Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

DESCRIPTION: Singing (or at least chanting) game: "Button, button, who's got the button?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MA, MW,NE) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #97, "(Button, button)" (1 short text, filed under "Hold Fast My Gold Ring")
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 99, "Button, Button" (a description of the game)
ADDITIONAL: Edith Fowke, _Red Rover, Red Rover: Children's Games Played in Canada_, pp. 92-93, "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button" (a description of the game)
Ron Young, _Dictionary of Newfoundland and Labrador_, Downhome Publishing Inc., 2006, pp. 205-206, "Button, Button" (a description of the game)
NOTES [27 words]: This doesn't seem to have much place in folklore collections -- but I learned it growing up in the Midwest in the 1960s, so it probably belongs in the Index. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Newe097A

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