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Chase the Squirrel
Traditional Old-Time Play-Party song, Breakdown.
ARTIST: fiddler Stephen B. Tucker
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1800’s
OTHER NAMES: "Johnson Gals" (Leake County Revelers); "Want To Go To A Meeting and Got No Shoes" (Frank and Mollie Kittrel); Johnson Gal (IUMA’s Hobo Pie); Cold and Frosty Morning
RECORDING INFO: Chase the Squirrel
Rm - Maid That Dare Not Tell ; Shepherd's Hay
Strosnider, George G.. Bayard, Samuel (ed.) / Dance to the Fiddle; March to the Fife, Penn State, Bk (1982), p 23/# 16 [1930s]
Maid That Dare Not Tell [ON1405/OND 647]
Rm - Chase the Squirrel
O'Neill, Francis and James / Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems, Walton's, Fol (1907), # 647
Krassen, Miles (ed.) / O'Neill's Music of Ireland, New and Revised, Oak, Fol (1976), p132
O'Neill, J.. O'Neill, Francis / O'Neill's Music of Ireland, Collins, Fol (1903/1964), #1405
SOURCES: Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc; Folk index;
NOTES: The song is known as a play-party song and lyrics appear in the early 1900s.
Fiddler Carthy Sisco, born on August 17, 1921, in Carroll County, in the northwest corner of Arkansas, knew the tune/song: They danced mostly squares, with an occasional two step. Back then he didn’t know any waltzes. Dances were simpler, and there were no callers. Instead, someone in the square “just hollered out what move you were supposed to do, ‘circle eight,’ maybe ‘chase the rabbit’.” One dance that was outlawed was called “Chase the Squirrel.” People would be in a line and the one on the end could get injured, especially if people were drinking.
This play-party game is perhaps traceable to the morris dance described by Sharp and Macilwaine in The Morris Book (vol. II, pp. 18-19). [1916 quote]
Kuntz: CHASE THE SQUIRREL [1]. AKA and see "The Maid That Dare Not Tell." American, Reel. USA, southwestern Pa. D Major. Standard tuning. ABA. The title is a floating one, and this tune Bayard (1981) identifies as a composite made from combining or fusing strains from other tunes. The 'A' part is very reminiscent of "Shepherd's Hey" (see note for that tune). A tune with some similarities, esp. in the 'A' part, is "The Eighth of January" in Ford (1944). Source for notated version: George Strosnider (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 16, pg. 23.
CHASE THE SQUIRREL [2]. AKA and see "Miss Mountan's Hornpipe." New England, Reel. F Major. Standard tuning. One part. Burchenal also prints a contra dance of the same name to the tune. Burchenal (American Country Dances, Vol. 1), 1917; pg. 16.
CHASE THE SQUIRREL [3] The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954.
Chase the Squirrel from Mrs. William Robinson, Versailles, Ind. 1916
1. Now's the time to chase the squirrel,
Now's the time to chase the squirrel
Now's the time to chase the squirrel,
On a cold and frosty morning.
2. Up and down the centre we go,
Up and down the centre we go,
Up and down the centre we go,
On a cold and frosty morn-ing.
3. Catch her and hug her if you can,
Catch her and hug her if you can,
Catch her and hug her if you can,
This cold and frosty morning.
b. Longways dance for any number of couples over three. The boys stand in a long line facing that of the girls, partners being opposite each other. At 1, the top boy and the top girl take promenade position and walk down through the center to the foot of the lines. At 2, they drop arms, he passes behind her, casts off to the right and walks back to position. At the same time she passes in front of him, casts off to the left and walks back to position. At 3, irrespective of the time of the music, she runs down through the center with him in pursuit of her. She must continue running down the center and casting off to the left until he catches her. At 4, he kisses her and they promenade down the center to position at the foot of their respective lines.
Repeat from the beginning with the second couple. Continue repeating until all the players are in their original relative positions. Game. Mrs. Peter Geiling, Laurel, Ind.
c.-d. Mr. Newell gives an American children's game of this name, but without any song-. (Games and Songs, pp. 168-9.) Miss Hamilton (in Jour. Am. Folk-lore, vol. XXVII, p. 299) gives another variant with a similar melody.Mr. Edwin F. Piper gives practically the same words to this song but the music is different. (Jour, of Amer. Folk-lore, vol.
XXVIII, p. 266.)
11 If the runner has not been caught during the singing of this stanza, repeat it,
and continue repeating until he (or she) is caught.
12 "Catch her and kiss her if you can," is the older form for this stanza.
Let Us Chase the Squirrel- from "Games and dances: a selected collection of games, song-games and dances by William Albin Stecher -1912 -357 pages
Let us Chase the Squirrel.* Words and Music by Annie L. Preston.
Let us chase the squirrel, Up the hick'ry, down the hickrey
Let us chase the squirrel, Up the hick'ry tree.
If you want to catch me Up the hick'ry, down the hickrey
If you want to catch me, Learn to climb a tree
From The American play-party song - Page 33 by Benjamin Albert Botkin - Juvenile Nonfiction - 1963 - 400 pages:
Over the hills and chase the squirrel, My true love is the beauty of the world,
Over the hills and chase the possum, My true love is sweeter than a...
Journal of American folklore - Page 266; by American Folklore Society 1915
CHASE THAT SQUIRREL (Western Nebraska, 1891)
Up and Down the center we go,
On a cold and frosty Morning
Now's the time to chase that squirrel,
Now's the time to chase that squirrel,
Now's the time to chase that squirel
On a cold and frosty Morning
Catch her and kiss her if you can
This cold and frosty Morning
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