one potato, two potato....

There are so many diverse electronic gaming gadgets that children have today, I wonder if they ever play interactive games requiring them to choose who will be 'it', or who will be 'out'?

When I was a child and a group of us played games with an 'it', or an 'out', we stood in a circle, making a fist with both hands. One of us would chant the potato rhyme and start the count and tap each fist in the circle until the word 'it' or the word 'out' made the final selection.

When a fist was counted out, it was held in back of the player and no longer counted as the chanting and tapping of fists continued around the circle . This method of counting was simple, fair, and approved. Sometimes the first person 'out', was 'it'.

1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato, 4
5 potato, 6 potato, 7 potato more
8 potato, 9 potato, and O..U..T spells out.....

one potato, two potato, three potato, four