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Miss Sue, Scooby Doo
Category: Hand Clap Rhyme
Source: Azizi Powell Collection {Braddock, PA &
Duquesne, Pa; African American children, ages 6-12 years,1999}
Miss Sue,
Scooby Doo.
Miss Sue from Alabama.
(She was) sittin at the table
peelin white potatoes,
waitin for the clock to go
boom tick toc,
boom ticky wally wally
boom tick toc,
boom ticky wally wally
Stop!
"Miss Sue from Alabama” is a traditional African American
handclap game. I have read
that African American children in the South originally played “Miss
Sue from Alabama” as a line game that was almost like the dance line popularized by
the television show “Soul Train” (make two vertical lines facing each
other with a “hallway-like” space in between them; the people at the
top of each line take alternating turns walking down the hallway or the “alley”.
When you walk down the “alley,” you can strut like a peacock, or do a
fancy or funny dance). However, I have never seen this rhyme
performed this way. It usually performed as a partner hand clap rhyme.
“Miss Sue, Scooby-Doo” is a modern version of the
traditional “Miss Sue” handclap rhyme and game song. I collected this version in 1999 from African American boys
and girls ages 6-12 years old who live in Braddock, Pennsylvania and
Duquesne, Pennsylvania (about 10 and 12 miles from Pittsburgh). This modern version adds the rhyming phrase “Miss Sue,
Scooby-Doo” to the original words.
The phrases “ah one more time” and “ah no more times” are
also added to the original rhyme.
The phrase “Miss Sue, Scooby-Doo” acts like an
introduction to the rest of the game.
A lot of African American games start with an introduction like
“Zing, Zing, Zing” or “Ready, set, go”.
These introductions help children get ready to keep “on beat”
with the handclap patterns and other movements that have to be made. “Scooby-Doo” is a funny rhyming phrase that probably came from the
popular television cartoon character, “Scooby Doo” , the dog that went on a lot of adventures
with his human side kick. That television show had the catchy theme song
"Scooby Soo, where are you?" A movie has since been made based on the
television series.
There are many different versions
of this old rhyme. Donetta Abogziebe, an
African American woman friend of mine, said that when she was growing up
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the1970s, she and her sisters did partner
handclap routines while reciting some of this rhyme. Donetta's version
doesn't have the beginning phrase “Miss Sue, Scooby Doo”
or the beginning phrase “Miss Sue from Alabama”, but starts with “Sittin at the table” and goes
on from there.
In 2000, I saw children in the Garfield neighborhood
of Pittsburgh play “Miss Sue Scooby Doo” as a circle handclap game.
Boys and girls form a circle.
Each child holds one hand up and one hand down so that they can
on the beat gently slap the palm of the hand of a child standing to their right and to
their left. The children
chant the same version of the rhyme as I presented above. Like their
Braddock, Duquesne, PA counterparts, when they recite "peelin white
potatoes", they imitate the motions of
peeling potatoes.
This is a fun game anyway you play it.
Do you have any other versions of “Miss Sue from Alabama” or
“Miss Sue, Scooby Doo”? Share
them with CocoJams!! |
