Ladies in the Dining Room

DESCRIPTION: "Ladies in the dining room, Sitting by the fire, Lost her slipper and she fell down, Raise your foot up higher." "(All the way the ring goes round)/(Choose the one the ring goes round), Choose the one with money, Choose the one they call X...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Crockett)
KEYWORDS: playparty home clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, p. 70, "Ladies in the Dinin' Room" (1 text, 1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands, p. 119, ("Choose in the girl with the rosy cheeks") (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, pp. 509-510, "Lady in the Dining Room" (1 short text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Dolores N. Crockett, "Children's Rhymes from Michigan," Vol. 44, No. 171 (Jan-Mar 1931), #3 p. 116, ("Fly to the East") (1 text)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Leah Rachel Clara Yoffie, "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games in St. Louis," Vol. 60, No. 2351 (Jan-Mar 1947 ), #54, pp. 44-45, ("Walking down the green grass") (1 text)
Roud #15656
ALTERNATE TITLES:
All the Way Round
NOTES [231 words]: The second verse from Lomax is "Choose the one the ring goes round, Choose the one with money, Choose the one they call Annie Lee, Kiss your darling honey."
Yonnie's game song is "Walking down the green grass I was ashamed to go, My right foot slipped and I fell down I was ashamed to go. Court that girl with the coal black hair, Court that girl with the money, Court that girl with the coal black hair, And kiss her, call her honey." Yonnie thinks her St. Louis game song "may be a merging of the old 'Walking up the Green Grass' and the Negro song "Ladies in the Dining Room." There's also a line from "I Wouldn't Go There Any More.""
The second verse of Lomax and Yoffie, modified, is all there is of Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands and Crockett. Parrish has, "Choose in the girl with the rosy cheeks, Choose in the boy with the money, Choose in the girl with the coal-black eye, Choose her an' call her honey." Crockett has, "Fly to the East Fly to the Wes,t Fly to the one's got money. Fly to the one that you love best Kiss her and call her honey."
This seems as good a place as any to index Parrish and Crockett, although the verse floats to other songs. In "Charley He's a Good Old Man" (indexed here as "Weevily Wheat") Kelly Harrell sings, "Some folks marry for good looks, Some of them for money, But I'm going to marry a country boy, Kiss him and call him honey." - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: LxSi070

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