Liverpudlian nonsense prose

[philipsearching]

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"

[purlin]

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!!

[suzard]

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

[Lal]

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

[Gillg]

But as a Rochdalian I must say that many of these were familiar to us, too!

Gillg

[jvy20]

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

[purlin]

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!

[hepburn]

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...

[Radlad]

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...........