Children's Songs
Just one of those weird "need-to-know-now-for-no-real-reason" things that popped into my head this morning.
1. "Little Bunny Foo Foo"
Was this song part of your childhood? If so, what was the punishment that the Funky Fairy threatened Little Bunny Foo Foo with if he didn't stop scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head? And what kind of a fairy was she, anyway? Was she Funky, or was she Blue, or was she something else entirely?
2. Did any of you ever play a game with a baby, or have played with you as a baby, that involved the grownup bouncing the baby on closed knees while chanting a rhyme, and then, at the end of the rhyme, opening the knees and swooping the baby down between them? Kind of curious, because when I was a baby, Mom Pony and my grandmother played this game for me using a German rhyme:
Hoppa, hoppa, Reiter!
Reiter fällt und schreite.
Fällt er in den Graben,
Da fressen ihn die Raben.
Fällt er in den Sumpf,
Da macht der Reiter plumps! *knees open, baby is swooped, baby cackles with laughter*
(Hoppa, hoppa, rider,
The rider falls down and screams.
If he falls into the ditch,
The ravens will eat him.
If he falls into the swamp,
The rider will go plumps!)
It wasn't till I was in high school that I learned that there is an English-language version of the same game:
Ride a horse to Boston,
Ride a horse to Lynn.
Ride a horse across the bridge,
But don't fall in! *knees open, baby is swooped, baby cackles with laughter*
I wonder how many other places have similar games? Does yours? Do you know another rhyme for this game? Did you play the game with either the German or the Boston rhyme?
1. "Little Bunny Foo Foo"
Was this song part of your childhood? If so, what was the punishment that the Funky Fairy threatened Little Bunny Foo Foo with if he didn't stop scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head? And what kind of a fairy was she, anyway? Was she Funky, or was she Blue, or was she something else entirely?
2. Did any of you ever play a game with a baby, or have played with you as a baby, that involved the grownup bouncing the baby on closed knees while chanting a rhyme, and then, at the end of the rhyme, opening the knees and swooping the baby down between them? Kind of curious, because when I was a baby, Mom Pony and my grandmother played this game for me using a German rhyme:
Hoppa, hoppa, Reiter!
Reiter fällt und schreite.
Fällt er in den Graben,
Da fressen ihn die Raben.
Fällt er in den Sumpf,
Da macht der Reiter plumps! *knees open, baby is swooped, baby cackles with laughter*
(Hoppa, hoppa, rider,
The rider falls down and screams.
If he falls into the ditch,
The ravens will eat him.
If he falls into the swamp,
The rider will go plumps!)
It wasn't till I was in high school that I learned that there is an English-language version of the same game:
Ride a horse to Boston,
Ride a horse to Lynn.
Ride a horse across the bridge,
But don't fall in! *knees open, baby is swooped, baby cackles with laughter*
I wonder how many other places have similar games? Does yours? Do you know another rhyme for this game? Did you play the game with either the German or the Boston rhyme?