IBMC #8: The Nursery Rhyme Challenge

You will pick a nursery rhyme and make a new interpretation of it. You are free to make edits to that rhyme and then give an interpretation. The only ultimate restriction is that there has to be rhyme and a new context to it. Let your imaginations flow.

The rhyme I choose is this one:

This old man, he plays one
He plays knick knack on my thumb
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays two
He plays knick knack on my shoe
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays three
He plays knick knack on my knee
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays four
He plays knick knack on my door
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays five
Don’t play knick knack on that hive
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays six
He plays knick knack on my sticks
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays seven
He plays knick knack up in heaven
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays eight
He plays knick knack on my gate
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays nine
He plays knick knack on my vine
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

This old man, he plays ten
He plays knick knack all over again
With a knick knack paddy wack
Give a dog a bone
This old man comes rolling home

I’m not going to edit this, because this rhyme has memories associated with it.

I don’t particularly remember if I was taught this at school, or overheard it at one of the places I visited with my parents as a child, or if I just caught on to it when my baby cousins watched video versions of it on DVD. I really don’t remember, but listening to this tune puts my mind in a state of calm. It brings back the feeling of the years when I was carefree and life was easier and did not have all the struggles and hard decisions. It’s not that I regret anything that’s happened in my life, or that I wish something would have been different, because whatever happens is in the end for some grand reason that I cannot percieve just yet. The nostalgia in the tune itself makes me feel like a child, however.

When I started tutoring my seven-year-old cousin a few months back, he didn’t like my teaching methods. Well, figures. The kid doesn’t like the work that has to be put in in order to study. One 50 word paragraph a day is the most he’ll agree to voluntarily. It was through this rhyme that we bonded.

IBMC #8: The Nursery Rhyme Challenge