Puddin’ Tame or Pudding Tane

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, Martha and Grant, this is Crash from Marion, Florida.

Crash?

Hi, Crash.

They call you Crash?

Yes, sir.

What, are you an old NASCAR driver?

No, no, I earned that while I was in the Navy.

Oh.

Stuck with me, so I had it legally added to my name.

Did you really?

Yes, ma’am.

Sounds like a story.

Yeah, how many ships did you ground?

No, I didn’t ground any ships, I was wrecking cars.

Oh, okay.

Well, Crash, welcome to the program. How can we help? Well, I’ve listened to you and

I’ve been thinking, trying to think of something to call you for, and walk around and this thing popped into my mind and it was when somebody asked you your name, they say, “Who are you?” and you say, “I’m Puddin’ Tane. Ask me again, I’ll tell you the same.” And I have no idea where it came from and I don’t know what the heck Puddin’ Tane is.

How long have you known it?

All my life.

Since you were a boy?

Yes.

And you grew up where?

I grew up in Pennsylvania and then 20 years in the Navy and 20 years down here.

Okay. Puddin’ Tane, Martha.

I said it when I was growing up.

You did?

Oh yeah, yeah.

It’s sort of a smart alecky little thing. I mean when I think about saying it, I have my hands on my hips and they’re sort of going back and forth. Puddin’ Tane.

Between kids, right?

Between kids? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, not to an adult.

Yeah.

Not between adults, probably, either.

I don’t know if my mom said that to me or not.

Oh, okay.

I haven’t said it in a long, long time.

Well, like I said, I was trying to think of something because I liked your show, and I said, “I’d like to get on there.”

And that’s the only thing that has come to my mind.

Well, it is a great question. You win the prize.

Here we are, talking to you, Crash.

Yes, I appreciate it.

I got to tell you, this plugs into this whole big chunk of children’s folklore around the English speaking world and frankly in the French speaking world and elsewhere, when children meet, there are these rituals they have to find out whether the person that they’re talking to belongs and this, it’s a little more complicated, but it’s simply put, this is one of those rhymes that children have traditionally said to each other to find out if you’re a stranger or not, to find out if you’re part of the group or could be part of the group.

Whether you’re cool or not.

Yeah, and there’s a whole collection of rhymes collected by Iona and Peter Opie. I’ve talked about them on the program before. These are classic folklorists. They specialize in children’s folklore. They’ve got pages and pages of this stuff from the UK and the US and, and, and even some in French where the, the children’s rhymes.

Here’s a great one, Martha.

What’s your name?

Elegant pain.

What’s your number?

Cucumber.

What’s your road?

Big black toad.

They’ve got another one from New Jersey.

What’s your name?

John Brown.

Ask me again and I’ll knock you down.

I don’t like that one.

I’ve never heard that.

Or, “Where do you live?” “In a sieve.”

They go on and on like that.

What’s your name? Baldy Bain.

What’s your “ither?” Ask my “mither.” That’s what you have to say in a Glasgow accent.

How about Pete and Repeat sitting on a fence? Pete fell off. Who’s left?

Repeat! Repeat! Repeat or sit down. Yeah, I learned that from my uncle. He’s also the guy who taught me “H-buckle B-buckle huck-a-buckle wah, H-buckle B-buckle huck-a-berry pie.”

Slow down, I can’t understand you.

Well, there’s a backstory to Pudding Tame that I want to share with you. We’re not 100% on this, but it turns out there was a fellow who wrote some stuff in the 1600s where he described a character character called “Pudding of Tame,” who may be the one being referred to in this rhyme, and he was a proxy for the devil, more or less.

Does that sound right, Martha?

Something like that?

A fiend, or a devil, or THE devil.

It was a book called “Harnett’s Popish Impostures.”

So some people believe that.

I’ll never remember that.

We’ll put it on the website.

Some people believe that this children’s rhyme just retains this one simple piece of information from centuries ago. All right. Although it’s lost all the time. And if I get on the site, can I get that list of things that you said the other two did it? Oh sure, yeah, we’ll link to the, we’ll link to this, there’s tons of this stuff out there, we’ll link to a bunch of it and make sure we’ll spread it around so the next generation knows how to respond when they meet a new kid.

Right, and I’ll start driving people crazy down here.

You mean more crazy?

I’m worried about you driving, Crash.

Yeah, I was gonna say, stay on the road.

I gave up on that.

Oh, you gave up on that.

I did.

So now you’ve got a chauffeur, right?

Well, no, I’ve got my doggies that I chauffeur them around and I don’t want to mess them up.

Well, Crash, we have a show for you.

It’s called Away With Words and we want you to call us again sometime.

I’ll do it.

Well, if I could pick up another one.

Thanks, boss.

I sure appreciate it.

Okay, take care.

Bye bye.

Bye bye.

Call us 877-929-9673 or send your sayings and email to words@waywordradio.org.