Ring around the Rosie

Pockets full of posie

Ashes, ashes,

We all fall DOWN!

Just a kids song right? A pointless game to play over and over again. Not really. This nursery rhyme originated during the Black Death. One-third of Europe was killed. Ring around the rosie describes the symptoms of the disease: marks on the body. Pockets full of posie: People carried flowers around to try to mask the stench of rotting corpses. Ashes, ashes: the bodies were often burnt to try to curb the spread of the disease. And We all fall DOWN! is a reference to dying. Children sang it then, and children still sing it now.

Here's another nursery rhyme:

Oh the grand old Duke of York

He had five thousand men

He marched them all straight up a hill

And marched them down again

And when you're up, you're up

And when you're down, you're down

And when you're only half-way up

You're neither up nor down!

This nursery rhyme was originally sung by British troops to commemorate the stupidity of the Duke of York. York was a general during Wellington's Penninsular Campaign. During a battle he became so flustered that he ordered his troops to march to the top of a nearby hill, then back down, having absolutely no impact of the battle. A classic example of costly military indecisivness. And children still say it today.

My point (and I do have one) is that acts of stupidity and mass suffering have a way of being remembered in nursery rhymes, songs, and phrases long after the events that inspired the phrase have been forgotten. And Y2K is a very stupid mistake with the potential for mass suffering. Two hundred years from now, y2k may or may not be remembered by the historians; but I hope to God that it is not remembered by the children.

-- John Ainsworth (ainsje@cstone.net), October 13, 1999

Answers

Peter de Jager Made this wager: "No big problems - nothing major" But should the grids All hit the skids He keeps North's number On his pager

-- Fiver2000 (Fiver2000@yahoo.com), October 13, 1999.

John, I disagree with your statement: I sincerly hope that the children DO remember it. Just like I hope that We all remember the holocaust. The children don't know what dire meaning is behind it; they just sing it. The effect upon the adults that here it is what matters IMHO.

-- Brent James Bushardt (brentj@webt.com), October 13, 1999.