Page 110 - From the Outhouse 4 -21

F R O M T H E O U T H O U S E T O T H E L I T T L E R E D S C H O O L H O U S E : | 110

African-American Children’s Song

Here we go zoodio, zoodio, zoodio

Here we go zoodio all night long
Now struttin’ Mr. Jesse, Jesse, Jesse
Struttin’ down the alley all night long

Now struttin’ Miss Sally, Sally, Sally
Struttin’ down the alley all night long
Jump back Sally, Sally, Sally
Jump back Sally all night long

On May 16, 1943, Patricia Rae Merritt was born to Charles Haywood Merritt, Sr. and Julia Rae Bryant Merritt in Sanford, Florida.

That’s me! I had my DNA analyzed and discovered that my Ethnicity Estimate is 51% Nigeria; 15% Cameroon, Congo, and Bantu
People; 14% Mali; and 7% Ireland and Scotland.

I remember attending Ms. Maud Collins’s Nursery School when I was 4 years of age. It was on the west side of Sanford in an area

called Goldsboro. My mother taught at Goldsboro Elementary School, which made it very convenient for her to drop me off at the

nursery school on her way to work.

At Ms. Maud’s, the children participated in ring plays outside every day after lunch. I loved the ring plays because I could dance, sing,

and act all at the same time. I think this was one of the things that inspired and tuned me for musical theater and the performing arts.
The arts remained my passion from elementary school through college and beyond. My passion continued to grow and ultimately led

to the formation of Tajiri Arts, an after-school, non-profit organization that I founded and developed.