Veler Marcus: There would be a bunch of us children get out and get to playing and one of them would act like Old Granny Hum Bum. She would be all humped over and have a stick. She would come along, and we would say:
“Old Granny Hum Bum,
Where did you come from?”
“Pretty girl’s station” [Granny Hum Bum would answer].
“What’s your occupation…?
Well get to work a’doing it!”
Then she had to do [pantomime] something like sew, chop wood, etc. … Then the rest of us had to guess what she was going. She couldn’t talk. Little old games like that are fun. We had lots of fun.
—Foxfire 6
We played this game when I was a girl in elementary school however there was no Granny Hum Bum and we called it Bum Bum Bum. I’ve also heard it called Pretty Girl Station.
I remember playing the game in the grassy fields that lay below the old Martins Creek School. I’ll share the way I played it as a child and if you played the game a different way please leave a comment and tell about it.
The game begins with a group of kids dividing themselves into teams. Each team makes a long line. The lines face each other leaving a good distance between them.
Each group decides on an occupation they want to portray. A line is picked to go first and it marches towards the other singing: Bum bum bum here we come all the way from Washington.
The singing line stops in front of the other line. The other line yells out a series of questions and the singing line answers:
Where’re you from?
Pretty Girl Station
What your occupation?
Doing things.
Well get to work!
The singing group acts out their chosen occupation. The other line tries to figure out what they are doing and yells out guesses. If someone gets it right the singing group takes off running with the guessing group giving chase. The singing group tries to make it back to their side of the field without being caught. If a person is caught they must join the other group.
The game continues with each side taking turns acting out a chosen occupation.
Last night’s video: Folklore & Signs in Appalachia – From My Highest Hill 3.
Tipper
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I have never heard of this cute game. It sounds like fun. We used to do Square Dancing and table tennis. when I was in high school. I loved that. We played softball in a big field beside the Elementary school when I was in the 7th-8th grades. The 5th and 6th graders plated with us so we would have enough to make 2 teams. I got to swing the bat but not run because I was too sick from Rheumatic Fever. Prayers for you Norman. I hope you get some answers soon. Prayers for Papaw Tony and Nanna. Prayers for folks affected be fire, storms and floods. Prayers for our Country and the world in general. Prayers for the folks up Wilson Holler. I thank you all for remembering Ed and me in your prayers. TY for your prayers for my sister Nancy. She came home last week but went back to Nashville/Vanderbilt again this past Friday for another surgery on her ankle. GOD is working miracles with her care team and her healing. She is such a blessing to know and to see how strong her faith is. I love y’all.
Remember the game “Annie Over?” You simply get a partner and, after yelling “Annie Over”, you throw a ball over the house to the other player. who hopes to catch it. Any number can play. The player or team making the most catches wins. I have played this game with a brother or cousin until one of us tired and called it quits.
It sounds like a more fun and complicated version of charades. My youngest grandchild wants to play a charades game that he calls ‘guess the animal’ with me all the time. He acts like an animal and I guess…then it’s my turn to act. He’s only 3, so he ends up making some noises…whether he’s an owl hooting in a tree or a dinosaur roaring. We’ll get better at the ‘no talking’ rule later on.
I wonder if it is played any now in some form or another. A bit like charades! we played it but when they asked your occupation you said Most anything and then you were told GET TO WORK AND DO IT RIGHT! AND DON’T COME BACK TIL SATURDAY NIGHT. Then you did the mime of what your job was. and I have forgotten how the rest went if someone guessed what you were.
Hi Tipper, yes I played this like you did and we called it “Bum Bum Bum” too! We had so much fun. Great memories!
We called it Bum Bum Bum. Basically the same game except when asked our occupation we replied, “Most any old thing!”
“Well git to work!”
Playing Old Granny Hum Bug sounds like a lot of fun for kids, just like the simple games we played in my elementary school. Although we never played that game, we enjoyed many similar games that only required a group of kids willing to form a team and give it their all. Everyone participated and had a blast, with no fights or arguments that today’s children wouldn’t understand.
Can’t say I ever played that game. We use to play guessing games like this but never called them anything other than guessing games.
This is a new one one me! We got into quite the game of Red Rover during my 4th grade year. Sometimes boys against the girls, sometimes mixed. Also, that same year, my best friend of that school year, Suzy and I got quite daring on the teeter totters. Haha!!! We would land hard and bounce each other high into the hair while we each tried to outdo the other with a stunt. How we survived our 10th year on earth without any broken bones is a miracle!
I watched Katie’s update last night and I’m praying so hard for Papaw Tony and Corie. All of you Acorns needing prayers are on my mind♡
Kim, I think of the 2nd grade and the boys daring each other to run under the swing while a girl was swinging. It didn’t last long before my best friend got his head busted, he had to go get stitches. This happened on our first recess right before we ate lunch, of all things we had stewed tomatoes for lunch that day. This was in 1962 and I still can’t look at stewed tomatoes without thinking of this. I look back on that time of my generations life and wonder how in the world we survived to become adults when so many of the things we did is now said to be so bad for us. God had to be watching over us.
Oh no!!!!! I had to chuckle at the stew tomatoes comment. Yes, Randy, it’s a wonder we survived but we did and actually thrived! My little brother was such a daredevil that if worry turned your hair white, my mom wouldn’t have passed in ’21 with nearly a head full of jet black hair!!
I’ve actually never heard of this game. But it made me smile. The innocence of it and picturing a field full of youngins is heart warming.
good morning God bless you all, did I tell you the doctor gave me antibiotics, because of something seen in my MRI on my brain, I still have not seen the doctor that ordered the test, but his care came forward to the message on to my primary care doctor, she gave me the antibiotics, praise God, God bless Matt’s father, Papaw Tony with deliverance from sickness and disease, heal his body and make him well Lord, in Jesus name I pray today, Amen
Thank you Norman! I’m glad you got some medicine and hope you get more answers soon! I will keep praying!