Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for August 21, 2023

Hated that game as a kid. I was always “It!” Til I learned to serial kill all the kids I caught, that is!

I never heard any of those phrases as a child. Odd, since we played hide-and-seek a lot.

Things “unsolved” around these parts.. oops!.. did I just confess?!

We always said “Olly, olly oxen free” which makes no sense whatsoever but, hey, we were just kids.

Never?

According to Wikipedia…

The origin of the phrase is unknown. The Dictionary of American Regional English says the phrase may be derived from all ye, all ye outs in free, all the outs in free, or possibly ”calling all the outs in free”; in other words, all who are out may come in without penalty. Others speculate the phrase may be a corruption of a hypothetical and ungrammatical German phrase alle, alle, auch sind frei (all, all, also are free).

More childhood gibberish. Picking up paw paws put em in your pockets way down yonder in the paw paw patch misheard as picking up pop bottles etc.

That’s almost as embarrassing as misunderstanding the one line from the song, “Bad Moon Rising”. That is, misunderstanding the line, “There’s a bad moon on the rise” as “There’s a bathroom on the right”.

First time I read that.

So, Ole Olsen and his wife Lena were characters in many a bawdy joke poking fun at Scandinavian immigrants. I imagine many a 50’s grownup would read this and be slightly scandalized that such a reference would be in the funny pages their kids read.

I thought it was “alley, alley, ox in tree!”

The very first “Peanuts” cartoon I read. (Well, I think. Pretty sure, though :-D )

Lucy’s got it right. And those pink high bounce balls we played with as kids were “Spaldeens.”

I had no idea this is what it used to be! Does anyone still say it that way?

We always said “Olly, Olly, oxen free.” Closer to the “All ye, All ye, outs in free.”

Skipped Sunday strip from October 2, 1955. You’ll need to change the “dot” to a dot:

https://www.gocomicsdotcom/peanuts/1955/10/02

It’s from “All the, all the outs in free.” But who cares. It’s like the game of telephone. We said Ollie Ollie otsenfree.

why are you embarrassed, what Violet said makes no sense either

My Daddy and Uncle would say, “Here I come with both eyes open!” instead of “Here I come, ready or not!” when they would play hide-and-seek with us! That’s the only time I ever heard the first phrase instead of the second.

This has been an interesting discussion on the origin in the phrase in today’s comic. I never, ever heard it the way either girl says it!