"Juice Juice, Let's Knock Some Boots" & Four Other Recreational Double Dutch Rhymes

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part III of a four part pancocojams series on recreational (street, old school) Double Dutch, with an emphasis on Double Dutch (jump rope) rhymes.

Part III showcases text (word only) examples of five recreational Double Dutch rhymes and provides comments about those examples, including suggesting probably Hip Hop sources for some of those rhymes.

The words to these rhymes are from Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling, by Anna R. Beresin (Univ. Press of Mississippi, May 27, 2011).

Comments about the source of certain of these jump rope rhymes and explanations about the meanings of some of the topical references in those rhymes are also included in this post.

**
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/speculation-about-when-why-recreational.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents my thoughts about the reasons for the demise of recreational Double Dutch with or without chanted rhymes. Part I also includes an excerpt from an online article that provides a general overview about recreational Double Dutch, with emphasis on the years that girls were involved in this activity.

In addition, Part I also showcases four YouTube videos of recreational or competitive sports Double Dutch. A video of Malcolm Mclaren's 1983 song "Double Dutch" is also featured in this post, particularly for its visual documentation of Double Dutch sports teams more than for its South African sourced music. Selected comments about Double Dutch from those videos' discussion threads are also included in this post.

**
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/excerpt-about-recreational-double-dutch.html for Part II of this series. Part II features an excerpt from the chapter "Double Dutch And Double Cameras: Studying The Transmission Of Culture In An Urban School" by Ann Richman Beresina. This chapter is part of the 1999 book Children's Folklore: A SourceBook edited by Brian Sutton-Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, and Felicia McMahon (Utah State University Press, originally published in 1995).

In addition, Part II showcases the 1985/1986 McDonald Double Dutch commercial (which is also featured in Part I) as well as two YouTube videos of "Big Mac" performed as a two person and as a four person hand clap game.

**
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/references-to-double-dutch-jump-rope-in.html for Part IV of this video. Part IV provides a partial time line of references to Double Dutch in American and British television shows, movies, commercials, and recorded songs.

This post also showcases one of this commercials: Coca Cola Double Dutch.

****
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Anna R. Beresin for documenting and sharing these examples. Thanks to all those who contributed the Double Dutch rhymes and other examples of children's rhymes that are included in that book. Thanks also to all others who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on Double Dutch (jump rope) and jump roping rope in general, particular as those activities relate to African American females.

Also, click the tags below to find other posts in this series.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE SOURCE MATERIAL FOR THE DOUBLE DUTCH RHYMES THAT ARE FEATURED IN THIS POST
The words to these rhymes are from Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling, by Anna R. Beresin (Univ. Press of Mississippi, May 27, 2011).

Here's an excerpt about this book from https://books.google.com/books?id=Wsm-IE3srh4C&dq=Boom+Boom+Tangle&source=gbs_navlinks_s
..."The author [Anna R. Beresin] videotaped and recorded children of the Mill School in Philadelphia from 1991 to 2004 and asked them to offer comments as they watched themselves at play. These sessions in Recess Battles raise questions about adult power and the changing frames of class, race, ethnicity, and gender. The grown-ups� clear misunderstanding of the complexity of children�s play is contrasted with the richness of the children�s folk traditions."...
-snip-
Anne R. Beresin is also the author of the chapter on Double Dutch that is featured in Part II of this pancocojams series.

****
SELECTED EXAMPLES OF DOUBLE DUTCH RHYMES
The words to these examples are from https://books.google.com/books?id=Wsm-IE3srh4C&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=Boom+Boom+Tangle&source=bl&ots=mYDeDwycGK& "Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling"

These examples are given in alphabetical order and are given without the underlining that was given in the original text for words that are emphasized during the girls' jumping.

Comments about each rhyme are given under that rhyme.

I.
BIG MAC
Big Mac
Fillet Of Fish
Quarter Pounder
French fries
Ice* Coke
Sundae and apple pie
-snip-
*"Ice Coke" is often chanted as "Icy Coke" in hand clap rhymes.

As mentioned in Part II of this series, the rhyme "Big Mac" is very widely performed as a hand clap rhyme in the United States and my sense is that very few children know that it was ever a jump rope rhyme. Instead of the title "Big Mac", I believe that the title "Welcome To McDonalds" is the one that is most often used for this hand clap. That title comes from the introductory words for that hand clap rhyme: "Welcome to McDonalds/may I take your order".

One contributing factor to the popularity of the "Big Mac" jump rope rhyme was probably the fact that it was featured in a 1985 McDonald commercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo5DbV0ZKAI.

For some reason, in the hand clap version the line "and the dish ran away with the spoon" is frequently added to the end of that rhyme.

****
II.
BOOM BOOM TANGLE
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Yo Kenya [jumper�s name] yo
Let me see you do the
MC Hammer she said
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang

Yo Kenya yo
Let me see you do the
Bobbie Brown she said
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang

Yo Kenya yo
Let me see you do the
Heavy D she said
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang

Yo Kenya yo
Let me see you do the
Roger Rabbit she said
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang

Yo Kenya yo
Let me see you do the
The Butterfly she said
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang

Yo Kenya yo
Let me see you do the
The Honky Tonk she said
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang


(1992, 1999)
"When an artist�s name was sung -M.C. Hammer, Bobbie Brown, Heavy D-the girls imitated the artist�s style, moves, gestures. The artists are mixed in with a reference to a movie character, Roger Rabbit, and the butterfly, a creature famous for changing his body"

[page 91, 92 in "Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling"]
-snip-
Here are some friendly corrections to Anna R. Beresin's explanations for the let me see you do the" portion of this jump rope rhyme:
"MC. Hammer" and "Heavy D" were rappers

"Bobby Brown" was an R&B singer

"Roger Rabbit" was an animated movie character but in African American girls' texts "Roger Rabbit" was the name of a Hip Hop/ R&B dance

"the Butterfly" was the name of a Reggae dance that was very popular with African Americans.
(There are lots of references to "doing the Butterfly" in contemporary (1990s) African American girls' recreational rhymes and cheers).

"the Honky Tonk" was probably the name of a R&B/Hip Hop dance that was popular at that time in the Philadelphia area (although I'm not familiar with that dance).

Also, I wonder if Ms. Beresin meant the following by her transcription:
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Yo Kenya [jumper�s name] yo
Let me see you do the
MC Hammer
she [meaning Kenya said:
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang

Yo [another girl's name] yo
Let me see you do the
Bobbie Brown
she [meaning the girl who is named above] said:
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
Boom boom tangle
tang boom tang
-snip-
And so on, with each "Yo" ___ "yo" being the name or nickname of another girl in the group.

"Yo" here means "Hey".

It's possible that my interpretation of this rhyme is colored by my interest in foot stomping cheers. However, this rhyme meets the characteristics of those cheers, including the beginning lines "Boom boom tangle".
-snip-
Here's a foot stomping cheer that I collected in the mid 1980s from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is similar to "Boom Boom Tangle":

AH RAH RAH AH BOOM TANG
Group: Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang
Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang
Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang, baby
Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang
Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #1:My name is Tazi
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist # 1:They call me Taz
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #1: And when they see me
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #1: They say �Ah Rah Rah
You look good, baby.�
Soloist #2:My name is Jennifer
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist # 2:They call me Jenay
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #2: And when they see me
Group: Ah Boom Tang
Soloist #2: They say �Ah Rah Rah
Twist it, baby.�

(Repeat entire cheer with new soloist until everyone has had a turn).
-T.M.P. (African American female, from her memories of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1980s)

****
-snip-
While "Ah Rah Rah Ah Boom Tang" doesn't refer to dances, there are some other foot stomping cheers that do. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html to find Page 1 of a pancocojams series on examples of foot stomping cheers. The links to the other pages ion that series are found in that post.

****
III.
D.I.S.H. CHOICE
D.I.S.H. choice, do your footsies
D.I.S.H. choice, up the ladder
D.I.S.H. choice do your hopsies
D.I.S.H. choice do your turnsies
1, 2, and 3, and a i, 2, and 3
Hop, i, 2, and 3
Jump, 1, 2, and 3

{At choice* the jumper can do "what she wants")

(1992, 1999)
-snip-

[page 94 in "Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling"]
-snip-
[Added August 7, 2017]

Here's some information about and another example of the rhyme "D.I.S.H. CHOICE":
"Some Jump Rope Rimes From South Philadelphia" by Roger D. Abrahams in Keystone Folklore Quarterly, Volume 8, Spring Issue 1963, edited by Simon Bronner

page 5
"In the game with two �enders�, there are three standard ways of turning the ropes, �single�, double Dutch�, �Irish or �double Irish� (the same as double-dutch only underhanded and much more difficult). The most common types are the counting games...

[...]


Page 8
D. I.S. H. Choice
This is a jump that allows you to pick which way you want the rope turned. �D� stand for �Double Dutch�, �I� for �Irish�, �S� for single turn, �H� for �hop�, and �choice� is for any of the previous four.
The one you miss on is the one you must do.

D.I. S. H choice
D.I. S. H choice
D.I. S. H choice
H O P, hop
1, 2, 3"

****
IV.
HEY DJ
Hey DJ let's sing that song
Keep a footin'
All night long
Hey DJ let's sing that song
Keep a hoppin'
All night long
Hey DJ let's sing that song
Keep a turnin'
All night long
Hey DJ let's sing that song
Keep a clappin'
All night long
(1992)

The body had to show "endurance" all night long and it had to show style and "get loose". Jumpers had to be disciplined "on time", and flexible ("Do it right").
-snip-
[page 94 in "Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling"]
-snip-
The Double Dutch rhyme "Hey DJ" undoubtedly has its source in the hit 1984 Hip Hop record with that same title.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_DJ
"Hey! DJ" is a song by The World's Famous Supreme Team. Writing is credited to Larry Price (Sedivine the Mastermind) & Ronald Larkins Jr. (Just Allah the Superstar) and it was produced by Stephen Hague. Released on 12" in 1984 on Island Records, there were three mixes included.[1] The song refers with small lyric parts to McLaren & Supreme Team's previous hit, "Buffalo Gals", which the group featured on. "Hey DJ" peaked at number fifteen on the US soul chart.[2]

Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5D1bgGetRY for a video of that song which includes the words "Keep em dancing all night."

By the way, the word "a" in this example and in most African American vernacular examples is pronounced "ah".

****
V.
JUICE JUICE KNOCK MY BOOTS
Comments about the Double Dutch Rhyme "Juice Juice Knock My Boots"
The African American girls' Double Dutch rhyme "Juice Juice Knock My Boots" has its source in a then popular Hip Hop record.

From https://raphiphop.tuneforums.com/thread_view.php?threadID=476
Posted: 07/06/06 02:29 PM
Author: nittigr
Location: USA-GA
Late 80's/poss Early 90's Hip-Hop/Rap Song....
"There was a song out that may have been called 'Knock some boots' or 'We came here to knock some boots'. Does anyone remember this song or know who sang it? Thanks!"

**
Posted: 12/12/06
Author: njoy2day
Location: Philadelphia

[Reply]
Late 80's/poss Early 90's Hip-Hop/Rap Song....
"The song you're looking for is entitled Knock Some Boots by Sam the Beast. "Feel that juice, time to get loose...we came here to knock some boots." He also made, Knock, Knock. "Knock, knock..who's there...knock,knock who's there...Sam I am." A guy named Scooter that works at a music store in Delaware can get it for you if you're interested. I was on the same quest myself!"

**
Posted: 04/02/08 08:28 PM
Author: nittigr
Location: USA-GA

[Reply]

Late 80's/poss Early 90's Hip-Hop/Rap Song....
"YES>>>YES>>> thats the song by Sam the Beast! I know this reply is late...but I just got another reply from this recently so I thought I'd better leave a response so everyone knows."

Thank you!
-snip-
Note there were other rap songs that were mentioned in that discussion that had the title �knocking books� included the phrase �Knock some boots�., including Candyman �s Knockin' Boots

****
This concludes Part III of this four part pancocojams series on recreational Double Dutch.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Categories: African American children's rhymes and cheers African American Hip Hop Double Dutch jump rope Double Dutch rhymes foot stomping cheers jump rope rhymes

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Excerpt About Recreational Double Dutch From The 1999 Book "Children's Folklore: A SourceBook"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a four part pancocojams series on recreational (street, old school) Double Dutch, with an emphasis on Double Dutch (jump rope) rhymes.

Part II features an excerpt from the chapter "Double Dutch And Double Cameras: Studying The Transmission Of Culture In An Urban School" by Ann Richman Beresina. This chapter is part of the 1999 book Children's Folklore: A SourceBook edited by Brian Sutton-Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, and Felicia McMahon (Utah State University Press, originally published in 1995).

In addition, Part II showcases the 1985/1986 McDonald Double Dutch commercial (which is also featured in Part I) as well as two YouTube videos of "Big Mac" performed as a two person and as a four person hand clap game.

**
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/speculation-about-when-why-recreational.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents my thoughts about the reasons for the demise of recreational Double Dutch with or without chanted rhymes. Part I also includes an excerpt from an online article that provides a general overview about recreational Double Dutch, with emphasis on the years that girls were involved in this activity.

In addition, Part I also showcases four YouTube videos of recreational or competitive sports Double Dutch. A video of Malcolm Mclaren's 1983 song "Double Dutch" is also featured in this post, particularly for its visual documentation of Double Dutch sports teams more than for its South African sourced music. Selected comments about Double Dutch from those videos' discussion threads are also included in this post.

**
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/juice-juice-lets-knock-some-boots-four.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III showcases text (word only) examples of five recreational Double Dutch rhymes and provides comments about those examples, including suggesting probably Hip Hop sources for some of those rhymes.

The words to these rhymes are from Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling, by Anna R. Beresin (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2010).

**
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/07/references-to-double-dutch-jump-rope-in.html for Part IV of this video. Part IV provides a partial time line of references to Double Dutch in American and British television shows, movies, commercials, and recorded songs.

This post also showcases one of this commercials: Coca Cola Double Dutch.

****
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Ann Richman Beresin, the author of the excerpt of Children's Folklore: A SourceBook that is quoted in this post. Thanks to all those who contributed the Double Dutch rhymes and other examples of children's rhymes that are included in that book.
-snip-
This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on Double Dutch (jump rope) and jump roping rope in general, particularly as those activities relate to African American females.

Also, click the tags below to find other posts in this series.

****
EXCERPT:
Chapter 4: Double Dutch And Double Cameras: Studying The Transmission of Culture In An Urban Shool Yard" by Ann Richman Beresin in the 1999 book Children's Folklore: A Sourcebook edited by Brian Sutton-Smith, Jay Mechling, Thomas W. Johnson, Felicia McMahon (Utah State University Press)

http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=usupress_pubs

[page 79]
..."Several games were studied in this larger exploration of the folklore of the 1991-92 Mill School yard [Philadelphia Pennsylvania], including the games of the third- through fifth-grade boys. This paper, however, will serve as a window to the specific game worlds of the double dutch players. (For a complete view of the larger study, which includes handball, folk basketball, hopscotch, step dancing, and play fighting, see Beresin 1993.) Double dutch was perhaps the chief peer-led activity for African American girls at the Mill School, and provided a performance focus for a mobile audience of both girls and boys in the school yard.

DOUBLE DUTCH
A fast-paced, polyrhythmic jump-rope style, double dutch utilizes two ropes, typically turned inwards, egg beater fashion, by two girls who have "the ends," while a single jumper executes specific steps to a specific song or chant. It is almost exclusively an African American girls' tradition in urban Pennsylvania, and has been virtually ignored in the jump-rope literature. There has been so little written on double dutch in the folklore literature, and in the collections of African American folklore, that it could even have been said to be skipped over.

[page 80]
Singing game and street game collections like those of the Opies have described larger game traditions but excluded rope singing. American children's folklore, as in the works of Bronner and Knapp and Knapp, have homogenized the ethnicity of their young experts and have given us only single rope traditions; the African American collections of general folklore have rarely even mentioned the lore of young girls (Kochman 1972; Jackson 1967; Whitten and Szwed 1982). With the exception of Jones's and Hawes's Step It Down (1972) and Black Girls at Play (1975) by Bauman, Eckhardt, and Brady, the games of African American girls have been rendered practically invisible, and these collections have examined only the stepping and clapping forms. Abrahams's Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Dictionary (1969), a text called "the most thorough recent compilation of these (jump rope) rhymes for English-speaking children" (Schwartzman 1978, 36), lists a handful of articles relevant to double dutch, but, with the exception of his own useful 1963 article, all deal with it only in passing.

Even when only a single rope was available-it was typically one brought by a child from home-it was utilized in the style and steps of double dutch. Two girls hold the ends and turn for the girl who is jumping, and often it is expected that one must turn for someone before getting the chance to jump. Occasionally the "double Irish" or "double orange" style of rope turning was observed; that is the term for the turning of the ropes outward, egg beater style. This method was considered more difficult and sometimes occurred by accident when the turners changed direction. More typically, there would be two turners rapidly turning the rope inward, left, right, left, right, swaying rhythmically to the slapping beat as the rope brushed the ground. The jumper would dance the steps associated with the song or rhyme, and a group of singers, ranging from the turners to nonparticipants to would-be participants, would dance a minimal version of the game in place. This was considered both a fun thing to do while you await your turn, as well as a chance to practice the sequence.

The game was competitive, with jumpers vying to be the one who could not only stay in the ropes the longest but could progress the furthest in the particular rhyme. Someone would shout"She got foot" or "She got turn." And one would often hear the cry of "Saved!" or "Saved by one!" meaning that the person shouting had progressed farther than the jumper who had just tripped on the turning rope. Steps were parodied, styles imitated, and occasionally corrected in order to ensure that the jumper did the job
right. Turners could be accused of turning too rapidly, or of intentionally "flicking" the rope to make it more difficult, and high-status jumpers,usually the more skilled fifth and sixth graders, claimed first jumps, while the younger, less experienced players would be the turners. The chance

[page 81]

to jump first, and if one was skilled, stay in the spotlight, was often called long before the game started, in the hallway, in the classroom, or at the end of one round for the round the next recess

[A diagram entitled "Double Dutch Style" is included here.]

Immigrant Chinese and Haitian girls, representing a small minority of this officially racially desegregated school, also occasionally did individual, single jump rope. Two Chinese girls sometimes jumped in two parallel ropes and, in their own ropes, looped circles around each other, sort of a couple
dance while jumping. The Haitian girls sometimes jumped with a second girl in the same small rope, either face to face or back to front. Regardless of form or ethnicity, jump rope was almost always competitive, either by endurance, elaborateness of steps, or frequency of turns.

The European American girls would often be observers of the double dutch games, and on only rare occasions do individual ropes themselves. When they did so they would compete to see which of them could jump the
most times. They would not sing or chant, just count the number of continuous jumping steps. One girl was up to 230 and still jumping. Unlike the African American girls, who stayed in one place or rotated their positions slightly to be out of the bright sun, or the immigrant girls, who stayed in one place with their individual ropes, the European American girls did a running jump rope step and would, one at a time, run around the entire yard counting. Like their hand-clap games, which were also done to numbers or
counting, the European American girls had clearly distilled their games and no longer had an active jump-rope singing tradition at this school. The singing jump rope game, and for that matter the singing hand-clapping game, had become predominantly an African American tradition.

[page 82]

Many double dutch songs included the same sequence of steps or commands: foot, bounce, hop, turn, criss (crossing), clap, with "foot" or "footin" being the basic right, left, right, left running step over the quickly turning ropes. "Bounce" involved a lighter touch of the foot while doing the running step; "hop" a one-footed airborne step. "Turning" and "crissing" involved the most skill and only the most advanced jumpers were able to do those steps. Taisha, a particularly graceful fifth grader, was known to add
turns to all of her steps, in every sequence, just for the challenge of it.

THEMES OF THE JUMP-ROPE TEXTS
Much like the world of themes found in the children's riddling studied by John McDowell (1979), the recorded texts of the rope games were spheres of the African American girls' culture. There were "1,2,3 Halleluya" and "Hey, D. J., let's sing that song," and "Boom Boom Tangle"-a rhyme about rap artists. Plus there were "All in Together," "Hey Consolation, Where Have You Been," "Girlscout, Girlscout, Do Your Duty," "Juice Juice, Let's Knock Some Boots," "D-I-S-H Choice, Do Your Footsies," "Challenge, Challenge
1,2,3," and "Kitty Cat Come, Gonna Be on Time, Cause the School Bell Rings at A Quarter to Nine." But these themes, the ones of religion, region, pop music, of group entry and exit, schooling, and even of plain step display in menu form, were out-shouted by "Big Mac," a commercial for the
McDonald's Corporation.

As Cheyna, a fourth-grade African American girl had said, "Want to hear my favorite?" (Snap fingers on down beat. Accented syllables are capitalized)
Big MAC, Fillet FISH, Quarter POUNDer, French FRIES, Ice COKE,
Milk SHAKE, Foot
Fillet FISH, Quarter POUNDer, French FRIES, Ice COKE, Milk
SHAKE,
BOUNCE
Fillet FISH, Quarter POUNDer, French FRIES, Ice COKE, Milk
Shake,
HOP
Fillet FISH, Quarter POUNDer, French FRIES, Ice COKE, Milk
Shake,
TURN
Fillet FISH, Quarter POUNDer, French FRIES, Ice COKE, Milk
Shake,
CRISS

[page 83]

Big Mac appeared in twenty-three out of fifty-six live unrequested recordings of double dutch chants, closely followed by a follow-the-Ieader game, "Challenge Challenge, One, Two, Three." This contrasted with the rest of the active repetoire, of which two or three versions were recorded of each. First observed in mid-October, "Big Mac," and its occasional partner "Challenge Challenge," were the only chants jumped at recess until February. Most of the other rhymes did not appear at all until April. "Big Mac" represented forty percent of all the songs sung for double dutch, with "Challenge Challenge" representing thirty percent.The remainder totaled three to six percent, tallying another thirty percent. "Big Mac" was therefore not only the first jump-rope rhyme to appear in the school yard and not only the most
frequently jumped, but, as we will see, also the one used for learning how to play the game of double dutch itself.

Collectors of jump-rope games have typically emphasized the antiquity of the games and rhymes, in part because of the archive methodology available, as discussed, and in part because of the inherent romance in finding things old. Paradoxically, the most significant rhyme for the players of this game was the newest one, invented by the McDonald's Corporation as a menu chant. Again and again the local jump-rope experts-the third, fourth-, and fifth-grade girls-claimed that the "Big Mac" rhyme was commercial and
approximately ten years old, but that the game was learned from their mothers and sisters. The dating of this particular chant was confirmed by the national public-relations office of the McDonald's Corporation, which indicated that the menu chants are periodically placed in local papers as part of a contest. It is significant that McDonald's has been a national sponsor of double dutch competitions since the late 1970s and that the only other long commercial text that emerged was in an interview setting: This was
"R-E-E-B-O-K do your footsies the Reebok way." Reebok is also a national sponsor of double dutch competitions.All of the new attempts at double dutch recorded in the school yard were done to the "Big Mac" rhyme. When Isha, a fifth-grade expert jumper, was asked what was the easiest rhyme, she answered, "Challenge Challenge," because "you just had to imitate what was done before you." When asked why the younger girls and the ones new to double dutch started with "Big Mac," she answered, "Because they don't have nothing else." Commercial culture is, for the kids of the school yard, the most basic of common culture. The commercial is easily learned: It's short, it's quick, and it's "fun in the mouth." Children who are bused in from all sections of the city know it, and children from all economic levels have access to it. It may have been introduced by the corporate-sponsored leagues and ad campaigns and may be a future classic example of the "invention of tradition" (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983), but it would not have continued if it did not serve some function.....

[more excerpt text added to this post as of August 4, 2017]

The sound bytes of "Big Mac" may well serve to speed up the ritualization of entry into the game in a recess period that allows only fifteen minutes for play in this city.

In an environment where raw materials are inaccessible and consistently removed from the play time, it appears that the African American children from poorer neighborhoods, rich with oral traditions, are teaching non-African American children what can be done, as Isha says, "when you don't hanve nothing else". This is especially true of the play of girls, which is especially repressed in the school yard by the institution of school itself. Here it is commercial culture that is the common denominator, both within the ethnic tradition and across ethnic traditions.

One of the most relevant texts on this topic is Newell's 1883 book Games And Songs Of American Children. His essays "The Inventiveness Of Children" and "The Conservatism Of Children" address the dynamics inherent in the play study, the idea of play being both traditional and transitional, and the idea that children reconstruct and reinvent performances relevant to their complex lives. The key word is "relevant". Valuable things are reused, recycled and retold. And, as we will see, the repetition of the commercial rhyme may be fixed, but the variation and frequency of the game can be found in the foot work. In a sense, the folklorist begins with the text, but cannot stop there."...
-end of text added to this post on August 4, 2017
-snip-
The words given in italics in brackets were added by me for informational purposes or to note the exclusion of a diagram that is part of that chapter.

[Explanation added August 4, 2017] "European American" in this excerpt means the same thing as "White American". Note that although Europeans are traditionally White, there were/are people who were/are born in Europe who aren't White.
-end of this addition-

The term "step dancing" and "stepping" in this chapter might be the same performance art that I refer to as "foot stomping cheers". I doubt that those terms refer to historically Black Greek letter fraternity and sorority steppin'.

The words given in capital letters (except for "foot") in the "Big Mac" example are movement instructions. "Criss" is probably the same movement what is commonly known known as "criss cross" ("crossing one foot over another.)

With regard to the rhyme "Big Mac": That rhyme is very widely performed as a hand clap rhyme in the United States and my sense is that very few children know that it was ever a jump rope rhyme. Instead of the title "Big Mac", I believe that the title "Welcome To McDonalds" is the one that is most often used for this hand clap. That title comes from the introductory words for that hand clap rhyme: "Welcome to McDonalds/may I take your order".

For some reason, in the hand clap version the line "and the dish ran away with the spoon" is frequently added to the end of that rhyme.

The words for some of the Double Dutch rhymes that are mentioned in this chapter excerpt are given in Part III of this pancocojams series.

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS

Video Example #1: VINTAGE 80'S MCDONALD'S DOUBLE DUTCH COMMERCIAL [1985/1986]



-snip-
This video featured the world champion Fantastic Four double-dutch team. Unfortunately, as a result of this commercial, that team was disqualified from competing any longer in Double Dutch sport competitions, a consequence I gather the team wasn't aware of before agreeing to be featured in this ad

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Video Example #2: Mcdonalds hand game



Barbym1991 Published on May 15, 2009

old hand game my mom and aunt taught us!! Enjoy!

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Video Example #3: McDonald's Hand Clap Game




Vinnie Kandis, Published on Nov 1, 2015
-snip-
In this example, "Big Mac" is combined with other stand alone rhymes.

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This concludes Part II of this four part pancocojams series on recreational Double Dutch.

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Categories: African American children's rhymes and cheers Double Dutch jump rope Double Dutch rhymes jump rope rhymes

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