ID: 31
Date: 1940s - 2006
Title: Wash dishes
Gender: Female 
Classification: Action, skipping 
Rhyme: 

Wash the dishes, 
Dry the dishes, 
Turn the dishes over.

(Whangarei, 1940s; Tolaga Bay, 1950s; Christchurch, 1960s; Christchurch, 1960s; Masteron, 1960s; Wellington,1970s; Auckland, 1980s; Ashburton, 2006; Wellington, 2006)

--

Shake the mattress,
Shake the mattress,
Turn the mattress over.

(Auckland, 1960s)

--
 
Background Info: Actions involve children holding hands in pairs, facing each other, and swinging their arms from side to side. On the third line they swing arms over their heads so they are now standing back to back, with hands still joined. Sutton-Smith, 1959:84, had not recorded this chant prior to 1900s.

Alternative versions:

Wash the dishes,
Wipe the dishes,
Ring the bell for tea.
Three good wishes,
Three good kisses,
I will give to thee.

==

Botkin, 1944:779 records the following, very insensitive  verse with very similar actions. Children in pairs swing their arms from side to side, turning around on the final lines, now back to back:

Wash your mother's dishes,
Hang 'em on the bushes.
When the bushes begin to crack,
Hang 'em on the nigger's back.
When the nigger begins to run,
Shoot him with a leather gun.

==

Darian-Smith, 2005:53 notes a similar rhyme being used in knuckle bones game and recorded in Australia in 1950s by Dorothy Howard:

Skim the milk, skim the milk,
Turn the dishes over.

==
 
Keywords: racist, 
Location: Various NZ, Australia, Various NZ 
Group size: 2 
Incidence: 10