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See, Hear and Sing Children's Songs
 
Ring around a Rosey, 1897.
 Even back in 1897, kids played "Ring Around a Rosey"

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Listen to:
Ottie Brails Ford and group of children from Wiergate High School performing "Here Comes Uncle Jesse" on May 16, 1939

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Sweetheart Songs
Many songs had corresponding games. The song in this clip, "Here Comes Uncle Jesse," is played for a ring game in which one girl stands in the middle. The other girls skip or march around her, and when they sing "come on gal," they stop and the girl in the center "shakes."

Some song lyrics include superstitious advice such as, "If you want a feller, I tell you what you do, Jes' git some salt an' pepper an' put it in yo' shoe." Can you think of any songs that have advice for finding a gal or a feller?

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CREDIT: Rau, William Herman, photographer. "Ring around a Rosey." Copyright 1897. Print and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
AUDIO CREDIT: Ford, Ottie Brails and Group of Children from Wiergate High School. "Here Comes Uncle Jesse." May 16, 1939. Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip, Library of Congress.