Childhood songs and rhymes

[LesleyB]

Yes, I remember the skipping rhymes "vote vote vote" & "on the mountain stands a lady" Don't know if I could remember all the words tho..

then there were the ball games

I remember a game with two balls (quiet at the back! ) which was all the rage in about the late 60s to early 70s in NE Fife. You threw and stotted the balls off a wall - or at school it was the toilet block we used! It was a bit like 2-ball juggling against a wall.

The only rhyme I remember which had to be sung along with all the different ball movements to the tune of "Knees up Mother Brown" was the not hugely imaginative:

Plainies Mother Brown
Plainies Mother Brown
Plainies Plainies Plainies Plainies
Plainies Mother Brown

followed by verses as follows:
Overs Mother Brown etc (you do the overs followed by 2 plainies for the "Mother Brown" bits - is anyone following this? You had to be there!!)
Uppies Mother Brown etc
Downies Mother Brown etc
Stotties Mother Brown etc
and it went on to more complicated moves like under leg stots,stotting and birling round then onto one handed moves...

I can still do this - with balls, satsumas, (not good against walls tho') anything really!! Can even do the one-handed stuff on a good day!

Best wishes
Lesley

later edit: Just remembered - it was called "doublers"

[STRAVAIG]

hi lesley, on the mountain stands a lady who she is i do not know, all she wants is gold and silver all she wants is a nice young man , so call in my lesley dear, lesley dear lesley ,lesley dear, so call in my lesley dear, as i go out to play.
vote vote vote for lesley-------- in comes jean at the door , jean is the one and the only only one so we dont want lesley any more, and so on
both these were played with the long rope and perhaps anything up to twenty odd girls. once you start thinking they just keep coming back ,
remember this wee song ....down in yonder meadow where the green grass grows sits lesley----- bleaching all her clothes and she sighed and she sighed and she sang so sweet, that she sang john mctavish across the street, and he's kissed her he's cuddled her and took her on his knee and said dear lesley i hope you will agree, agree, agree, i hope you will agree, for tomorrow is our wedding day, i hope you will agree.....
now i wont get to sleep for all these wee songs and games going though my head, its been nice to step back in time, goodnight,lesley.
jean

[LesleyB]

As far as I remember the version we sang went :

vote vote vote for Jenny, in comes Brenda at the door , Brenda is the one that we all like best so we dont want Jenny any more, SHUT THE DOOR! (which was shouted)

Best wishes
Lesley

[AnneM]

I'm with Lesley on that one.

[WilmaM]

on the mountain stands a lady who she is i do not know, all she wants is gold and silver all she wants is a nice young man , so call in my lesley dear, lesley dear lesley ,lesley dear, so call in my lesley dear, as i go out to play.

Our version was a ring game :
[2 girls stood in the middle]
On the moutain stands a castle
And the owner's Frankenstine
and his daughter Pansy Potter
she's my only valentine
So I call in etc [ the next girl went in]
and the rest go out to play [and shoved the other[s] in the ring out]

[Tusker]

I don't think it qualifies as a street song, as I never heard it chanted throughout my childhood, or sung by any child outside our immediate family. It's just a silly wee song that my very favourite and dearly-loved Uncle Nat taught me 50 years ago, and I've often wondered if that wonderful man made it up himself, heard it somewhere, or perhaps learned it at his father's knee.... I never did ask, and it's too late now, as he passed away years ago -- but not without teaching me the joy of laughter, and the love of a good joke. Without a doubt, I take my sense of humour from him. I still miss the kindest and best Uncle in the entire world and think about him with a smile when his wee song springs to mind.....I can guarantee, that somewhere in Scotland, there are some of his descendants still singing this wee song. I know there is, in Canada....

Uncle Nat's Wee Song

Mah mammy says Ah've tae go
Wi' mah daddy's dinner-oh
Breid an' totties, stewin' steak
wi' a wee bit currant cake.

Ah went tae the river - couldnae get acroass
Peyed ten bob fur an auld blin' hoarse.
Jumped oan it's back - it's bones gave a crack
Ah played mah fiddle tae the boat came back.
The boat came back, we aw jumped in
The boat capsized an' we aw fell in.

In loving memory of my Uncle Nat Reynolds

[joette]

I loved the song & what an unusual memorial to who sounds like a lovely Uncle.
Say Hi to my Beloved & still alive Uncle in Hamilton Ontario Gordon Waddell.I don't remember him teaching me any self penned songs but he & his younger brother Alex loved the Beatles & taught me all the words to their songs as well as another but naughty song(something to do with a"Hairy Mary the pride aw the Gorbals")That's what you get when Uncles are only a few years older than you.!

[Tusker]

<snip> as well as another but naughty song(something to do with a"Hairy Mary the pride aw the Gorbals")That's what you get when Uncles are only a few years older than you.!

joette, do the words "Cod liver oil and the orange juice" ring a bell ?
Hamish Imlach made that song very popular in the late 50's early 60's, although I think it was sung by every Scottish folk group known to man....

[Tusker]

....By the way.....Has anyone mentioned the game that girls used to play, where they'd put a tennis ball in an old nylon stocking of their mother's, then stand with their back against a wall, and use the "ba' on a string" to demonstrate their dexterity by rapidly bouncing the ball off the wall, above their head and between their spread legs, while chanting various rhymes......Or did I come in a day late and a dollar short, as usual....

The REALLY expert ones could do "doublers", which involved not one but TWO "ba's on a string", one of which was held in each hand.

......I don't recall ever seeing anyone attempt "threesies"......

[DavidWW]

.....snipped.............Or did I come in a day late and a dollar short, as usual....

Very possibly, but I couldn't possibly comment <ROFL>

David