Skating by…

Eeeny-meeney

Dipsey-teeney

Hit-em-a'lick, and Johnny Peeney

Time, time,

Melago Time!

Ah - eighteen hundred and ninety-nine!

My grandmother, Mercedes Cafiero, learned this jumprope rhyme from her friend Annie, a little Black girl who lived down Cervantes Street in Pensacola around 1910. Merce and Annie were good friends back then, even though interracial friendships were unusual for the time. Neighborhood kids called Merce names for being friends with Annie, and for being Catholic, and for being the daughter of a man with a thick Italian accent. The teasing intensified, and the kids started throwing rocks at her and leaving bruises as she walked to school. She came home one day, her face red from crying and told her father, Giovanni. The next day, he brought her a pair of roller skates that she was able to attach to her shoes and tighten with a key! She wore the key around her neck on a shoelace, and raced proudly past those kids, who later found better things to do.