Miss Mary Mack v. Miss Suzy
I say Miss Suzy wins on the merits of barely skirting naughtiness

Last weekend I went with my mom to babysit Riley and Nora. They like the sandbox:

Here we are in the morning, still dressed in our jammies:

Yesterday, I somehow got to thinking about playing games when we were kids, and the methods we employed to determine who was (or wasn't) 'it'. The most common was to have all the kids stick one of their feet in a circle with everyone else's feet, and then do some sort of song/rhyme while simultaneously poking all the feet. It's funny, because I have a very good sensory memory of being the "poker" and poking the toe part of everyone's shoe...as well as feeling my toe being poked. Then I laughed about the stupid rhymes we'd say. The two most common:

My mother and your mother were hanging up close;
My mother hit your mother right in the nose.
What color was her blood?
[purple...or whichever color the last person who was poked picked]
P-U-R-P-L-E
And you are not it, you dirty-double dishrag you!

Eeny meeny miny mo,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers let him go,
Eeny meeny miny mo.
My mother told me to pick the very best one,
And you are not it, you dirty-double dishrag you!

Bubblegum, bubblegum in a dish;
How many pieces do you wish?
[6]
1-2-3-4-5-6
And you are not it, you dirty double dishrag you!

I was looking these up online, especially the first one, because the "were hanging up close" didn't really seem to make much sense to me...but I guess that's what it is! However, I didn't get a single hit on the "dirty double dishrag you" part. Which was interesting to me. Was that just a neighborhood/very regional addition? Did any of you guys ever say that part?

Then I remembered those hand-clapping games and thought about this one:

See, see, Oh playmate
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree
Slide down my rainbow
Into my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forevermore, one two three four, shut the door!

As I was writing this out, I realized that I had no idea how to write out the first part-- See, see, oh playmate? Cici, Oh playmate? C-C-O playmate? Wtf? I always just sang it and didn't think about what that part meant. After looking it up, I saw the first 2 options, but the most common seemed to have the song starting simply, "O, playmate." Lame. Also, I guess the original also substituted 'rainbow' for 'rain barrel'. Ultra lame. Wtf's a rain barrel?

Oh yeah, how about this one?

Bo bo, si wotten totten
Ah ah, she-boom she-boom
Itty bitty wotten-tot BOOM!

How weird. I remember some other hand-clapping song involving counting yen, or some shit like that. But that's all I remember about it.