Little Sally Walker & Ride That Pony (Switching Places Games, Part 2)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part cocojams2 series on switching places ring games. This post provides text and video examples of two contemporary "switching places" circle games: "Little Sally Walker" (Walking Down The Street) and "Ride That Pony". The Addendum to that post features a video of a Ghanaian switching place ring game.

Click http://cocojams2.blogspot.com/2014/11/switching-places-ring-games-part-1.html for Part I of this series. Part I provides a general description of those games and other comments about these types of ring (circle) games as well as descriptions of other ways that the center person is identified in recreational singing games.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those whose rhyme examples are featured in this post. Thanks also to all those who are featured in the videos and who published these videos on YouTube.

EDITOR'S NOTE ABOUT ADDING COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG
With considerable regret, I have disabled the comment feature on cocojams2 blogs (and on my other blogs except for https://pancocojams.blogspot.com, because of the large number of spam comments that I received on those blogs.

Comments for those blogs can be sent to my email address azizip17 dot com at yahoo dot com for possible inclusion in a specific post on those blogs.

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"LITTLE SALLY WALKER (WAS WALKING DOWN THE STREET
Little Sally Walker was walking down the street

[clap, clap]

She didn't know what to do so she stood in front of me

I said "Oh girl, do your thing, do your thing

Stop! [or "and switch"]

"Oh girl, do your thing, do your thing

Stop! [or "and switch"]

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A TEXT EXAMPLE OF "LITTLE SALLY WALKER (WAS WALKING DOWN THE STREET" WITH INSTRUCTIONS
"Little Sally Walker

Description
Get everyone in a circle with one person in the middle.

The person in the middle walks around inside the circle while everyone else sings, "Little Sally Walker walking down the street. She didn't know what to do so she stopped in front of me. (at this point, the one in the middle stands in front of someone and does a dance move)

(Still singing....) Hey girl, do that thing do that thing and switch! (the person who got picked does the dance move) (still singing) Hey girl do that thing do that thing and switch!

The new person now walks on the inside of the circle and continues the game.
-http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activity/little-sally-walker.html

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THREE VIDEO EXAMPLES OF "LITTLE SALLY WALKER (WALKING DOWN THE STREET"
These examples are presented in chronological order based on their posting date on YouTube, with the oldest examples given first.

Example #1: Little Sally Walker

itsthemama3, Uploaded on Nov 6, 2008
A game that the girls will play 4ever...and then come home and sing it in the shower!!!

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Example #2: Little Sally Walker :)

AnnaGraceBananaFace, Uploaded on Feb 25, 2009
Playing little sally walker in the munchkin room at the show in Irving on the 23rd!!

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Example #3: Little Sally Walker

AlphanumericAlyssa, Uploaded on Dec 24, 2009
While waiting for pizza we had a game of Little Sally Walker!

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A TEXT EXAMPLE OF "RIDE THAT PONY" WITH INSTRUCTIONS
"Ride That Pony
A fun singing camp game!

To start the game, one person stands in middle of the circle and everyone starts to clap in a rhythm. The person in the middle begins the game by galloping around the circle while the group sings the following song:

Here we go, ride that pony, ride around that big fat pony, this is how we do it. (move in a galloping motion, swinging hand over head)

The middle person then stops in front of someone else and both partners perform the following lines and actions.

Stand facing each other and swing arms in a circle in front of your body, keeping elbows in: "Front to front to front, my baby"

Jump so both are standing next to each other with the same arm motions as before: "Side to side to side, my baby"

Jump one last time so both are facing with backs to each other with the same arm motions are before: "Back to back to back, my baby, this is how we do it.

The person in the middle then switches places with the person they were just dancing with and the game continues until everyone has had a turn in the middle.

Once everyone as gone, the entire group sings all of verses one last time while everyone (not just the partners) do the motions.
-http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activity/ride-that-pony.html

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TWO VIDEO EXAMPLES OF "RIDE THAT PONY" WITH COMMENTS
These examples are presented in chronological order based on their posting date on YouTube, with the oldest examples given first.

Example #1: Ride that Pony

vballprincess, Uploaded on May 4, 2006
Me and team before volleyball game in reno having some fun. I am the one with the braids and gray shirt.

Here's a comment from that video's discussion thread:

DefineNormal94, 2010
"We did this version at our One Act Play Competition: Ride Ride Ride That Pony! (Repeat 2x) And this is how it goes! Front to front to front to front baby! Side to side to side to side baby! Back to back to back to back baby! This is how it goes! The whole game consisted of casts from 5 highschools, and a few kids from ODU. That's a lot of kids. When I did it, I stopped in front of one of my fellow male cast members and was like "NO!" and went to the next person cuz it would have been weird."

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Example #2: Ride That Pony

AttheCircus, Uploaded on Apr 20, 2008

The Webster Groves High School choir students play a long game of Ride that Pony in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs on April 18, 2008.

Here's a comment from that video's discussion thread:

pryncess1997, 2009
"at my camp for us it wuz Ride Ride Ride That Pony Ride Ride Ride That Pony Ride Ride Ride That Pony This is how we do it Front Front Front, my baby Back Back Back , my baby Side Side Side , my baby This is how we do it and it repeats lol its so much fun"

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ADDENDUM: Ghana Easter Trip - Circle clapping game

aliedaleedz's channel, Uploaded on Jul 4, 2011
-snip-
I don't know anything about this game. I'm curious to know if it originated in Ghana, West Africa, or if it's an American game that was taught to Ghanaian students.

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RELATED LINKS
Additional text examples of "Little Sally Walker" (Walking Down The Street) are included in this cocojams2 post: http://cocojams2.blogspot.com/2014/11/african-american-singing-games-movement.html for Part I of this sries. This post features examples of African American singing games (A-L)

Additional text examples of "Ride That Pony" are included in this cocojams2 post: http://cocojams2.blogspot.com/2014/11/african-american-singing-games-movement_8.html This post features examples of African American singing games (M-Z)

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-childrens-circle-game-from-ghana-west.html for a pancocojams* post entitled "A Children's Circle Game From Ghana, West Africa Whose Movements Are Similar To Two African American Circle Games: "Ride The Pony " & "Little Sally Walker Was Walking Down The Street"."

*Pancocojams is the name of the main cultural blog that I curate.

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