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Sent in by Rachel Matthews
Long rope, two handlers, one at each end.
Vote, vote, vote for Mrs “child’s name”
In comes “child 2” at the door (second child runs into the rope)
She’s the one to have all the fun
So we don’t want “child 1” and more (first child leaves rope)
Sometimes there’s a shout of “Get her out” to finish the meter of the line)
Start again for child 2
6 comments
I remember a slight variation on this one from Dundee in the late 1950s/early60s – and was wondering about the origins of it – the variation I know goes “now (Name 2) is a girl
Who never told a lie
so we don’t need (name one) anymore – shut the door” – and to me it suggests an election campaign song which I am trying to trace.
I remember the girls in my school in Yorkshire singing this one. (Being a boy, I wasn’t involved, of course.) As I remember it, the line “Vote, vote, vote for Child 1” was followed by “Child 1 wants someone in to play with.” I’m not sure of the next line, but they also finished with “Shut the door”.
I remember a version of this at my primary school in Surrey in the 1950s.
Vote vote vote for Child one (jumps in)
Call in Child two at the door (jumps in)
Child two is the winner and she wants a bit of dinner and we don’t like Child one anymore (Child one jumps out and Child two continues from the beginning).
Great fun!
I remember a variation of this from grade school, only a little bit different. If the current jumper was named “Shirley” and the first one in line waiting to jump was named “Janet,” then it went like this:
Vote, vote, vote for Shir-ley1
In comes Janet at the door!
Janet is a woman and she knows her vote,
So don’t vote for Shirley anymore”
At “In comes Janet,” Janet would dash into the jumping area, and at “don’t vote for Shirley anymore,” Shirley would dash out.
Given the emphasis on “voting” and on the current jumper being “a woman who knows her vote,” I suspect that this version emerged from the days of the Suffragette Movement, when women were campaigning for the right to vote.
I’ve learned that many of these children’s games and chants have been around for centuries, and have changed to reflect the concerns and events of their times– so it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find that there are many variations on this chant, inspired by different times and situations.
Many thanks for this. It would indeed be great to find out more about it’s origins and how national or localised it was.
Vote vote vote for Connie
In comes Linda at the door
Linda is a lady and she knows how to dance
So we don’t need Connie anymore.
Jump rope song in Boise, Idaho in the 60s.