Children’s Rhymes & Play
Billy-carts, Hopscotch & Razzle-dazzles.,
Whoever coined the phrase ‘As easy as child’s play” didn’t know very much about children. Playtime’s many expressions can appear simplistic but is often extremely complicated. Constructing a Land-ofMake-Believe, for example, can be extremely complex, allowing a child to return again and again to a familiar imaginative space with equally imaginative friends. The ability of children to invent is endless. Sydney children have always found magic where adults cannot.
There is little doubt that children can create their own play worlds. Considering the topsy-turvy state of our current world, this is probably a fortunate thing. Like kids through the decades of Australian history, Sydney children have invented their own games, secret languages and amusements. Old games, songs and crafts come and go and return again to benefit from the evolution of tradition.
Play depends on social environments – indigenous children have games honed from centuries of survival, immigrant children bring with them the play of their ancestors, and, of course, all children contribute to developing a unique Australian culture that is always changing.
Aboriginal children in traditional society are brought up with storytelling, string games, songs, and dancing passed down to them by their elders. Many of their games are designed to sharpen their perception and skill in hunting. One game had the children sit around an ant’s nest, with each child nominating ‘their’ ant. The game was about concentrating and following that particular ant’s journey.
With the arrival of the first Europeans, the old games of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland started their own journey into Australia. Skipping games, hopscotch, rope jumping, top spinning, hoop rolling, boardgames and, of course, singing nursery rhymes and songs.
Life was often tough for new settlers. Families had to battle the endless bush, strange environment, insects, reptiles and animals, and, somehow or other, isolation and loneliness. Children were often left to their own devices and were expected to do their fair share of work before playtime.
The accommodation was often a partitioned one-room bark hut. Toys, like spinning tops and kites, were homemade. Many settlers wallpapered their huts with old magazine pages glued onto the bark walls with a glue of sticky flour and water, and these pages became popular for family games as I Spy With My Little Eye.
Once upon a time – to use a familiar children’s story opener – life was far simpler. There was less pressure on our leisure time: no television, no video games and no internet. Necessity being the mother of invention shows children at their creative best. Money is no barrier and old games like hide-and-seek, and tag requires nothing more than enthusiasm. In lean and mean times like war or economic depression, simple things like brown paper, string and sugar bags provided endless play opportunities.
As the Victorian era progressed and our cities grew, more thought was given to leisure time and children’s amusement. The repertoire of traditional indoor and outdoor games expanded. Schools also introduced games into their playgrounds. Physical exercise was paramount and included everything from folk dancing to organised sport.
In 1912 The Playground Movement introduced the first public playgrounds to Sydney in Miller’s Point. A year later, the Sydney City Council opened a government-funded public playground at Victoria Park. This was followed by supervised playgrounds by the Kindergarten Union and City Council at Pyrmont, Woolloomooloo, Moore Park and Chippendale.
Twentieth-century Sydney children benefited from the manufacturing boom of the second half of the nineteenth century, where dolls, bicycles, board games, music boxes and other amusements were mass-produced and generally inexpensive.
Some games were considered masculine, and others feminine. Those borders have broken down, but for most of the last century, boys played marbles, chasing and tag games like cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers, whilst girls had dolls, tea sets and skipping ropes. ‘Making things’ was also gender-orientated: boys built model cars, kites and were allowed to use hammers and nails, while girls were expected to learn how to use a sewing machine or keep an autograph book.
If there was one thing that defined yesterday’s Australian child, it was the billy cart. We made them in all shapes and sizes, hauling them across fields, down rickety streets, and raced down hilly streets. We used them to passenger smaller kids, dolls, and dogs and for odd jobs. Collecting refundable soft drink bottles or groceries from the local store was made easier with a billycart. They were made from orange crates, old prams or anything that could have four wheels attached. Little thought was given to brakes – there were no rear lights.
One of the joys of the billycart, apart from making it and the sense of accomplishment, was the freedom. Today’s teens no doubt have the same feeling of freedom when they get the car keys!
Billycarts disappeared from our streets in the late 1950s – a victim of the encroaching motor car. After a series of accidents and cries of ‘The roads are not playgrounds”, the billycart was banned. There wasn’t enough room on our streets for motors and billycarts.
Kite flying also got a bad rap from the authorities. “They’ll get stuck on the power lines”, the ‘fun police’ cried.
The wooden razzle-dazzle roundabout in the local parks also disappeared as more than one kid came hurtling off. Monkey bars were also considered dangerous, and many councils even went as far as prohibiting tree climbing.
Roller skating was probably dangerous however, it was sanctioned as a business. Sydney was on wheels with major rinks, including the Royal Roller Rink at the Moore Park Showgrounds, the Vice-regal rink at Rushcutters Bay, The Coliseum North Sydney and the Bondi Junction Rink at Centennial Park. One by one, in the 1950s, the roller rinks closed, reflecting the end of another craze.
Most Sydney kids had three main events in their diaries – the Royal Easter Show, Christmas and Cracker Night.
The Easter Show at the Moore Park show-grounds was when the country ‘came to town’. There were full-throttle screaming rides on the giant octopus and ferris wheel, scary times on the Ghost Train, the excitement of the daredevil bike riders on the Wheel of Death, the smell of temptation (and sugar) in the showbag pavilion and the sheer wonder of Sideshow Alley. ‘Collecting’ things at the Show was competitive: pamphlets, prizes, samples, showboats and stomachaches being high on the list.
Bonfire Night, sometimes called Cracker Night or Guy Fawkes Night, the 5th November, saw giant bonfires explode all over Sydney. In some suburbs each street had its own; often towering mounds of rubbish of every describable inflammable object including old furniture, car tyres and junk. The Guy sat on top waiting for the match, and they’d go up.
Fireworks went off upwards, sideways, and some didn’t even get off the ground – they were the fizzers. Favourites included Catherine Wheels, Jumping Jacks, Bungers, Roman Candles, Black Devils, Double Bungers, Vesuvius, …..and sparklers. Kids saved for months to ensure they had a good collection of crackers. Then, in 1986, Bonfire Night was banned. The fireworks fizzed out to be replaced by governmentsanctioned events featuring super skyrockets and exploding whizzbangs accompanied by Kylie Minogue’s ‘Spinning Around’ or Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
Life for children in today’s Sydney is different and often difficult in so many ways. Essentially we have experienced a monumental shift in so many aspects of day-to-day life. We have become a people who get entertained rather than in the old days when we entertained ourselves. We have lost play skills but, at the same time, are adding new ones. We are a product of the Information Age, and that includes children. In some ways, we have become more passive in our entertainment and suffer the consequences of obesity and social problems.
On the bright side, children are born with a fresh slate – they are as creative and inventive as ever. Amidst the hurly-burly of modern life and the temptation of too much screen time – we all need to breathe deeply and allow our child’s minds more time for magical escapes.
CLAPPING GAMES
The wonderful thing about children’s folklore is its vibrancy and influence. It is also very cyclical and age dependent. In 2005 I video-taped three year six students at the Paddington home of one of the girls. Two of the girls Madison Lucas and Danielle Gonda went to the same school (Sceggs, Darlinghurst, in Sydney) and Claudia Moriz to Glenmore Road Public School, Darlinghurst, Sydney. This allowed some comparison of songs and clapping and opportunities for explanation and teaching of particular songs. I have left this material in the videos to show the folklore learning process.
Being year six this is usually the last year girls participate in playground games, especially singing and clapping games, as they become self-conscious and also
preoccupied with boys. All three of the girls were told of the background to the video session, what was expected and that it was being done at home (rather than school) so there would be no censorship of the more ribald material.
The series of videos provides a look inside the world of folklore and especially the influence of popular entertainment, in particular the internet, popular music and film.
The video session was focused on clapping rhymes and action songs and did not include elastics, skipping and other action games. Being Year Six the girls referred to such activities as being ‘for the younger girls at school’
Introduction to this collection by Warren Fahey
Introduction 2
Madison, Danielle and Claudia introduce themselves.
Warren Fahey asks girls a series of questions related to the learning, performing and transition of songs.
I’m Sexy, I’m Cute (from Bring It On)
An action song taken from a film and showing the ever-increasing
influence of American hip-hop cultureI’m sexy, I’m cute
I’m popular to boot,I’m bitchin’, great hair
The boys all like to stare
I’m pretty I’m cool
I dominate the school
who am I?
just guess?
guys wanna touch my chest
Yeah………
Brick Wall
Action song originating from the film ‘Dickie Roberts Former Childhood Star’.
Brick wall
waterfall
Dickie thinks he’s
Got it all
But he don’t, I do
So boom with that attitude
Peace, punch Captain Crunch
I’ve got something you can touch
So Bang! Bang!
Choo Choo Train,
You wind me up and I do my thing
And I know Karate and I know Kung Foo
You mess with me and I’ll mess with you.
So recess, pieces, 7 up
you mess with me, I’ll mess you up.
Mary Had a Little Lamb
A play on words, ribald clapping rhyme.
Mary had a little lamb
She also had a duck
she took him round the corner
and taught him how to
fry an eggs for breakfast
fry your eggs for tea
the more you eat
the more drink
the more you want to
Peter had a boat
the boat began to rock
out jumped jaws
and bit him on the cock
tail, ginger ale, forty cents a glass
if you don’t drink then
shove it up your
ask no questions
tell no lies
I saw two policemen
doing up their flies
are bad, mosquitoes are worse
I saw the doctor
lying on the nurse
nurse him well
if you don’t you will go to hell
If you crash you’ll fall
to the ground
A Soldier
Bawdy clapping rhyme
Arse sol, arse sol, a soldier I may be
two piss, two piss, two pistols on my knee
fuck you, fuck you, fu-curiousity
so fight for the old cunt, fight for the old cunt,
fight for the old country.
Double This, Double That
Hand clapping rhyme
Double Double
This This
Double Double
That That
Double This
Double That
Double Double This That.
Double Double
Ice Ice
Double Double Cream Cream
Double Double Ice
Double cream,
double, double ice cream.
(Rehearsal) Boys are cheats & Liars
This segment shows the girls teaching each other the words and actions associated with the rhyme
Boys are cheats and liars
They’re such a big disgrace
They will tell you anything
to get to second base
baseball baseball
——————
If you don’t go all the way
then you are a whore
the —- studies —
the older studies rock
All guys want from you is a
place to put their cock
roaches, beatles, butterflies and bugs
nothing makes them happier than
a giant pair of jugglers
acrobats and —–
all guys want from you is —–
Boys are cheats & Liars
Down Down Baby
1.10 MB
Body action song that originated with American cult tween film
Down, down, baby, down, down the riverbank
sweet, sweet baby
I’ll never ever let you go
shimmy shimmy
coca pops
shimmy shimmy POW!
shimmy shimmy
cocoa pops
shimmy shimmy
POW!
I met a girl friend Marissa
She says to me ‘a la vista’
Walking down the street
ten times a week
I read it, I said it
I stole my mother’s credit
I’m sweet, I’m hot
and that’s what I’ve got!
So Macca Doras
A hand clapping out rhythm aimed at slapping your partners hands with the final count out.
See See My Playmate
Clapping rhymeSee See my playmate
I cannot play with you
My sister’s on the loo
Since 1982.
roll down my rainbow
In to the corridor
and we’ll be friends for ever more more more
My Name is Elli Elli
My name is Elli
Chickili chickili
Oozy oozy
up up up
Down in the dungeon
she’s on crack
cheese on crackers
up up up
My Aunty Anna
A leg split rhyme where the participants have to jump after every verse until the first to fall over.
My Aunty anna
Plays the pia-na
twenty four hours a day
SPLIT
Slime Yuck
Who Broke the Window
Pronouced wind-a
Hand clap rhyme
Who broke the window
You’ll break the window
You broke the window
You’ll break the window
We are the Can Can Girls
We are the Can Can girls
We wear our hair in curls
We don’t smoke or drink
(or that’s what our parent’s think)
we don’t play with toys
we just kiss with boys
We are the Can Can girls
– Of 2005!
Ooh Ahh, I lost my bra
Ooh Ahh, I lost my bra
I lost it in my boyfriend’s car
Why did you leave it there
For I needed some fresh air.
with
Girls are sexy made out of Pepsi
Boys are rotten, made out of cotten
Girls go to Mars to get more bras
Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider
My Boyfriend Gave me an Apple
My boyfriend gave me an apple
my boyfriend gave me a pair
My boyfriend gave me a kiss on the lips
and I threw him down the stairs
I threw him over London
I threw him over France
I threw him over the Harbour Bridge
and he lost his underpants
Which Backstreet Boy is Gay
The Backstreet Boys is a popular all-boy band and this song originated on an internet comedy site,
Which Backstreet Boy is gay?
tell me – who ain’t saying that it’s Ryan
Tell me – who ain’t saying that it’s Howie
Tell me – I never want to hear you say
Which Backstreet Boy is gay?
Now you can see him,
He’s in women’s clothes
The dog is cheating on me
We are on fire
His back perspires
Which one is that way
Which Backstreet Boy is gay?
Tell me who ain’t saying that it’s Ryan
Tell me who ain’t saying that it’s Howie
Tell me I never want to hear you say
Which Backstreet Boy is gay?
I never want to hear you say
Which backstreet Boy is gay/
– all right – we’re all gay!
Boom Boom Bang Bang
Dick Flop
Action song with insult end
TRADITIONAL GAMES
Traditional games of the playground and other related situations, are a hardly branch of folklore. The one question I am repeatedly asked is “how the games circulate”. This, of course, is the nature of tradition and the appearance and disappearance of games, and their associated songs and chants, ebb like the tide. Most are not taught by the schools although some are reintroduced by them. There seems to be a natural cycle related to the various games whilst some are perennial favourites. Games are very much faddish and when the group is bored with a particular game it is put aside or forgotten. The transient nature of schools where students come and go is ideal for the oral transmission of games.
In collecting games I have found the names of games change often and so do the rules. I try and encourage contributors to explain the rules, the place the game was played, the name of the game etc. Most people think that this is the “bleedin’ obvious” but, as a folklorist, I am interested in variants and surely every contribution is different.
Firstly, some personal memories.
I’ve lost my marbles.
They were in a little calico bag and although I haven’t seen them for over fifty years I can’t recall losing them or offering them on Ebay. I certainly would not have given them away. They were a reminder of my youth in a different Australia where kids walked barefoot, drank water out of the tap, stayed out until sunset and played games like Cockylora, British Bulldog, What’s the time Mister Wolf?, Knuckles and, of course, Marbles.
Some schoolyard games were cyclical. They would sweep the suburb for a month and then, magically, disappear along with the Yo Yo, Hula Hoop and latest teen dances like the Madison, Hully Gully and Limbo. Where they went we never knew and cared less. Marbles never went away for it was the king of games. It was a male thing. Boys with balls. It was competitive beyond belief and it wasn’t unusual for boys to show off their balls during the lunch break. It was important to have a complete set and your ‘taws’ or ‘tollies’, your favourite shooters and lucky marbles.
There are over forty different types of marbles but the classic collection would have to include an aggie (being short for agate) glass and usually streaked ball; cat’s-eye or devil’s-eye (the pattern in the glass being similar to an eye); oxblood (looking like a streak of blood); a commie or common clay (they were way down on the collectable scale); clearie (or crystal) made from clear glass; alley (being short for alabaster); and, for the more aggressive player, the steely ball made, not surprisingly, from steel (not a ball-bearing although they were also popular as ‘weapons of mass destruction’). As kids we scrutinised our mate’s marbles for condition, size and eye-appeal. Scratched and chipped marbles were mocked as inferior. Depending on the size, and size wasn’t everything, they had names. Smaller than standard were peewees or mini marbles while the biggest was the billiard ball-sized grandfather, but it was difficult to flick skilfully. Far better were the slightly larger bonkers, shooter, smasher and King Kong. Some kids had big ball bags but the average Aussie kid had about twelve marbles based around the three most important: the favourite, the tom-bowler and the semi-bowler. The target marble was called the ‘mibs’ or ‘kimmies’. Playing for marbles and swapping kept the marbles circulating like currency.
The rules of the game were strictly adhered to because most games attracted a ring of ready umpires ready to shout ‘fault’ or ‘fudge’. I must have been an avid player because I can still describe the state of play. Firstly the playing field must be defined, grass or earth was preferred but failing that bitumen with a chalk circle. Players then knuckled down, meaning they crouch down, ball in hand ready to flick into the starting bunny hole, an imaginary goal post area. The rule is that you can’t hit another player’s marble (also known as a duck) until you have successfully entered the bunny hole goal. It was important the back of the knuckles be placed on the ground in a stationary position otherwise there would be a dissenting chorus of “disqualification”. No part of the hand was permitted to be in front of the position where the marble had been resting on the ground. The thumb is usually used as the firing mechanism. If you happened to hit an opponent’s marble before you entered the bunny hole, (known as kissing another marble) – you had to start all over again. Confused yet? The aim was to successfully hit your opponent’s marble three times before you entered the bunny hole for the final time (known as the killer hit). If the game was for ‘keepsie’ you kept the loser’s marble. If you agreed on ‘quitsies’ prior to the game you could withdraw without consequence. Like all sport there were variations. If you called out ‘elephant stomp’ you were allowed to stomp your marble into the earth, level to the ground, making it very difficult for the other player to hit yours. If agreed, and you were talented enough, you could also play bombes – where the player takes a couple of steps back and shoots mid air. A ball-bearing flicked at a glass marble could easily shatter it let alone send it flying. Well, I think that’s how it all played out.
Girls usually didn’t play marbles but they excelled at clapping and skipping rhymes, especially the rhymes that taunted boys.
Where did marbles originate? The British are recorded as playing World Marbles Championships in 1588 but they were new to the game. Marbles have been found in the graves of ancient Egyptians. Yes, marbles have a very long history.
From Alan Walker
Here’s a game we used to play probably in the late forties, I certainly was not playing it by 1951 when I started high school. The game was played with empty cigarette packets folded flat. The tray inside the packet was used to lock the folded packet flat. The folded packets were flicked towards a wall and the closest to the wall won. The winner took the losers’ packets. We played this game on front verandahs.
From Arthur Elliott, Brisbane
I played the following games at primary school in Brisbane in the period 1954 to 1961. I hope this helps you. Needless to say, I don’t often play these games now!
MARBLES (and all of the different games and rules covered by this term.)
Usually, marbles involved drawing a ring in the dirt, and crouching at the edge of this ring to have your shot. But I do remember a game we played called Eye Droppers with the large glass marble of that name, about the size of a squash ball. This involved standing over the circle and dropping your eye dropper into it, and any marble that it knocked out of the circle became yours.
FLY – a game involving any number of (usually) boys.
Two sticks or twigs about a foot long were placed parallel to each other, some small distance apart. The “Fly” or boss of the game (this changed for each game, often depending on who won the previous game) nominated the number of steps that all players had to make within the space between the sticks (if you touched a stick, or took the wrong number of steps, you were out.) He went last, and would take a large final step beyond the second twig. Where he landed became the position that the second stick was now placed. And so on, with the gap becoming wider with each round, although the number of steps stayed the same. Players gradually were eliminated, sometimes including the Fly himself. Whoever was the last person remaining became the Fly for the next game. There was a Mosquito too – I think he was the first person in the line of players.
RED ROVER
– a well-known playground game, where you had to run from the safe area at one end, through increasing numbers of players in the middle trying to catch you, to the safe area at the other end. If you were caught, you stayed in the middle. A variation was Blue Rover, in which you weren’t allowed the three step dispensation over the line that Red Rover gave you.
DEFENDERS – played with a tennis ball between two teams.
It started with a bounce, and the team who got the ball had to keep it away from the other team. There were no goals as such. It was eventually banned from my school, as too many shirts etc were being ripped while playing it. Very popular.
BRANDY – another well-known game played with a tennis ball.
One person had the ball, and tried to hit anyone else playing by throwing the ball at him. If successful, that person became “it”. A variation was Wall Brandy, where players lined up against a wall, and the person with the ball threw at them. It was quite hard to dodge the ball, as the target was now in quite a confined area. Could be rather painful.
BEDLAM – very popular.
Two teams were chosen. One team had a designated base (say, an area around a tree, marked by a scratched-in line), and it was their job to hunt members of the other team, capture them, and “imprison” them in the base. The prisoners could only escape if an uncaptured member of their side managed to run through the enemy’s base. When all of one side was captured, the teams changed over.
From Robin Death, Screensound
My two sisters and I were at school in the 70’s and 80’s.
- oranges and lemons – infant school
- ring a ring a rosie – infant school
- hopscotch
- elastics
- skipping, singles and groups
- handball
- wallball
- chasings
- Fly – A game where a person faced a wall and called out letters and if you had that letter in your name you went that many steps towards the wall. Then when you were close, you tipped the person at the wall and all ran back to the starting line. Or something like that. I can’t remember what it was called though.
- What’s the time, Mr Wolf
- Playing on the Monkey Bars – round and round the monkey bars and doing “deathdrops”. Using steel frame equipment.
- Round and Round the monkey bars . – Hook one leg over the bar. Both arms under the bar and over your leg. Then spin around the bar.
- Deathdrops – hang from the high bar by the back of the knees. either swing and drop to the ground onto your feet without using your hands. or no swing and drop onto your feet.
Bawdy Kids’ Rhymes
| Bawdy Ditty Children 14 years old. Roses are red Violets are blue When you are 15 you were ready for plucking Now that you’re 16 you’re ready for fucking. Source: Silvia and Lydia Vera, St Scholastica’s College, Glebe, 1984 |
| Amazing Grace Amazing Grace come sit on my face Don’t make me cry because I need your pie Source: Karl Treddenti of Stanmore |
| I live behind a primary school in Maroochydore. Last year just before the Christmas holidays I was outside in the garden when I heard two little girls on the other side of the fence singing a song which surprised and amused me. Sung to the tune of “Jingle Bells” (obviously) Jingle bells, jingle bells Santa Claus is dead Rudolph took a forty-four And shot him in the head………….. (followed by lots of giggling) I don’t know whether there’s more, it seemed to be the only words they knew, and they kept repeating them amidst giggles. I remember a lot of over-learned ditties from my childhood, some of them no less violent and not a little rude! Source: Margo Steley, Maroochydore. |
| GERMAN IN THE GRASS There’s a German in the grass There’s a German in the grass And he’s crawling up your arse Get him out! Get him out! There’s a German in the grass There’s a German in the grass Who’s pinching your arse. Source: Karl Treddenti of Stanmore |
| Hey diddle diddle the cat did a piddle The cow did a poo on the moon The little dog barfed to see such fun And the cat came and ate it with a spoon Source: Jasper Penfold-Low |
| POPEYE I’m Popeye the sailor man I live in a caravan I sleep with my granny and play with her fanny I’m Popeye the sailor man. I’m Popeye the sailor man I live in an old tin can I eat all the flies and spit out their eyes I’m Popeye the sailor man I’m Popeye the sailor man I live in an old tin can I eat all the worms and spit out the germs I’m Popeye the sailor man Source: Karl Treddenti of Stanmore |
| LOOK INTO MY EYES Look into my eyes You’re paralysed Your bum is paralysed etc Source: Unknown |
| I’M TOUGH! I’m tough! When I go to Pizza Hut I order everything – chairs, tables etc I’m Tough! When my wide irons my shirt I leave it on I’m tough! I eat quiche I eat it in front of truckies I’m tough! My coco pops go shh sshhsshh Source: Unknown |
| LOOK UP Look up, look down. Your pants will fall down. Source: Unknown |
| FATTY & SKINNY Fatty & Skinny went to bed Fatty rolled over and squashed Skinny dead Fatty & Skinny went to the moon Fatty got lost in the elephant’s poo Skinny went home to tell his mum And all fatty got was a kick up the bum Fatty & Skinny went to bed Fatty did a fart and skinny was dead Fatty & Skinny went to the tub Fatty got lost in the elephant’s grub Source: Karl Treddenti of Stanmore |
| RIDDLES Why did the ant crawl up Prince Charles’ legs? To see the royal balls What do you get if you cross a koala with a kangaroo? A woolly jumper What do you get if you cross a stereo with a fridge? Cool music What did Boy George say to the boxer? Do you really want to hurt me. What is Skippy’s favourite program/ Sixty minutes. Toilet Mum was in the kitchen cooking fish and ships Dad was in the toilet making battleships. Why did the man sit on the toilet with his Lotto forms? Because he was waiting for the big one to drop What do you eat if you’re about to die? Lifesavers Where do you go if you’re dead? The living room. Riddle me, riddle me ree I saw a lady pee She peed so fast It made me laugh Riddle me. Riddle me ree What am I? A: A tap! A house full, a room full and I couldn’t catch a spoonful. What am I? A: a smoke What kind of cot can’t a baby sleep in? A: Apricot What did one wall say to the other wall? A: see you at the corner What did one big toe say to the other?. A: don’t look now but there’s two heels following us Source: Karl Treddenti of Stanmore |
Children have vivid imaginations and can easily adapt songs to their own style. Age-old children’s songs landed in Australia and were adapted to suit our local environment. The following song, known in the English repertoire as Three Jolly Huntsmen, has evolved to include Australian animals.