Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents the words to "Good Ole Egg Bread", a Black American children's ring game (circle game) from the state of Georgia. This ring game is included in the 1917 book "Ring Games From Georgia", author Loraine
Darby.
The children's ring game "Good Ole Egg Bread" was collected in 1917 by Loraine Darby from Georgia's Gullah Geechee people. Gullah Geechee people are a particular population of Black Americans.
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullah for information about Gullah Geechee culture.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composer/s of this ring game and thanks to the Black children from Georgia who performed it. Thanks also to Loraine Darby for collecting this and other ring games and thanks to first publisher of that book as well as American Folklore Society for publishing excerpts of that book online.
-snip-
*"Egg bread" is another referent for "French Toast".
"Good Ole Egg Bread" has the same word pattern as the much more familiar Black American children's song "Did You Feed My Cow?". Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaiCb3kL2Fk for a YouTube song file of Ella Jenkins singing "Did You Feed My Cow". I don't know if the tune for "Good Ole Egg Bread" is the same as the tune for "Did You Feed My Cow?".
This pancocojams post is part of an ongoing series about early 20th century Black children's singing games. Click the "Ring Games From Georgia" tag below for more pancocojams posts in this series.
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DESCRIPTION OF AND LYRICS FOR THE RING GAME "GOOD OLE EGG BREAD"
From https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/534340.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A13239d3004a560ee6cd2078fffa8650b&ab_segments=&origin=
Ring-Games from Georgia
Author(s): Loraine Darby
Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 116
(Apr. - Jun., 1917), pp. 218-221
Published by: American Folklore Society
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/534340
Accessed: 03-04-2023 11:54 UTC
"[page] 218 Journal of American Folk-Lore.
RING-GAMES FROM
GEORGIA.
BY LORAINE DARBY.
I SAW in southern
Georgia a number of ring-game are peculiar to the colored children of that
region.
[...]
A game which is most amusing to watch is "Good O The
leader shouts one line, and the others answer with the next.
The rhythm is very
strong, and they stamp their feet most energetically as they circle.
Did you go to the
hen-house?
Yes, ma'am!
Did you get any eggs?
Yes, ma'am!
Did you put 'em in
the bread?
Yes, ma'am!
Did you stir it
'roun'?
Yes, ma'am!
Did you bake it
brown?
Yes, ma'am!
Did you hand it
'roun'?
Yes, ma'am!
219
Good old egg-bread,
Shake 'em, shake 'em!
Good old egg-bread,
Shake 'em, shake 'em!
Did you go to the
lynchin'?
Yes, ma'am!
Did they lynch that
man?
Yes, ma'am!
Did the man cry?
Yes, ma'am!
How did he cry?
Baa, baa!
How did he cry?
Baa, baa!
Did you go to the wedding?
Yes, ma'am!
Did you get any wine?
Yes, ma'am!
Did you get any cake?
Yes, ma'am!
How did it taste?
So good!
How did it taste?
So good!
Good old egg-bread,
Shake 'em, shake 'em!
Good old egg-bread,
Shake 'em, shake 'em!
Bow, Mr. Blackbird, bow, Mr. Crow.
Bow, Mr. Blackbird, bow no mo'!"
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Bessie Jones, co-author with Bess Lomax Hawes of the 1972 book Step It Step it down; games, plays, songs, and stories from the Afro-American heritage shared her recollection of children's games (that she referred to as "plays""
ReplyDelete"“I remember a hundred games, I suppose. I would say a hundred because there are so many of them. We had all kinds of plays; we had house plays, we had outdoor plays. Some of the plays have songs, and some have just plays – you know, just acts or whatnot.”
Bessie Jones, Storyteller and Folk Singer
Quoted in https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/genres/game-songs-play-songs
"Game Songs/Play Songs - 1600 t0 Present"
The Gullah Geechee ring game "Good Ole Egg Bread" that was collected in 1917 includes lyrics of children going to a lynching.
DeleteThat singing game serves as an example of how some recreational children's compositions include words about serious subjects and/or serious events. These types of compositions help debunk the mistaken but often held belief that children's recreational singing games and rhymes are all about sweetness and light.