h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I lived, as a child, in a northern mill town, so I'm not sure why this game was called 'farmer, farmer' - you couldn't see a farm until you had driven 20 miles!

We played this on our street, in the days when it had cobbles and there were few cars. (I mean late 1950s/early 1960s)

One child from the group would stand on one side of the street facing all the others. Then the group would chant to her..
"Farmer, farmer, may I cross your golden field,
To take my father's dinner to the mill?"

and the child would reply..
"Not unless you're wearing RED!!!" (or any other colour)

Those wearing red could cross over in safety, whilst those not wearing red had to run across and avoid being tagged - in which case they were 'on' next.

Marvellous game - we spent many a summer evening playing this.

I think you've posted this in the wrong place. However I like your story and shall tell you ome of my childhood. The game was called 'ogre ogre'. (even though none of us were). It takes place on a thin curb with a 90 deg bend at one end. This is the end the OGRE stands on. There is a queue at the long thin end, and the point is you have to walk across the curb w/out touching the ground and knock the ogre off. Who ever touches the ground first loses and goes to the back, The winner stays and becomes the ogre. Cool isn't it?

oh ... if only life were that simple again!


(a whispered aside)....(I thought I'd posted it in the right place, but, I'm new at this, so i think I'm doing the odd bizarre thing)

I know, did you find the right place?
and for the new bod.

As the sixties turned into the seventies, the mills were, of course, long gone. This game as played in my neighborhood in Chicago, took a Freudian turn and became "Mother, Mother". The rules remained the same, but rather than seek permission from a farmer, we sought approval from our mothers.

no i don't think i found the right place because DrGill has placed a description of a game somewhere else, which mystifies me -.....never mind - i don't mind a bit of mystery!

Hi there.

When I played this game at school in the 80s, we sang
"Crocodile, crocodile, may we cross the water
To see your lovely daughter
Floating on the water
Like a cup and saucer"

The reply was something like "only if you're wearing red".

Ah, those were the days!

Never played it myself.

In Belgium the game is more or less the same, but the song is obviously in Dutch... For some reason, it is not a farmer nor a mother nor a crocodile that you have to pass by, but a skipper. The song can be translated as :
"Skipper, can I cross this water,
yes or no?
Do I have to pay a cent,
yes or no?"

The 'skipper' than gave some kind of instruction (it wasn't always to do with the colour of your clothes, it could just as well be a weird way of walking or something).

I remember that we played this game with the whole school! There were about 70 children and we played it all together. it was fun, but sometimes it was also very rough!

I used to play the same thing with my cousins in the garden of my grandparent's manor. Not unlike the name 'mothermother', we called it 'mother may I'

We'd usually get so p****d off with whomever was the mother that we'd always end the game with at least one of us having a black eye or a bruise of some kind...

-Yossarian

this is a great conversation - there seems like such a range of variations of the same game, but different through time and between places. I'm sure that we should all be writing a book together about this!

It looks like you did post it right, Jackie. My appy loggies. Apparently I've helped contribute something to the guide entry, I assume it was "Ogre ogre" but it isn't there, Hell I was just telling a story anyway. Bye bye.