From a 1950 recording of the Santa Monica Diamond Jubilee, a landmark MWSD event.  Many callers are heard to chant "hey Ma, hey Pa, chaw tobacco and spit it on the wall".  As the caller shouted "hey Ma", dancers responded by yelling "hey Ma".  The same with "hey Pa".  It was used after the call Right & Left Grand and before Promenade.

BW


On 7/21/2017 12:41 PM, Robert Livingston rlivngstn@yahoo.com [trad-dance-callers] wrote:
 
As with Thar (a back up star).

Bob Livingston


From: "Ridge Kennedy srk3nn3dy@gmail.com [trad-dance-callers]"
To: Traditional American Dance Callers List
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2017 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: [trad-dance-callers] "taw" (was Re: History of "Walk Around")

 
A Taw-dry response. Maybe it's just that callers were using "Paw" and "Ma" and "mother in law" and picked a rhyming syllable and that was all there was to it.  Something that occurred in the big square dance boom years -- likely untraceable to first use, but sort of a folk art development.  Just thinking.  Ridge