One Potato Two Potato

DESCRIPTION: "One potato, two potato, three potato, four, Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more." Other verses, if any, may refer to all good children going to heaven, or Nellie giving cherries to the poor. ("Tater" may be used for "potato")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Journal of American Folklore, according to Coffin & Cohen)
KEYWORDS: playparty food nonballad children
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(Scotland) Ireland Canada New Zealand
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 94, "(One potato, two potato)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 118, "(One potato)" (1 text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 70, "Taters"; p. 71, "One Potato" (2 texts)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 49, "One Potato, Two Potato"; p. 117, "One potato, two potatoes" (2 texts)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 12, "(One potato, two potato)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #424, "One potato, two potato" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 5, "One potato" (1 text)
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 79, "One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 37,"(One potato, two potato, three potato, four)" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Rachel Cranford, collector), "Games and Game Rhymes", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 14, "(One potato, two potato)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Tristram P. Coffin and Hennig Cohen, _Folklore in America: Tales, Songs, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Games, Folk Drama and Folk Festivals_, Doubleday, 1966, p. 190, "(One, Two Three)" (1 text)
Edith Fowke, _Red Rover, Red Rover: Children's Games Played in Canada_, p. 17, "One Potato, Two Potato" (1 text with description of how it is used as a counting rhyme)
Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, _A Guide to Australian Folklore_, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 77, "(One potato, two potato" (1 text
Roud #19230
NOTES [65 words]: Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo explains that this, to use this rhyme, players shaped their hands into fists, which were the "potatoes." The player would use the rhyme to count fists. In the version given my Withers, when the counter reached "More," that person's fist was withdrawn and the ritual repeated. I suspect most children just made the player who was counted as "More" become "It." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: CoCo190

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