Happy 4th of July

Today I went for a walk for 45 minutes in Jeremy Ranch. I walked from North Trails to Sackett (don't you just love the names?) all the way to the mailboxes, and when I reached them I said, "Ollie, Ollie Home Free, All come Home" Now where did that come from? Ah! from the hidden and secret recesses of my brain, I remembered we used to say that playing Tag or Hide and Seek on the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn when I was a girl ... many, many 4th of July moons ago.

Quite some time back, I learned that before this expression, there was another similar one: "Ollie, Ollie, oxen free" during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Then I read somewhere that the expression goes all the way back to the German: Alle, alle, alle sind frei. German, literally for: "All, all, all are free." The earlier English expression was then, "All ye, All ye, All come free," and was probably bastardized into the expression "Ollie, Ollie, Oxenfree," followed by "Ollie, Ollie Home Free," with the addition of: "All come home."

Which for some reason, I know not what, reminds me of a song title from 1954: "Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea." I haven't a clue why, so don't ask--what's worse is I still remember the words to it! Does anyone else recall this? it was sung by The Four Lads.

There's got to be a poem in here somewhere! There sure as hell ain't a recipe.