In 2002 I was priviledged to receive a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Art in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Council of the Humanities to support my research & writing on art commentary
[children's rhymes]. I had included an essay about Little Sally Walker in my submission for that grant. Here are some excerpts from that essay:

When I was growing up in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1950s, Sally was known as "Little Sally Ann". In parts of the Caribbean, she's known as "Little Sally Waters". And in Trinidad, she's known as "Little Sandy Girl". But no matter what her aliases, in the United States, we played ring games with Little Sally. We had ourselves a lot of fun too. Folks in the Caribbean played circle games with Little Sally, too, although I hear tell that children over there also used to chant about her while jumping rope and doin fancy handclap rhymes.

Little Sally even used to show up in records they played on the radio like that "Spirit In The Dark" one by my girl Aretha Franklin. Listen to her say

It's like Sally Walker
sittin in her saucer
that's how you do it.
Ain't nothin to it.
Rise, Sally, rise.
Put your hands on your hips
and cover your eyes
and move with the spirit in the dark.

....

For example, I work in this after-school program in Pittsburgh and one day I had the nerve to ask them kids if they knew about Sally, and they acted like they had never heard of her. Now that's a low down pity and a cryin shame. So, you know what I did? I took myself off my seat, and told them kids to get themselves up in a circle and then I showed them some Little Sally. I started with the words I learned when I was growin up:

Little Sally Ann
sittin in the sand
weepin and a cryin
for a nice young man.
Rise, Sally, rise.
Wipe your weepin eyes.
Now turn to the East
and turn to the West.
And turn to the very one
that you love best.

....

And then I showed off a little and gave those kids a history lesson. I told them that there was this famous Black singer by the name of Leadbelly (you ever heard of him?) who used to sing "Little Sally" this way:

Little Sally Walker
sittin in a saucer
a'weepin and a'moanin
like a little turtle dove.

....

Well anyhow, I'll tell you what else I told those children. I went waaay back and told them that ring games were used in slavery to teach SURVIVAL skills. Since you never knew when you'd be picked to go inside the circle, you had always to be ready. And then you had to move QUICK in the center of the ring and REAL FAST think up a different dance or motion from any other that had been done before. All this was happenin while the beat kept goin on and the other children kept singin on. But this fast thinkin is not just needed during slavery times. It's still needed now 'cause Black people still have to think quick and move fast when the spirit says move. You know what I'm talkin' bout?

But, wait a minute. Didn't I give those kids some more history!
I bet you didn't even know this. Little Sally Walkers' really WHITE. No, wait a minute. I'm not kiddin. Her real name was Sally Waters and she really came from Europe. How she got started was like this: way back when, a woman who was gettin married had to step over a saucer of water on her way to the wedding ceremony. I swear I'm not making this up. That's how those Little Sally sittin in a saucer words came about. It was a water purification thing. Ain't that somethin? We jumped over brooms, and they stepped over saucers. Anyway, who cares if Sally first came from White people - we made her Black with all those shake to the East let your back bone slip hip shakin motions. Not to mention that Black people are all mixed up with Black, White, Indian, Hispanic, and Asian blood…Anyhow, ole Sally Walker's all right by me. Wherever she came from, she's one of us now. And that's all I'm gonna say on that subject.



Azizi Powell