Examples Of The Children Singing Games "Ring Around The Rosie" And "Green Sally Up" That Include The Word "Squat"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents a definition for the word "squat" and presents a few YouTube video examples of the squatting action and not the exercise squatting are included in this post.

This post also presents old forms of the singing game "Ring Around The Rosie" whose first verse ends with the word "squat" instead of the ending words "all fall down" which have been almost always used for that singing game since the mid 20th century.

In addition, this pancocojams post includes a sound file and word only examples of the singing game "Green Sally Up" that include the word "squat". 

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, recreational, and educational purposes.

This post documents how the lyrics to children's singing games can change over periods of time and in different geographic areas and/ or among different populations.  

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to all those who are featured in these YouTube videos as well as the producers and publishers of these videos on YouTube. 

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DEFINITION FOR THE WORD "SQUAT"
Definition #1
https://www.italki.com/en/post/discussion-157773
[Squatting is] "simply a way of 'sitting' on our haunches when there is no chair available. We squat with our upper body upright and shoulders straight, and, with practice, you can squat for a relatively long time. In many non-western cultures, squatting may be a normal way to sit while working or socialising."

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Definition #2
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/squat
"to position yourself close to the ground balancing on the front part of your feet with your legs bent under your body:

She squatted on the ground and warmed her hands by the fire.

He squatted down and examined the front wheel of his bike."

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VIDEO EXAMPLES OF THE SQUATTING STANCE*

*"stance" = a "body position"

These videos which don't refer to squatting exercises are given in no particular order with numbers added for referencing purposes only. 

YouTube example #1-How to squat ft. little michael 

HealthandMoJo,  Jun 18, 2013

Want to learn how to squat?  Watch a small child squat.  It's a primal movement pattern that we all naturally perform.. that is until we get older and get lazy. haha.

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YouTube example #2 - Why Asians Can Do The Asian Squat | ASIAN BOSS (한글자막)

Asian Boss, Jun 13, 2016

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PART I- EXAMPLES OF "RING AROUND THE ROSIE
THAT INCLUDE THE WORD SQUAT INSTEAD OF "ALL FALL DOWN"

[Numbers added for referencing purposes only]

From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=49672&messages=214&page=1

Subject: RE: Ring Around The Rosey's History??
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 05:48 PM

..."A version from Lomax and Lomax, 1939 Southern States Collecting Trip, from Wiergate, Texas:

Ring around a rosey, pocket full o' posies,
Light bread, Sweet bread, Squat!
Guess who she told me, tralalalala,
Mister Red was her lover, tralalalala,
If you love him, hug him!
If you hate him, stomp!

(Sec. 13, Merryville, LA and vicinity)

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2. Subject: RE: Ring Around The Rosey's History??
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 07:39 PM

..."A bit of a side issue: Most versions have the fall down or tumble down line. I quoted one from Louisiana, Lomax Coll., which has "squat." My wife, from Georgia, says it was always "squat" in her area. Is "squat" confined to the South or a part thereof, or is it more widespread?"...

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https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=49672&page=2

3, Subject: RE: Ring Around The Rosey's History??
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 03:35 PM

"In loking for the origin of "Ashes," I found the rhyme in "Lavender's Blue, 1954, book of nursery rhymes, compiled by Kathleen Lyons and Harold Jones, Oxford Univ. but as:

Ring-a-ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo, a-tishoo!
We all fall down.

No information yet on who started the plague interpretation."

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4. Subject: RE: Ring Around The Rosey's History??
From: Snuffy
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 07:14 PM

"Dicho - that's the version that is common in Britain. It's the only one I've ever heard or seen."

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https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=49672&page=3

Subject: RE: Origins: Ring Around The Rosey's History??
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 11:21 PM

"In view of the constantly recurring speculations, it seems a good idea to post a variety of the versions, with dates. The earliest dated "Ring Around the Rosie" is ca. 1790 (and this reference can't be found now) as suggested in this rhyme from Massachusetts:

Ring a ring a rosie,
A bottle full of posie,
All the girls in our town,
Ring for little Josie.

Published 1883:
Round the ring of roses,
Pots full of posies,
The one who stoops last
Shall tell whom she loves best.

Also published 1883:

Ring around the rosie,
Squat among the posies,
Ring around the roses,
Pockets full of posies,
One, two, three- *squat!

(this one still used in Georgia in the 1930s. "Last one squats will be old Josie" is the end of one from Texas. Also see the one from Switzerland)

1840s, acc. to W. W. Newell:

A ring, a ring, a raney
Buttermilk and tansy,
Flower here and flower there,
And all- squat!

The above all from W. W. Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, 1883, (1903), Dover reprint.

Now a few from the other side; from the Opies, "The Singing Game."

1880s, Lancashire:

A ring, a ring o'roses
A *pocket full o' posies- *or bottle
Atch chew! atch chew!

1881, Greenaway, Mother Goose:

Ring-a ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies;
Hush~ hush! hush! hush!
We're all tumbled down

Shropshire, 1883:

A ring, a ring o' roses,
A pocket full o' posies,
One for Jack and one for Jim
And one for Little Moses!
A curchey in, and a curchey out,
And a curchey all together.

(Children curtsey at end. See the Italian one)

ca. 1900, Italy:

Gira, gira, rosa,
Co la più: bela in mezo,
Gira un bel giardino,
Un altro pochetino;
Un salterelo,
Un altro de più belo;
Una riverenza,
Un'altra per penitenza;
Un baso a chi ti vol.

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Ring a ring a roses
With the most beautiful in the middle;
Ring a pretty garden,
Another circle round,
A little skip,
Another even better,
A curtsy,
Another for penitence;
A kiss for the one you like.

1857, Switzerland:
Ring-a, ring-a, row,
The children go into the greenwood,
They dance around the rosebush
And all *squat down.

Above all from Iona and Peter Opi[es], 1985," pp. 219-227, "The Singing Game."
-snip-
I haven't come across any YouTube video examples of "Ring Around The Rosie" that include the word "squat" instead of the words "all fall down".  

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PART II - "GREEN SALLY UP" singing game

SHOWCASE YOUTUBE SOUND FILE: Mattie Garder, Mary Gardner, Jesse Lee Pratcher - Green Sally Up

IvchoBrasil, Published on Sep 13, 2009

A black children's singing game performed by a group of women in Como, Miss. [1950s] Moby sampled this song for his song Flower.

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LYRICS - "GREEN SALLY UP"
(unknown composer; collected from African Americans in Mississippi)   

Green Sally up
Green Sally down
Last one squat gotta tear the ground
Old miss Lucy's dead and gone
Left me here to weep alone
If you hate it, fold your arms,
if you love it, clap your hands.

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MOBY - FLOWER



LALAS DMR, Mar 3, 2017

In 2000, Moby contributed his song "Flower" to the intro of the Nicolas Cage remake of "Gone In 60 Seconds".

LYRICS:

Green Sally up 'n' Green Sally down
Last one squat gotta tear the ground
Old Miss Lucy's dead and gone
left me here to weep and moan

Song Meaning:

The lyrics used in "Flower" are sampled from an old African American children's song called "Green Sally Up," which shares similarities with the British children's song, "Ring Around The Rosie." This song is rooted historically in the slave culture of the American South and it was a song to entertain and occupy the children out in the fields. Like "Ring Around The Rosie," "Green Sally Up" has an accompanying game that's played in time and accordance with the lyrics. 'Green Sally' means 'little girl,' hence the first two lines direct the children to rise up and then squat down in rhythm with the song. "Last one squat gotta tear the ground" means, quite plainly, that the last child to squat has to help the adults with the cotton picking. It's assumed that this was not a literal rule of the game, but a threat of the "last one home is a rotten egg" variety. The lines, "Old Miss Lucy's dead and gone, left me here to weep and moan" is indeed a reference to the death of a slave 'owner', and in the original song is followed by the lines, "If you hate it, fold your arms; if you love it, clap your hands," which was a signal for those listening to indicate their feelings towards their 'master' by either joining in the rhythmic clapping that accompanies the song, or by refraining from doing so, which would indicate a measure of love/respect/complacency that the individual may have had for the 'owner'.

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WHAT I THINK "GREEN SALLY" MEANS IN THAT SINGING GAME
My guess is that "green Sally" meant someone who was young and/or inexperienced. In that sense, calling someone "green" is a mild insult (diss). 

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WHY THE WORDS "ALL FALL DOWN" REPLACED THE WORD "SQUAT"
The lyrics to "Green Sally Up" refer to a contest to see who was the fastest person to squat near the ground. The slowest person lost and had to "tear the ground". I don't know whether those words were taken literally or not. 

The words and the action "all fall down" replaced the words "squat" in the singing game "Green Sally Up" as the body position "squat" became less known because of urbanization, among other reasons. I think only a few children in the United States nowadays know what the body position "squat" means, but everyone knows what "all fall down" means. Plus, "falling down" in this song is both easy and fun to do.

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