Children’s Folklore Recent Titles in Greenwood Folklore Handbooks Myth: a handbook

Eenie-Meenie
Eenie-meenie sissallini, ooh-whop-bop-a-lini
Atchi-katchi, liverachi, I hate boys,
Give me a peach, give me a plum,
Give me a stick of bubble gum
No peach, no plum, just a stick of bubble gum.
Sara Miller, who learned this handclapping rhyme at a day camp in the New 
York City area in the mid-1990s, recorded its text in April 2007, noting that it 
had almost the same words as J. J. Fad’s 1988 song “Eenie Meenie Beats” (3). 
J. J. Fad’s song does not include the words “I hate boys,” which come from girls’ 
interaction in the childhood underground. “Eenie-meenie” and “each, peach, 
plum” frequently appear in children’s rhymes (Opie and Opie, 
Lore and Language 
115; Knapp and Knapp 132–33; Armor). In 
Th
e Games Black Girls Play 
(2006), 
Kyra D. Gaunt analyzes this rhyme in detail (89–93).
Jump-Rope Rhymes
Lizzie Borden
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one
My father, Frank H. Tucker, professor emeritus at Colorado College, recited this 
rhyme in August 2006. As a sixth-grader in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1933, he 
heard girls chant this rhyme while jumping rope.
On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered with an axe 
in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Their daughter Lizzie was tried and 
found not guilty of murder, but many people believed that Lizzie had killed her 
father and stepmother. In an effort to sell newspapers, a journalist wrote the 
above rhyme, which rapidly became part of children’s folklore. Although Lizzie 
Borden tried to stay out of the public eye after her trial, children followed her 
around, chanting the “Lizzie Borden” rhyme.
A daughter’s brutal murder of her parents reflects a dramatic role reversal; 
instead of respecting her parents’ authority, she puts an end to their lives. It is not 
unusual for children to sing about killing parents, teachers, and other adults in 
songs such as the well-known parody of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”