Pigtailed girls slap hands in perfect timing. Slap slap slap.
“Hello operator, please give me number nine and if you disconnect me, I'll paddle your...”
Little hands, dirty fingernails, slap slap slap in quick-paced rhythm, a soundtrack to the playground cacophony. Slap slap slap.
“Behind the 'frigerator, there was a piece of glass. Miss Susie sat upon it and broke her little..”
Innocent voices know the naughty words by heart. Giggles syncopate between breaths. No mistakes are allowed,. Don’t mess up. Slap slap slap.
“Ask me no more questions, tell me no more lies. The boys are in the bathroom pulling up their flies...”
Standing in the bright sun on the concrete, LA Gears on our feet, chalk outlines beneath us, wrinkly hypercolor T-shirts moving with our little bodies. Slap slap slap.
“Miss Susie and her boyfriend are kissing in the D-A-R-K-D-A-R-K-D-A-R-K. DARK, DARK, DARK. Dark is like a movie, a movie's like a show, a show is like a TV screen and that is all I know.”
Collapsing in a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Glances at the proctor, Miss Haskins, to see if she heard. Success!
Pigtailed girls pull themselves up, pushing bangs out of eyes, sitting cross-legged across from each other. Hands in position.
“Okay. Ready? Go!”
“Miss Susie had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell. Miss Susie went to Heaven, the steamboat went to...”
This was a post for the RemembeRED prompt: This week, as the school year is wrapping up and we're on the cusp of summer, we've decided to go easy on you. We want to know what, from your childhood, do you still know by heart? Is it a story? A jump-roping song? The number of rungs on the ladder to your treehouse? How much money you had to save to buy something you really wanted?
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24 comments mean you love me:
After the first five letters of this post I sang through the entire rhyme. I could do this for hours with my friends when we were little. Although, my version has one more line than yours does. "...their flies are in the meadow, the bees are in the park, Miss Susie and her boyfriend...." It just bridges that gap. :) Thank for bringing up happy memories.
I never learned that one as a kid. Damnit!
I still know all the words too... now it's stuck in my head!
Wait, you missed a part:
"The boys are in the bathroom zipping up their flies, are in the city, the bees are in the park, Miss Suzi and her boyfriend are kissing in the D.A.R.K. D.A.R.K D.A.R.K. dark, dark, dark."
I sang some of the other words different, but that's not important, you need the bees in the park to rhyme with the dark.
This was one of my favorites, and are you surprised to learn my mom taught it to me!
I sang the three I could remember recently to make sure they were still in my head, and to prove to my daughters that I still knew the words too! Great response to the prompt!
I used to do those! The routines were really complicated, and some had the possibility of smacking your friend in the head if you messed it up. "Slide down my rain barrel" - I didn't even know what a rain barrel was! LOL
I loved this one!! So naughty:) And yet, you never say anything bad, right? I also remember and LOVED: LA Gears on our feet, chalk outlines beneath us, wrinkly hypercolor T-shirts
Fun fun memory:)
I love the overlap of the lines to the song and what you were doing, seeing, wearing. All that. Very cool.
Teehee this was always a good one! I remember when I started understanding what I was saying and giggling in shock (I was raised in a sheltered community it took a while!!)
Found you off TRDC RemembeRED
I absolutely *love* the way you married the words and the descriptions.
Also? Words like syncopate, hypercolor, collapsing are pure perfection!
Oh I remember that one, and I sang the entire song while I read your post. We thought we were so sly sneaking around all those words!!
cheeky rhymes! Loving your memories!
Oh my word! I was actually trying to remember that very 'song' earlier for this prompt before the songs I wrote on just wouldn't stop singing. I remember sitting in the cafeteria in my elementary school in New York learning this through. And I must be older than you as LA Gears came a few years after the age I was when we sang this. ;> (Ironically, there was a Facebook discussion tonight started by a childhood best friend about those fashion brands that send us back to our preteen & teen years after she made a run to Wet Seal and it included LA Gears! :>) Glad I stopped in from the Red Dress to read! :>
Great post. Bummer that I was going to do that one for my post today. I need to come up with something else now. :)
Well done. Love how you have the girls looking for the teacher before you start up again. Very nice.
Visiting from TDRC...
So nicely done! You take us to the scene and we see it; we feel it.
This took me back! I love that you offered just the rhymes and no extraneous commentary. It lets the reader swim in their own memories. Great job!
I have a feeling there will be a lot of connecting to text as I read today. I loved your word choices too, and how simply you created the images with specific detail. Great job on the writing!
We used to sing this too. Only it was Miss Lucy!!
Loved how you incorporated what you were doing with the song lyrics.
This will be stuck in my head now. : )
I'll be singing that for the rest of the day.
WOW, how I loved reading you remembering it. !!!!
That is going to be running through my head all day.
Summertime!
Except we called her Miss Lucy.
Loved the rhythm and flow, the imagery of the shoes and playground, the details of the lyrics alternating with the story. We sang it the same until the end, though I can't remember what came after flies... Fun flashback...
Oh, I know one more line after the "boys are zipping up their flies.."
..are in the city the bees are in the park, the girls and boys are kissing in the D-A-R-K dark, dark, DARK!"
Totally takes me back to my old street, where I grew up.
I struggled for hours to try to recall clapping games, and then realized that I only ever watched other girls play them.
I don't know why. I am amazed by people's ability to recall scenes from their childhoods with such clarity.
Oh my goodness I remember vividly doing this. Not just as a hand clapping rhyme, but as a double-dutch jumprope rhyme too!!
ahhh the memories. :)
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