when they were young girls: a singing game through the century

When They Were Young Girls: A Singing Game through the CenturyAuthor(s): N. G. N. KelseySource: Folklore, Vol. 92, No. 1 (1981), pp. 104-109Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260257 .

Accessed: 13/06/2014 20:29

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. and Taylor & Francis, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to Folklore.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.49 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 20:29:36 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=taylorfrancis

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=fel

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260257?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Folklore vol.92:i. 1981 104

When They were Young Girls: A Singing Game Through the Century

N. G. N. KELSEY

ALICE Bertha Gomme' in her great collection of children's games, published eighty-five years ago, provided the words for thirteen different versions of a singing game which usually began: 'When I was a young girl'. The various versions came from London, the Home Counties, Yorkshire, Shropshire, Dorsetshire, etc. Significantly none came from Scotland or Ireland. She also gave four different tunes and went into great detail about the mimed actions which accompanied the singing. William Newell2 in 1883 included a short version of the game in his collection of American ones.

A version collected in Barnes, which is now a district in Greater London,3 is pretty typical:

When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl, When I was young girl, how happy was I, And this way, and that way, and this way, and that way, And this way and that way, and this way went 1.

When I was a schoolgirl, etc. (O this way went I)

When I was a teacher, etc. (O this way went 1)

When I had a sweetheart, etc. (O this way went I)

When I had a husband, etc. (O this way went I)

When I had a baby, etc. (How happy was I)

When my baby died, oh died, oh died, etc. (How sorry was I)

When I took in washing, oh washing, oh washing, etc. (O this way went 1)

When I went out scrubbing, oh scrubbing, oh scrubbing (O this way went I)

When my husband did beat me, did beat me, did beat me, etc. (O this way went 1)

When my husband died, oh died, oh died, etc. (How happy was I).

The children (girls) joined hands and formed a ring. They danced or walked around, singing the words of the first two lines of each verse. Then, standing still, they unclasped hands and continued singing the next two lines, and while doing so, each child performed an action which illustrated the events or jobs, mentioned in the particular verse they sang. Then they rejoined hands and all danced round in a circle again.

In some versions, stages in a man's life, and his occupations made up the song, such as soldier, sailor, mower, hedge-cutter, bootblack, cobbler, school-



WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG GIRLS 105

boy, schoolmaster, gentleman, parson. In one version the occupations of both sexes were included in the same song in varying order. In another version the girl actually became a donkey. More often, after becoming a widow, she kept a donkey, did peggy (prodding clothes with a 'dolly' stick), wore flounces, became a lady, was a naughty girl who later became a good girl, became a beggar, lived to a hundred and four, and so on.

Even in Gomme's day, as she pointed out, this game, as in the case of many other singing games, was originally played by both sexes. By her time it was seldom played by boys. Such games are never played by boys nowadays, and therefore the men's jobs have disappeared from the song.

Many of the mimes accompanying the verses were obvious ones, but some throw light on the social life of the 19th century. For 'young girl' in one version the girl held out her dress, danced a step to the left, a step to the right two or three times, and then turned herself round. In her later examples, she pointed out, going to school took the place of this mime.

For 'sweetheart', the player turned her head and kissed her hand to the one behind. For the death of her 'husband', she threw her apron or handkerchief over her head. For being a 'beggar', she curtseyed and held her hands out for alms. She shook herself for 'wearing flounces', put a handkerchief in place of a veil before her face when she became a widow; beat the donkey when she 'had a donkey'. For 'teacher' she held up her finger for silence and wielded a cane.

Gomme considered: 'The origin of this game ... to be those dances and songs performed in imitation of the serious avocations of life, when such ceremonies were considered necessary to their proper performance, and acceptable to the deities presiding over such functions, arising from belief in sympathetic magic.' Unfortunately we have no historical or literary evidence to confirm this theory.

Gillington in 19094 gives us a version which includes a number of everyday actions: cleaning shoes, washing face, brushing hair, being hit by teacher, leaving school and then working her way up in 'service,' becoming successively kitchen maid, housemaid, parlour maid, cook getting married, followed by washing, rinsing, ironing, having a baby. It ends with baby, husband and the woman herself, dying in the last three verses. This comes nearest of any version to describing realistically the life as it actually was lived by a substantial part of the population.

We first come across the use of the third person in Daiken's book of 1949.5 His version begins:

There was a girl in our school, in our school, in our school. There was a girl in our school and this is the way she went.

She became in turn 'a lady,','a

teacher,' 'got married,' 'got a baby,' 'baby died,' 'got a donkey,' 'donkey kicked her,' 'went to hospital,' 'then she was sewing,' 'the needle pricked her,' and then she died.

A version from Leicester6 says that: Once there was a schoolgirl, Then she got married, Then she had a baby, Then the baby died, Then her husband thrashed her, Then her husband died, Then this is the way she went Whoopsk!



106 N. G. N. KELSEY

It is strange that no versions of this game are found in Norman Douglas's interesting collection7 of London games. There is once again no version from Scotland in Ritchie's collections.8

I have personally collected nine different versions in the Greater London area during the last twelve years from six schools. Three other schools produced almost identical versions. All these shared very similar melodies, different from Gomme's but based on a similar simple structure of six or seven notes.

The young girl is now named. She is Mary in two versions, Molly in one, but Susie in the rest. I should imagine that out of hundreds of schools there must be very many variants and possibly 'first person' ones may still exist.

The stages of the girl's life and the accompanying mimes are naturally very different from the Victorian and Edwardian versions. Gone are the beaten wives, the premature deaths of husband and baby, followed by the inevitable washing, scrubbing, needlework or domestic service. Grandmothers, not mentioned in the early songs, are always present in later extended ones.

My earliest version of 19649 went as follows:

When Mary was a baby, a baby, a baby, When Mary was a baby, a baby was she, She went this way and that way, And this way and that way, When Mary was a baby, a baby was she. (mime of a sucked thumb)

When Mary was a child, etc.

When Mary was a teenager, a teenager, a teenager, etc. She went Ohhhhhhhhhhhh (a loud scream) When Mary was a teenager, a teenager was she.

(This was at the height of the screaming manifestations at pop concerts)

When Mary was a wife, etc. She washed pots and pans, And cups and plates, When Mary, etc.

When Mary was mother, etc. She went (mime of smacking a child's bottom), had babies (repeat) When Mary, etc.

When Mary was a grandma, etc. She went 'Oh dear,' 'Oh my back' (repeat) When Mary, etc.

When Mary was a ghost. etc. She went OOOOOOOoooooooo (wail) (repeat) When Mary, etc.

The mimes for 'grandma' are obvious. A version collected in Putney in 196610 was very similar, but went through

schoolgirl, sweetheart, wife, mother, grandma, angel. The last was accompanied by flapping imaginary wings.

In Twickenham" Mary had become Molly, but widowhood was introduced, and in addition to the above she became a ghost. At this final verse, she went 'BOO!!' That ended verse and song.




In all the versions collected subsequently (Mile End 1967, West Norwood 1972, Clapham 1974 and Walworth 1974 & 1979), the girl has become Susie and the old triple repetition in the first line, followed by a repetition or reverse in the second line, have gone. So has the phrase, 'this way and that way.' The verse form is simplified to: 12

When Susie was a baby A baby Susie was, She went oo-ah, oo-oo-ah.

When Susie was a toddler, etc. She went oink-oink, oink-oink-oink.

When Susie was a schoolgirl, etc. She went one-two, three-four-five.

When Susie was a teenager, etc. She went oo-ah, oo-ah-ah. (Inventiveness has slipped here)

When Susie was a stripper, etc. And she went ooh ah, off with your bra, Down with your knickers, oo-ah.

When Susie was a mother, etc. And she went sh-sh, sh-sh-sh.

When Susie was a grandma, etc. And she went uh-uh, uh-uh-uh.

When Susie was a-dying, etc. And she went oo-oo, oo-oo-oo.

When Susie was a-dead, etc. And she went OOOOOoooooo.

Mimes have now come to play a small part in the song, varying with individual children and their inventiveness.

After this , decline sets in. In the Clapham 13 version Susie is baby, pupil, teenager, married, a mother, a granny, a gonner, an angel, a saint. The teenager's mime is now hair-combing, the scream having disappeared from the sub-culture. The 'gonner' is accompanied by a simple putting of hands under side of face, simulating sleep rather than death.

Two versions I collected in the same school in 1974 and 1979 indicate that the song in that particular area at any rate is on its way to extinction except as a mildly risqu6 fragment. The first version had become nonsense:

When Susie was a baby, a baby Susie was, She went oo-ah, I lost my bra, I don't know where my knickers are.14

In the latest, collected April 1979, there is more of the traditional, but the bulk is lost:

When Susie was a schoolgirl A schoolgirl Susie was She went 1-2, 3-4-5.



108 N. G. N. KELSEY

When Susie was a teenager A teenager Susie was She went oo-ah, I lost my bra I lost my knickers in my boy-friend's car. 15

Why does one singing game stay almost the same for a long period of time, while another goes through such rapid changes and decline as the one under review in this article? Currently, April 1979, there are one or two songs which include a number of lines unchanged since the days of Alice Gomme, such as:

On a mountain stands a lady Who she is I do not know All she wants is gold and silver All she wants is a nice young man.

This verse is so removed from everyday life that it has remained unaffected by all the changes of the last century. There are many clapping, skipping, ball- bouncing rhymes and singing games which are in current use, but have a history going back more than half a century. From Gomme17 we have 'All the Girls in Our Town,' 'Green Gravel,' 'Who has Stole my Watch and Chain?' 'Down in the Valley,' 'Here Come Three Dukes a-Riding,' 'Pop Goes the Weasel.' From Gillington18 we find 'My Mother Said,' 'The Big Ship Sails,' 'Early in the Morning.' From Thornhill19 'The Grand Old Duke of York,' and from Douglas20 'Over the Garden Wall,' 'Mother's in the Kitchen,' 'My Boy Friend Gave me an Apple,' 'All in Together Girls,' 'Cinderella.' I have found versions of all of these in the last decade.

There are many other singing games which remain virtually unchanged because they are reinforced at infant school level. Changes brought about by the folk process in the playground are ironed out by the next teacher-taught generation. I am referring to singing games like 'The Farmer's in his Den,' 'Poor Jenny is A-Weeping,' 'I sent a Letter to my Love,' 'London Bridge is Broken down,' 'Here we go Loo-bee-loo,' 'Oranges and Lemons,' and 'Ring-a- Ring-a-Roses.'

I have come across one rhyme that introduces a social note that has become almost obsolete, but I have not come across it lately. I refer to:

One, two, three a-lairy My Ball's down the airy Don't forget to give it to Mary Early in the morning. 21

When I recorded this there were no areas in basement houses left in the district, and the children were not sure what their 'airy' was.

There is so little in print of 'live' children's folklore that the folk process can rarely be traced. The works of the Opies"2 covered such a great range of space, time and uses that they could not fully deal with the process for any particular rhyme. This essay has been a very limited attempt to show some of the processes of tradition, innovation, invention and deterioration affecting one particular singing game. Further researches may throw more light on these processes.23




NOTES

1. Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland, pubd. in 2 vols. 1894 & 1898, London; republished New York 1964.

2. William Wells Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, 1883, republished New York 1963.

3. See Note 1. 4. A. E. Gillington, Old Hampshire Singing Games, London 1909. 5. Leslie Daiken, Children 's Games Throughout the Year, London 1949. 6. Leicester and Rutland Magazine, June 1949. 7. Norman Douglas, London Street Games, first published 1916, republished London 1931. 8. James T. R. Ritchie, The Singing Street, Edinburgh 1964, Golden City, Edinburgh 1965. 9. Transcribed from tape, Mile End, July 1964. 10. Collected from a Putney child, 1966. 11. Transcribed from tape, Whitton, Middlesex, February 1967. 12. Transcribed from tape, West Norwood, May 1972. 13. Collected from a Clapham Child, 1974. 14. Transcribed from tape, Walworth, March 1974. 15. Transcribed from cassette, April 1979. 16. See Notes 1 and 15. 17. See Note 1. 18. See Note 4. 19. S. E. Thornhill, London Bridge and Other Old Singing Games, London 1911. 20. See Note 7. 21. See Note 9. 22. I. & P. Opie, Lore & Language of Schoolchildren, London 1959; Children s Games in Street

& Playground, London 1969. 23. For a survey of some of the material available, see Nigel Kelsey, 'Tradition and Innovation

in Playground Games and Songs,' London Lore 1:4, 1979, 40-49 (London Folklore Group, 12 Eastwood Street, London SW16 6PX).



when they were young girls: a singing game through the century

Documents