We Are The Catty Girls

We are the catty girls
We wear our hair in curls.
We wear our dresses
up above our knees.
We are too old for toys
But we're just right for boys.
-Barbara Ray, (African American) from her memories of her childhood in the Buff area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, mid 1950s; collected by Azizi Powell, 1996

-snip-

Barbara who was a work colleague and is still friend of mine) said that girls around ages 8-10 years old would sing this song just for fun. Barbara also said that this rhyme was often sung along with (that is before) this next rhyme:

Hey Baby

Hey baby, how about a date?
I'll meet you round the corner
'Bout half-past eight.
We go front, back, side to side.
We go front, back, side to side.

I never been to college.
I never been to school.
But when it comes to boogie,*
I can boogie like a fool.


-snip-

Barbara said that there wasn't any movements to the first rhyme, except saying the words like you were acting out the part.

Barbara demonstrated how the second rhyme was performed. In the first part of the rhyme she showed how girls pretended to be talking to a boy who was standing near her. The boy is referred to here as "baby". In the second part of the rhyme, Barbara demonstrated how girls would move while chanting those lines. She lightly jumped up, then back, and then slid to the right and then to the left. She stopped those movements on the words "I never went to college". On the words "boogie" (dance) like a fool, she did a hip shaking dance. She called it a "sexy" dance.

Variants of the lines "We are too old for toys/But we're just right for boys" are found in some Michael Jackson versions of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky". Here's an example of that line thread.cfm?threadid=119441#2590359

The second rhyme contains other floating verses. But I think talking about them would be too far off-subject.