The Corny Things We Used To Say As Kids.....

I'm a child of the 60's.

I come from a simpler, more innocent era (sort-of).

Anyway, I'm not quite sure how it came to be,

but when I was a kid in school (elementary through 'junior high'),

We had these sayings that everyone just seemed to know.

How that was, I couldn't exactly tell ya. But we all KNEW 'em!

Like some mysterious unwritten language, these phrases rolled off the tongue of every 5^th grader as though they'd somehow been meticulously taught and rehearsed.

(Certainly, if we'd been taught these things in an actual class and been held responsible for remembering them, we never would have.

Nonetheless, these expressions survived, transcending race, class, and even geography.

(I grew up in Los Angeles; My girl's from Ohio, and we both remembers the same sayings, as though they somehow traveled from kid to kid, across the continent!)

What sayings am I talking about?

Well, let's see….where should I start?

If someone was mad at you, they wouldn't say f--- you, they'd say "forGET you"!

And your response was something like…

"Forget you,

ForGOT you,

Never thought ABOUT you,

Gimmie a piece of paper, and I'll write all about you!"

Or the other version:

"Forget you,

ForGOT you,

Never thought ABOUT you,

Last time I saw you

Was when the Boogie Man shot you!"

Or how about

"I hate to be mean,

But you need Listerine,

Not a sip,

Not a swallow,

But the whole dang bottle!!!"

Or….

Teacher teacher, I declare

I see someone's underwear!

I see London,

I see France,

I see someone's underpants!

If someone said, "SO WHAT!"

The response was,

"So! So! Suck your toe

All the way to Mexico!"

And the very THOUGHT that someone might actually SAY a BAD WORD was enough to crack us up…

Miss Lucy had a tugboat

The tugboat had a bell

Miss Lucy went to heaven

But the tugboat went to HELL-O Operator, give me number 9

And if the line is busy, show me your be-HIND the refrigerator

There was a piece of glass

My sister sat right on it,

and it stuck her in the ASk me no more questions

Tell me no more lies…..(etc….you get the picture)

Girls playing patty-cake or jumping rope?

Aw, they had a whole DIFFERENT set of chants!

Like:

Eenie meenie sicileenie ooh ahh combaleenie

ochie cochie liverochi

C-O-D
Take a peach, take a plum, take a stick of bubblegum
No peach, no plum, just a stick of bubblegum….

And

Say, Say oh playmate... come out and play with me. and bring your dollies 3, climb up my apple tree... slide down my rainbow... into my cellar door... and we'll be jolly friends for ever more...ore...ore....! (this one even had its own MELODY!)

Or if we had to choose who would go first, or who would be 'IT' in a game, we'd all stand in a tight circle, put our feet together, and we'd do the "eenie-meenie-miney-moe" thing. Which also had some different versions, like…

Eeenie meenie miney moe.
Catch a tiger (or something else, depending on the neighborhood!) by the toe

If he hollers, let him go

Eeenie meenie miney moe.

My mother told me to pick the very best ONE!

Or…

Engine engine number nine

Going down Chicago Line

If the train should jump the track

Do you want your money back?

Y-E-S spells yes, and you IT.

Or

N-O spells no, and you are not it!

And finally, from UrbanDictionary.com:

Moded:

This word is most appropriately used when someone is proven wrong in an embarrassing manner. It is not simply a matter of making a mistake, or being embarrassed, but is most properly used when someone has vehemently defended a position and been proven wrong.

It is also most appropriately used during a battle of insults when someone offers a better retort to someone's initial attack.

A word used to put someone in their place after they've been proved wrong.

1st guy:"Look at that tight Lexus rolling down the street"
2nd guy:"You're stupid! That's a BMW"
3rd guy to 1st guy:"Ohh you just got moded!!!"

Ahhhh….

Those were the days!

So do you remember any of these?

Are there some I've left out? (you KNOW there are!!! C'mon…..help a bruthah out!)