A Hop, Skip, and Jump

By Kathy Kovach

 

Cinderella dressed in yella,

Went downstairs to kiss a fella,

Made a mistake and kissed a snake.

How many doctors did it take

1, 2, 3 . . .

This was the rope jumping chant I remember as a girl growing up in mid-20th Century America. Little did I know that youngsters had been entertaining themselves with a piece of rope for ages.

The origins of this activity are hazy, but some believe skipping rope in ancient Egypt was used as a conditioning routine. In addition, hieroglyphics have been discovered of children playing with rope. I wonder what their chant sounded like?

Cleopatra always extra

She loved jewels and she ate okra

Kissed an asp that made her gasp

How many doctors did she grasp

I made that up.

Early explorers in the 16th Century reported seeing aborigines jumping over vines. A hundred years later, Dutch settlers brought the sport to America.

Those of the male gender were the only ones allowed to jump rope up until the 1800s. Girls were forced to limit their physical activities due to a variety of reasons—be it unladylike or it was believed they couldn’t handle the stress of cardio—that glass ceiling was shattered by the early 20th century. But a clear line had been drawn. Exuberant boys jumped rope competitively while girls chose the creative route, skipping—and dancing, as it were—making up rhymes and chants much like the examples above.

Variations of play, such as Double Dutch and the Chinese Jump Rope, have interesting origins, which are also up for interpretation.

Double Dutch is the practice of using two ropes, spun in opposite directions, one clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. Two people held the ends and a third jumped into the moving parts. According to the Double Dutch Institute, (who knew that existed?) ancient Phoenician rope makers were the first to do this action. It seems it was easier for the workers to jump in and out as they twisted the hemp into long cords so the action wasn’t interrupted. However, the name may have come from the Dutch settlers who often confounded their New York neighbors with their odd speech as they swung the two ropes and chanted in the unknown tongue. Thus, not only was the game’s name created, but the euphemism “Double Dutch” when referring to someone who seemed to be speaking gibberish.

Chinese Jump Rope originated in 7th Century Asia as a fun pastime during the Chinese New Year’s Festivals. It requires a circular length of elastic whereby two people stand inside stretching the rope with their ankles, moving it up as the game gets harder, as seen in the image below. A third person jumps inside the area, performing footwork patterns in a combination of hopscotch and cat’s cradle. Since the rope didn’t swing overhead as in traditional play, it could easily be played indoors. Popular throughout the world, it had a variety of fun names. Chinese Garter in the Philippines and Gummitwist in Germany were two.

Regardless of which version, the constant is the aforementioned chants, or rhymes. No matter the country in which the rope, or elastic, is jumped, an entertaining song must be incorporated. These could be any variation of the culture at the time. Much like Mother Goose nursery rhymes, the chants could be politically motivated.

Charlie Chaplin went to France

To teach the ladies how to dance.

First the heel, then the toe,

Then the splits, and around you go!

Salute to the Captain,

Bow to the Queen,

And turn your back on the Nazi submarine!

Or, as in Dublin, Ireland, where the chant revolved around the inspectors known as “Glimmer men” who visited houses to enforce the restrictions of coal gas:

Keep it boiling on the glimmer, if you don't you get no dinner.

Some were topical. Here’s a familiar one that was formulated during the Lizzie Borden trial in 1892:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

She gave her mother forty whacks,

After she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.

Lizzie Borden got away,

For her crime she did not pay.

While we’re on the macabre, here’s a, (shall we say charming?) one from the 1918 flu pandemic:

I had a little bird,

And its name was Enza.

I opened the window

And in-flew-enza.

Okay, let’s end on an upbeat note. Here’s another one that I had no idea came from a rope jumping chant:

Janey and Johnny

Sitting in a tree,

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love,

Then comes marriage

Then comes Janey

With a baby carriage.

Makes me wish I could hit the backyard with rope in hand, but did I mention I first learned rope skipping sixty-some years ago?

 

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother and a great-grandmother—though much too young for either. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

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