Comments on: Chris Kelly & Dan Jones in the Playground

By: cashlang

cashlang — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 00:45:51 +0000

Cinder-ella,
Dressed in Yellah,
Went downstairs to kiss her fella.
Made a mistake and
Kissed a snake.
How may Doctors did it take?
1,2,3,4,5,…..

rope skipping rhyme Lynchburg,Virginia 1965

By: Barbara Hague

Barbara Hague — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 20:40:19 +0000

Thank you for all the lovely articles you send. I love the playground scenes.

By: Cherub

Cherub — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:49:50 +0000

Eetle, ottle
Black bottle,
Eetle, ottle
OUT!

Ah, the joys of being a 7 year old again; I particularly liked the rhymes we skipped to :-

Cowboy Joe from Mexico,
Hands up!
Stick’em up!
Cowboy Joe.

Wonderful that children still recite things like this during play.

By: TokyoDon

TokyoDon — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:35:33 +0000

I went to the Chinese takeaway
To buy a loaf of bread bread bread
He wrapped it up in a five pound note
And this is what he said said said:
“My name is Elvis Presley
“Girls are sexy
“Sitting in the backseat of a taxi”

Can’t remember the rest but what a strange song for six-year-old me to have sung in the playground!

By: Margaret

Margaret — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:15:04 +0000

I loved the Dan Jones books. My children loved the Dan Jones books. My grandchildren love the Dan Jones books. And I’m enjoying exploring that interactive painting and listening to all those rhymes. As well as reading the rhymes old and new included in the post. Thank you!

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:22:21 +0000

The innocence and happiness of young children !
What beautiful pictures
Gary

By: CornishCockney

CornishCockney — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:15:20 +0000

Those rhymes brought back memories, and the Cinderella one above! I used to skip to that all the time, along with the Birthday Rhyme…”When it’s your birthday please jump in..January, February… etc
If the skippers successfully made it all the way to December, it continued on with … “When it’s your birthday please jump out…January, February, and so on!

By: Kimberley

Kimberley — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:52:22 +0000

I´ve just mailed Dan about that Olicker Bolicker rhyme as I was so surprised to see it. It´s actually something I´ve heard from my Dutch partner. The Dutch version is:

Olleke bolleke
Rebusolleke
Olleke bolleke
Knol!

The Wikipedia entry speculates on a 16th century inspiration for the rhyme. So I wonder if it travelled over to England at some point.

Also, I´m so glad to hear he´s done a painting for Bethnal Green Library. The new children´s section is great, but the walls are rather bare.

By: Cate

Cate — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:37:01 +0000

Great, great photos!!! Every one is a winner.

By: Teresa Stokes

Teresa Stokes — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:44:14 +0000

Anyone familiar with Iona and Peter Opie’s seminal 1959 work “The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren” will love this. It’s amazing how children’s playground songs and rhymes are always evolving and new ones invented and nobody ever knows quite where from; I only recognise one of these from my time at school in the sixties. I have to share a really silly one we used to say which springs to mind, played by two girls swinging a long skipping rope, with a third girl skipping in it, and doubling the speed of the rope at the end of the rhyming part:
“Cinderella, dressed in yeller, went downstairs to meet her feller.
Halfway down her girdle busted. How many people were disgusted?
One … two … three” etc, until the skipper trips in the rope, giving up her place to someone else.