"RING AROUND THE ROSIE, a pocket full of posies..."

some people believe....It refers to the Great Plague of London in 1665 of the Black Death of the 14th century. (We repeated this in Bathroom Reader 2.) "Ring around the rosie" is the red rash that afflicted plague victims, posies are the herbs carried to ward off infection. "All fall down," of course, is what happens when the plague strikes.

actually...As intriguing as this sounds, most experts now discount it. The oldest known printed version of the rhyme is from 1790, more than 100 years after its supposed origin--and it's American, not English. One American expert, Philip Hiscock, suggests that it may have been invented as a way to avoid the ban on dancing enforced by some Protestant sects in England and America.

~Uncle John's All Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader, Volume 13, by the Bathroom Readers' Institute