nonesense-rhymes-for-games

We’ve already talked about counting taters to see who was it in a game, but today I wanted to share a few nonsense rhymes that were also used to tell who was it in a game.

Acker backer, sodie cracker, acker backer, boo,
Acker backer, sodie cracker, out goes you.

—–

One saw, dominacker, little toe, Virgin Mary, haddem skadem, sickem, sackin, buck! (the person out is the one the word buck lands on)

—–

William Trembletoe: He’s a good fisherman, He catches hens, puts them in a pen. Some lay eggs, some none. Wire, briar, limber lock, three geese in a flock. One flew East, one flew West, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest. There I met my father. He had rings, many pretty things. Be gone, you dirty dish dog. O U T Out!

—–

The only one of these rhymes I’ve actually heard of is the first one, and I believe it was a Blind Pig reader who told me about it. The rhymes got me to thinking about other nonsense rhymes and sayings we used when we were kids. Some were used for hand clapping games, some for jumping rope, and some just for the fun of saying them. Over the next week or so we’ll talk about them so stick around.

Tipper

Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox

Similar Posts

11 Comments

  1. Tipper,
    I commented earlier but it must have got lost in cyberspace. My unit said “couldn’t find server” and I figured it’d show up later. So, I don’t know what I said but I’ll try again tomorrow. …Ken

  2. Our go to jump rope rhyme … Down in the valley where the green grass grows, there stood ”Debbie” (who ever was jumping) as sweet as a rose , she sang, she sang, so sweet along ”David” and kissed her on the cheek ,how manny kisses did she get that week, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, till you tripped up 🙂

  3. I dont recall any of these Tipper, but i remember someone saying about the dish rag. We did say alot of them at the end, out goes you.

  4. I remember hearing the first one and at least parts of the last one. I’ve never heard the middle one. With out your post I don’t think I would ever thought of these.

  5. I’m 80. My mom came from western North Carolina to Skagit County, Washington as a young’in, then settled in Oregon. Here, we learned Wire Briar, limber, lock, three geese in a flock. One flew East, one flew West, One flew over the Cucoos’s nest. In town, went to high school with Ken Kesey, who, of coursed, authored a famous book by that name.

    So enjoy your blogs

  6. I don’t remember the whole rhyme we used most often to pick but I do remember it ended in “out goes y-o-u.” If the one reciting the poem didn’t want to pick the person it landed on they would add “old dirty dish rag you.” There is a lot of politics goes on even at that early age.

  7. I’ve never heard any of these, Tip…at least not that I can remember. There used to be a TV show called Kids Say the Darnedest Things. Well, that’s a fact cause they sure do.

  8. Nope , not familiar with these, I think in our neck of the woods, rhymes was more a Girls thing, in school we didn’t want to play with the Girls much, until we reached our teens, then you went hunt’em, funny how that works.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *