I was about 4 or 5 years old. I was in Sunday School class with about 10 guys all around my age. One of the guys was named Ricky. Ricky’s mom taught our class. Occasionally we would sing. One song we would sing was Jesus Loves the Little Children. The lyrics were,
Jesus loves the little child-ren
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world
One Sunday when we were singing this, Ricky decided to tag the end of the song with the phrase,
And all the girls
Repeating the melody of the last line.
It drove his mom crazy. We sang it again and Ricky repeated his line at the end. He was getting the eye from his mom. We all knew he was in for it. I don’t know how many times we sang it with him adding his line. When he finally did stop, you could hear the tag melody being softly hummed. By this time, it could have been any or all of us humming. By then, it was how we knew the song.
I don’t know if Ricky ever sang that tag again. I don’t remember if we continued to sing Jesus Loves the Little Children during Sunday School. But every time I hear the song, I can hear Ricky singing,
And all the girls