Category: Folk Rhyme
Source:Azizi Powell Collection {Pittsburgh, PA,
2001 Alafia Children Ensemble)
Introductory
PhraseZing zing zing and ah 1, 2 ,3
Verse
1I like coffee.I like
tea I like a Black boy and he likes me.
Step back boy.You don’t
shine.
I’ll get another boy to beat your behind.
Verse
2I met my boyfriend at the candy store.
He bought me ice cream,
he bought me cake,
he bought me home
with a tummy ache.
Verse
3Momma, Momma I feel sick.
Send for the doctor quick, quick quick!
Doctor, doctor will I die
Close your eyes and count to five
1-2-3-4-5 . I’m alive!
Verse
4See that house up on the hill? That’s where me and my baby live. Drink a cup of tea.
Eat a crust of bread Come on, baby, let’s go to bed.
Between
1998-2001, my associates and I conducted a number of cultural
presentations on African American game songs in various neighborhoods in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas.After our formal program, I would ask the groups to share any games
songs and chants that they knew.Invariably
someone (usually a girl) would recite verses 2 & 3 of this rhyme.In 2001, I had the pleasure of collecting the entire rhyme presented
above from Kayla and Leah, two five year old girls who participated in Alafia Children’s Ensemble groups in the Garfield section of Pittsburgh.Kayla and Leah recited the introductory phrase and then recited
verse one through three.Other children joined them in the recitation.After I thank them and they had sat she sat down, Kayla began to
recite the 4th verse.This verse doesn’t appear to be as commonly known as the
other verses.Some of the
older elementary school age girls and boys began to laugh when she said
“Come on, baby, lets go to bed”.And I remember her looking around as if to say, “why are they
laughing?”So of course, I
go into my adult role and say, “They were probably married.That’s why they went to bed."
By
the way, the “I like a Black boy” reference in verse one is the only
time that I heard any references to race in the rhymes, game songs and
chants that I collected.I believe that this
“a Black boy” acts as a substitute for a boys’ name or nickname. I
have received very similar version of this rhyme from Yasmin Hernandez.
Yasmin said that in the early 1980s in her Puerto Rican neighborhood of
East New York (Brooklyn), they would recite "I love a colored boy, and he
loves me". Thanks, Yasmin, for sending in your version!
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