|
A Tisket A Tasket
Traditional Children's Song;
ARTIST:
CATEGORY: Children's Bluegrass Songs
EARLIEST DATE:
RECORDING INFO:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
RELATED TO:
OTHER NAMES:
SOURCES: Bullfrog Jumped, a CD of children’s songs
NOTES: From Bullfrog Jumped, a CD of children’s songs that were recorded across Alabama in 1947. Though it is subtitled Children’s Folksongs from the Byron Arnold Collection- notes by John Bealle:
Directions: Children stand in a circle and one is chosen to skip around the circle and drop a ribbon or other small item behind someone’s back. That person picks it up at the end of the song and skips around the circle as the song starts over again. The game continues until everyone has had a chance to drop the "basket." Each time, the singers may change the colors of the basket.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This game is a variant of the widely popular "Drop the Handkerchief," which designates several closely similar game variants played to different songs and rhymes. Newell called it "Hunt the Squirrel" (#117:168-69), and reported versions featuring a chase and a competition to reclaim the toucher's spot in the circle. Also there are kissing versions, where the toucher is entitled to a kiss. Gomme's "Drop the Handkerchief" (1:109-12) was a chasing game similar to "Cat and Mouse," sometimes with "tisket-a-tasket" verses. Also, "Kiss in the Ring" (1:305-10) features "wrote a letter to my love" with rules similar to "Handkerchief."In "Kiss in the Ring," since the chosen one is the favorite of the chooser, there is much incentive to be caught and have the opportunity of a kiss.
Leah Yoffie reported that at the 1916 meeting of the Missouri Folk-Lore Society, this game was known by all members and visitors present (1947:24). Her study of St. Louis playgrounds documented various letter recipients (mother, love), basket colors (brown and yellow, green and yellow), and even topical rhymes ("...Hitler's in his casket!") (1947:40). Gardner's Michigan study noted the variations in the expressions of loss and longing, which was not always an emphasis (1920:96-97). In Heck's study of folk criticism in Cincinnati games, "Tisket" got 28 votes (high-mid range) as a favorite playground game; comments focused on the fun of running, chasing, tag, etc. (1927:72).
Janet Cliff analyzed the game in an article focusing on the role of music in games. She challenged the assumption that music is extraneous or inconsequential in the "singing games" genre, and investigated the relationship of music, dance, and game. The dropped-object-behind-players game motif is a particular concern in this regard because it has a long history with and without musical accompaniment (1992:141). Her conclusion is that the song serves to alert the player that the object is about to be dropped, and asserts the dramatic structure of the game. She argues, contradicting Brewster (1953), that music is an integral part of the games.
Finally, Hayes and MacEachern (1998) have made brief observations about the unusual "Tisket" verse form. They call the form a "Long-Last" construction, where the performer "will perceive a line, relatively separate from its surroundings, followed by a similarly separated line, followed by a relatively integral couplet; thus the longest unit comes last." Judging from the material in their database, this verse form is rare in folksong. It appears only in a few childhood rhymes, another example being "It’s Raining, It’s Pouring."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Tisket, A Tasket Mozella Longmire, Atmore, July 10, 1947
A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket,
I wrote a letter to my mother; on the way I dropped it.
I dropped it, I dropped it, I dropped it ‘til I lost it
I want someone to help me find it and make me happy again.
Oh gee, I wonder where my basket can be.
So do we, so do we, so do we, so do we.
A tisket, a tasket, a brown and yellow basket
I wrote a letter to my mother, on the way I dropped it.
I want someone to help me find it and make me happy again.
|