Miss Sue from Alabama

On first Halloween at The Stanford House I was thrilled to find I lived in a neighborhood where kids actually still went trick-or-treating. Where I grew up, everyone went to the street behind ours where the houses were closer together and there were actually street lights. So, needless to say, it was hard to tell who was more excited about the handing out of candy: the kids or me. One little girl, dressed as The Cat in the Hat, freaked out (in a good way) when she saw Ebbie tucked under my arm. "BOO! Boo cat! It's a boo cat!" And, from that day forward, "Boo" was added to the list of nicknames my little black (and white) cat has had to deal with.

For some reason this morning when I tried to call her "Boo" it came out more like "Beau" (I blame the ridiculous amount of murder/cop/detective shows I've been watching lately for keeping me up at night dissecting every single sound for a possible intruder). As soon as I said it the "Miss Sue" chant from grade school popped into my head and I have NOT been able to shake it. Did anyone else do that one? With the hand slapping and clapping and actions? After surfing youtube this is the closest I could come to my memory of recess but they do it a little differently than we did...

Our rhyme went like this...
MISS SUE. Miss Sue. Miss Sue from Alabaaaaaaaaama. Sittin in a rocker eatin Betty Crocker, this is what she told us. Miss Susie had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell. Miss Susie went to heaven, the steamboat went to HELLo operator, please give me number nine. And if you disconnect us, we'll chop off your BEHIND the 'fridgerator, there was a piece of glass. Miss Susie sat upon it, and broke her little ASSk me no more questions, tell me no more lies. The boys are in the bathroom, zipping up their FLIES are in the meadow, the bees are in the park. Miss Susie and her boyfriend, are kissing in the dark, dark, dark dark dark, dark.

It must have been the whole Catholic school thing that made ours so naughty and scandalous (or maybe that's just what made it seem that way at the time?) Either way...the memories.