My Mother and Your Mother (I)

DESCRIPTION: "My mother and your mother Were hanging out clothes; My mother came to your mother And snipped off her nose" (or "punched her in the nose," which may draw the response, "Did it hurt?" or "What color was her blood?")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: mother clothes fight jumprope
FOUND IN: US(MW,Ro,So) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #581, p. 234, "(My mother and your mother)"
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 240, (no title) (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 73, "Hanging Out Clothes" (1 text)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #133, "(My Mother and Your Mother)" (1 text, which begins with a verse that is probably "My Mother and Your Mother (I)" and ends with "Ickie Bickie Soda Cracker")
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 123, "My Mom and your Mom were hanging out clothes" (1 text)
Withers-EenieMeenieMinieMo, p. 34, "(My mother and your mother)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #373, "My mother and your mother were hanging out clothes"; #381, "My mother, your mother Live across the way (hall)" (2 texts)
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 48, "(My mother and your mother)" (1 text)
Roud #19058
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother)" (lyrics)
cf. "Ickle Bickle Soda Cracker" (lyrics in a few versions)
cf. "1918 East Broadway" (lyrics in some versions)
NOTES [289 words]: Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes separates the texts that begin "My mother and your mother Were hanging out clothes" and those that begin "My mother, your mother Live across the way," and I was sorely tempted to do the same -- I probably would have done so had Roud not lumped them. But both are amorphous, with mixes material (e.g. Abrahams's version of "My mother, your mother Live across the way" follows with lyrics typical of "1918 East Broadway," and he says that "Ickle Bickle Soda Cracker" often follows). So you really need to check all the texts of each anyway. Perhaps just as well to have them all here.
The text given here is sort of a reconstruction of something I vaguely remember. It's sort of an infant game; on the last line, the speaker grabs the listener's note between index and middle fingers and pretends to cut it off as with a scissors. Possibly the thumb of one hand, held between the fingers, becomes the nose.
At least, that's what I remember. The Baring-Goulds have a different version of the rhyme ("My mother and your mother Went over the way, Said my mother to your mother, It's chop-a-nose day"), and their version of nose-chopping is two-handed.
Henry's informant had a very different version: Instead of nose-chopping, Mother #1 merely PULLED Mother #2's nose. Curiously, Henry's informant also claimed that there was more to the song. I wonder if this might be the item I've indexed as "Spelling Game (Blue spells B-L-U-E; T-W-O Spells Two; My Mother and Your Mother)"; it shares the first few words but is structured differently, so I've tentatively split them.
Incidentally, while actually chopping off the nose was not common in history, slitting the nostrils as a punishment for crime is well-attested. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: MHAp240A

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography