Hello, Guest 14 Oct 06 - 11:11 PM.

Thanks for sharing that example.

Regarding "showing your underwear" at the end of the Miss Susie Had A Steamboat" rhyme, that's the first time I've read that ending.
I'm hoping you're still around and will share when [decade] and where [city, state, nation if outside the USA], you performed that rhyme or saw this rhyme performed that way.

And-also for the folkloric record-I'm also curious to know what you meant by "underwear".

From what I've read, it's usually girls only who "do" Miss Susie as two partner handclap rhyme.*

Where I live {in Pittsburgh, PA}, from at least the 1980s, most girls [except in Catholic schools} routinely wear pants to school all seasons that schools are open.

The idea of showing one's underwear might be less risque if the girls were only tugging their pants down a slight bit so that the tops of their panties could be seen. But if they were lifting up their dresses and skirts to show their panties, that would be MUCH more daring. And it would be even more risque if these girls were lifting up their shirts or blouses so people could see their tee shirts or any training bra or 'real' bra they had on.

*I wrote "read" because I have never observed this rhyme performed. African American children in Pittsburgh, PA area are my primary direct contact/observation collection group for children's chants, cheers & rhymes. When I ask Black children in Pittsburgh area about this rhyme using the title "Miss Susie {or Miss Lucy}, I've found no African American girl or boy-Black adult for that matter in this area who knows it. Unfortunately, I haven't done any comparison research with non-Black Pittsburgh area children, youth, or adults. Also, "Miss Susie had a steamboat" isn't familiar to me from my childhood/teen years in [Southern] New Jersey.

I'm wondering if this rhyme is less known among Black Americans than White Americans. I've found race to be a factor in how certain rhymes are performed and whether they are known to specific populations of children. For instance, for what it's worth, the gross me out rhymes like "Great Big Globs of Greasy Grimey Gopher Guts" appear to be very widely known among White children [as evidenced by this and other Internet sites that post children's rhymes]. However, I have no recollection of that rhyme or those types of rhymes. And in almost 10 years of active collecting have I ever seen it performed by Black children and no Black child or adult who I've asked has ever admitted any knowledge of it. Ditto for taunting rhymes directed at teachers such as "Glory Glory Hallelujah" or "Joy To The World". I'm wondering if Miss Susie Had A Steamboat" is also placed in the rhyme category of "usually not known by African American children {living in all or predominately African American urban areas}.

I'd love for others to add any experiencial confirmation or refution of my sense that the "Miss Susie Had A Steamboat" rhyme and the others I mentioned are known or not known by Black Americans as well as non-Black Americans.

As I indicated earlier in this post, I'm interested in this aspect of race as a factor of which rhymes children know for the folkloric record.