as an avenue between organised activities or else home to the electronic entertainment.
It seems too that some schools are even getting rid of play grounds "in case someone gets hurt" or rather in case some stupid parent sues. >:(
Such a sad thing to contemplate.
Eventually it will all turn around (I hope) and kids will get back to being kids and doing kid things.
And as far a backslang (or Pig Latin) is concerned - I tried it out on the other half this morning and you should have seen the eyes glaze - he had absolutely no idea of what I said.
Ho hum.
Back to "normal" communication channels.
Philippa
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Just another bit of nonsense I remember:
It was Christmas Day in the workhouse
The snow was raining fast
A barefooted man with clogs on
Came slowly whizzing past.....
Memory fails me as to how it went on, but perhaps someone else is familiar with it.
Gillg :)
p.s. I know there is a rather bawdy version of this which I will spare you :o, also a very long dramatic poem by George Sims which probably started it all...
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Oh what fun...
I remember my Dad and his mother used to have lots of nonsense rhymes that I learned. :D
This one was a song;
Chicori chick chelar chelar, chica laroony in a bananica
Wallika bollika can't you see,
Chicori chick is me.
And of course; Maresie doats was another. My husband is a butcher and they have Retchietub Kalat. ::) Sometimes I even understand what he's saying. ;D
Leonie.
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Leonie
Oh dear, you've started me singing "Chicori chick" now and I won't be able to get it out of my mind for days. ::)
Gillg
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Well, if it gets seriously stuck.....just try changing over to the Ying Tong Song. ;D ;D ;D
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Just another bit of nonsense I remember:
It was Christmas Day in the workhouse
The snow was raining fast
A barefooted man with clogs on
Came slowly whizzing past.....
Memory fails me as to how it went on, but perhaps someone else is familiar with it.
This is the version my Manchester born mum told;
It was Christmas Day in the workhouse
The snow was raining fast
The barefoot boy with clogs on
stood, sitting on the grass.
(a bit missing here..)
Entrance was free,
you payed at the door.
You brought your own chair
and sat on the floor
..and one final verse too, I think :D
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Thanks, alpine cottage. I didn't know that other verse. The poem by George Sims is a sad and very long story, and not fun at all - you can Google it.
Leonie
I once had a record of the Ying Tong song and knew every word (not that there were many of them!) and note off by heart. Sadly my cousin knelt on it and it broke in three, as they did in the old days. Still makes me smile, though, when I hear it.
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if it takes a week to walk a fortnight how long does it take for a long legged spider in hobnailed boots and spats on to push a barrow load of darkness up a light passage
Ah now...in Garston it was
If it takes a man a week to walk a fortnight in with his stocking shoes on , How many apples in a bunch of grapes ?
How much oil could a gumboil boil if a gumboil could boil oil ? (said very very fast)
the girls used to skip to
Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich man Poor man Beggarman Thief ....thief thief stole a leg of beef
Queenieye Queenieye who`s got the ball
I haven`t got it ,it isn`t in my pocket
Queenieye Queenieye who`s got the ball ?
and one I can`t quite remember 1 2 3 Alera I saw sister Sarah ?????
allan :)
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1 2 3 alera
I saw sister Sarah
sitting on her bumbelera
eating chocolate biscuits
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As a little kid I used to think there were three people-Maisie Doates, Dosey Doates and Lamsy Tivey.
Tiddley ivey too ,wouldn`t you?.
It was years later that I realised the words were -- Mares eat oats and Does eat oats but little lambs eat ivy, a kid will eat ivy too, wouldn`t you?
Mind you I thought there was a place called "Plicity" where all the mice had something wrong with them because every night I had to say my prayers and say " Pity mice in Plicity" again years later I realised it should have been " pity my simplicity".
Viktoria.
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My grandad used to say to us if we had a little accident..`In goes your eye out`...what was that supposed to mean ?...lol....allan :)
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and one I can`t quite remember 1 2 3 Alera I saw sister Sarah ??
We sang that playing 'two balls' - throwing two balls against a wall and catching them.
1,2,3 Alera (although I'm sure some sang O'leary!)
4,5,6 Alera
7,8,9 Alera
10, 11, bounce the ball. (whilst bouncing the ball against the wall and catching it)
It went on (and on and on ;D) with the end action/lyric chanching to drop the ball, throw the ball, under right leg the ball, under left leg the ball, behind the back the ball....etc....
Oh they were simple times, kept us amused for hours that one ::)
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With your dress tucked in your knickers Ann....I remember that...about 6 girls in a line , ball under the leg against the wall and the next girl carried on ...allan ;D
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Yep ;D
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With your dress tucked in your knickers Ann....I remember that...about 6 girls in a line , ball under the leg against the wall and the next girl carried on ...allan ;D
and our skirts tucked in our knickers to do handstands against the wall... did we wear very big knickers? ::)
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I'm afraid we did, Heywood - navy blue ones for school with elastic that was always breaking with sometimes disastrous results! :o
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aah-fleecy lined knickers with a pocket for your handkerchief!!!
Suz
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My friends wives still laugh at me ....we never said Knickers...it was Navy Blue Draws....pull your draws straight ....was that just a Garston thing ?....and yet we did say don`t get your knickers in a twist...strange ...allan ???
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I lived in Cheshire and we used to call them navy blue drawers too. We all played the 1, 2, 3 O'leary ball game too exactly as described by Ann and all in a line as mentioned by Allen. This was in the late 1940s. Gosh, it's an eternity away. :o :o
I can remember the elastic breaking, I was forever knotting the two broken ends together.
Lizzie
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I remember playing that ball game in the 1970s! And I remember calling knickers 'drawers', even though we'd moved on to nylon by then ;) My mum always used to chuckle about 'Lucy Lastic' and 'Slack Alice' when she talked about the big pants they had to wear :D
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Oh what a laugh!
You have rekindled a lot of memories for me. :)
I will have a lot of fun teaching these to my grandchildren. ;D
Michelle
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EEny meeny macaraca
aireye dominacca
chicca pocca lollipoppa
om tom tosh
remember this one?
eye see a
nose mella
mouth eata
chin chucka
titty minky
belly button
hanky panky
knee knocker
toe tripper!
said whilst tickling each place on a naked baby.
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Babies....
This little piggie went to market...
This little piggie stayed home...
This little piggie had roast beef...
This little piggie had none...
And this little piggie went weeee weeeee weeeee weeeee all the way home.
::) ;D
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Hold the baby`s hand, palm upwards and gently circle with your finger whilst saying " Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear, one step, two steps --whilst saying this part "walk" your fingers up baby`s arm to the armpit, when there say---tickle him (or her)under THERE --and tickle them. Shrieks of delight.
Peek-a-Boo or Hidey-Boo Sit in front of the baby and hide your face with a hanky or such like, saying gently and slowly H-I-D-E-Y- then BOO-but do it quite gently or it can frighten, and they are so delighted when you appear again then they get used to the game.But babies seem to think you have gone forever when you hide your face for only a short while so only keep them waiting a very short while .They try to peep round the hanky but love the game just as much and start to anticipate your reappearance. They never tire of it..
It shows how important face to face contact and facial expressions are to young children.
I might start a campaign to have pushchairs and buggies facing mum!!!. Viktoria.
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Viktoria,
those buggies have been blamed for poorer language development in children. How I agree with you.When we push our grandson in his pram where he can see us - we talk to him constantly- pointing out things on the road. When he is in his forward facing buggy- there is so little contact. Luckily he gets lots of interaction but I have, in my job, seen children who rarely get any conversation.
heywood
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OH heywood I`m going to do my grumpy old woman impression now( it`s getting easier all
the time!)
When " mum " is on her mobile chatting to or texting friends and not really interacting with her child I suppose there is not much point, but if the little one IS facing mum there is a little more chance mum may talk to her baby.What a shame---. so many chances to pass on information and knowledge not taken up.
Viktoria.
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Grumpiness... nostalgia...that's rootschatters ;D
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OH heywood I`m going to do my grumpy old woman impression now( it`s getting easier all
the time!)
When " mum " is on her mobile chatting to or texting friends and not really interacting with her child I suppose there is not much point, but if the little one IS facing mum there is a little more chance mum may talk to her baby.What a shame---. so many chances to pass on information and knowledge not taken up.
Viktoria.
I would also like to point out the danger mothers put their baby's in while chatting/ texting on their mobiles while pushing baby's across roads on 2 occasion recently i have had to brake hard to stop myself from running mothers and baby's down , because they were not looking if there were any cars coming before they crossed busy main roads !!!!
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Reading this thread stirred many memories of my schooldays as a lot of the sayings and chants used to be used. I remembered whar was the last line of one chant and it was bugging me all week but I think I have remembered it now :)
I made you look, I made you stare
I made the barber cut your hair
He cut it long, he cut it short
He cut it with a knife and fork.
Jean
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Jean, you must have gone to a better school than me!
Our version went:
Made you look, made you stare
Made you p*ss your underwear
Philip
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Spring has sprung and the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdy is
they say the birdy's on the wing
but that's obserdy
the wing is on the birdy.
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I’m so excited to finally find my Mum’s little saying, though I heard
Ah var chicka var, chicka var vooney
Vooney vooney ping pong piney
Tally Wally wester, wester wooney
She was born in Liverpool but moved with Cunard to Southampton before the Second World War and I always thought it was from a merchant seaman from abroad!!
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The first mates name was Iggin, bye gad he had a biggin, once round his neck, twice round the deck and the rest he used for riggin!
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I remember a horrible one that started off
yella bella custard, green snot pie :-X
I won't finish it off the beginning is bad enough, the rest will make you feel sick :o
Immortalised in a Beatles song.
Lately included in a blog "Slime, rhyme and snot in the time of Covid-19" by a professor who is a Nobel Laureate.
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Reading this thread stirred many memories of my schooldays as a lot of the sayings and chants used to be used. I remembered whar was the last line of one chant and it was bugging me all week but I think I have remembered it now :)
I made you look, I made you stare
I made the barber cut your hair
He cut it long, he cut it short
He cut it with a knife and fork.
Jean
East Riding, Yorkshire
I made you look
I made you stare
I made you cut the barber's hair
The barber's hair was full of nits,
I made you eat them
All but six.
SO THERE !! (put your tongue out) ;D
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Wow! I remember this rhyme, my Grandfather used to say it to us all the time when I was a kid. It’s been hanging in my head for years and decided to Google it and stumbled on this thread, amazing! 😃
I remember it as follows;
Ah-Lah, Chick-a-Lah
Chick-a-Lah, Ah Lah
Ooney Pooney
Ping Pong Piney
Cat-a-go Watski
Chinese Ching
Definitely recall him mentioning it was the Chinese alphabet too! 😊
I wonder if there are any Liverpudlians out there who might be able to answer what may seem to be a rather daft question. I was born in 1942 and as a young child my mother, who was born and bred in Liverpool, taught me two pieces of nonsense prose. One went as follows: “Ar rar chicker rar, chicker rar rooney, rooney pooney ping pong piney, arra karra whisker, chinese chunk”. I remember liking the other one better as it was more challenging but I can’t bring it to mind. Does anyone remember anything similar from their childhood? I would be particularly interested to know the origin.
Rosa
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I remember something very similar but growing up in Manchester or Lancashire as it was then.
Sarah
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Just seen this thread - a Garston Liverpool one was
If it took a man in his stocking shoes a week to walk a fortnight ,how many apples in a bunch of grapes ?
no idea where that one came from -
I am 72 and we all said this as kids -
how much oil could a gumboil boil if a Gumboil could boil oil ?
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Those nonsense rhymes and the games chants we used to skip to etc were in their own way learning aids .
It is noticeable that the young children who know the old rhymes are early readers , we mostly think of Nursery Rhymes ,but anything that a child memorises enlarges their memory bank and sadly nursery rhymes seem things of the past for many children nowadays.
To be sitting on a parent’s or grandparent’s knee is something special anyway and to be looking at a book or hearing the adult singing rhymes is very close contact learning ,one to one learning.
It pays off .
Sadly it seems to be less usual than in former times.
Progress????
Naaah,!
Viktoria.
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Reading this thread stirred many memories of my schooldays as a lot of the sayings and chants used to be used. I remembered whar was the last line of one chant and it was bugging me all week but I think I have remembered it now :)
I made you look, I made you stare
I made the barber cut your hair
He cut it long, he cut it short
He cut it with a knife and fork.
Jean
East Riding, Yorkshire
I made you look
I made you stare
I made you cut the barber's hair
The barber's hair was full of nits,
I made you eat them
All but six.
SO THERE !! (put your tongue out) ;D
[/
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What a fun thread! ....brought back long forgotten memories. Any one from Scottie Road area remember Contents?
Connie, Onnie, Naughty, Tonnie, Eaten, Nellie’s, Toffee, Sticks.
Daft.
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Did not know the rhyme but isn’t Connie onny Condensed milk, ?
On butties ,mmmmm,especially made the night before ,left between two plates and almost crisp next morning.
Tooth rotting heaven.
Viktoria.
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Yes, it is condensed milk.....don’t remember those butties though.
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You have not lived! ;D
That makes you a deprived child….. never having conni onni butties!
Not too late to experience the pleasure!
However,Conny onny nowadays is a thin runny imitation of how it used to be.
Doesn’t work so well for a cheesecake as it formerly did.
Viktoria.
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Yep Conni onni, drippin, chips or sugar all on door steps which ever, they all did the trick. My favourite cold rice pud, just the gear.
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Yep Conni onni, drippin, chips or sugar all on door steps which ever, they all did the trick. My favourite cold rice pud, just the gear.
I'll agree with you on all of those BUT I wouldn't have bread with conni onni (just a spoon, preferably quite large.) :o The cold rice pudding had to be quite set and have a very brown skin. My grannie always added suet to her recipe for rice pudding.
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Yep Conni onni, drippin, chips or sugar all on door steps which ever, they all did the trick. My favourite cold rice pud, just the gear.
The cold rice pudding had to be quite set and have a very brown skin. My grannie always added suet to her recipe for rice pudding.
Now you've got my juices going BumbleB. Never heard of adding suet to it but yes I can see it would work well.
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We have two threads here, the skipping/nonsense songs and the memories of Scouse cuisine.
I was born in Glasgow and we moved down (in the World?) to Liverpool when I was about 7. The Scouse foods I remember were conny-onny butties or their variant a slab of bread smeared with lard and then a light dusting of cocoa. Why cocoa I have no idea, probably my father could steal it. On Sundays or for special occasions we had boiled mince on mash. It tasted good at the time!
Regarding skipping songs, here was me with the only song I knew being Coulter’s Candy, which is something you cannot get out of your head and drives mothers mad. I then learned the Catholic/Protestant songs which curiously did not seem to exist in Glasgow.
One nasty example is:
“Holy Mary, Mother of God
I hope you marry a big fat Prod.
Holy Mary, Mother of Grace
Let me spit in a Catholic’s face.”
It has a wonderful cadence and you can easily imagine the skipping rope going round with kids jumping in singing the refrain.
The kids didn’t know what they were saying which just goes to show that this stuff is learned behaviour.