View source for Annotation:Walk Your Chalk

{{TuneAnnotation
|f_annotation='''WALK YOUR CHALK'''.  American, Reel (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The reel "Walk the Chalk" was printed in George H. Coes '''Coes Album of Jigs and Reels''' (1876), which contained a large number of tunes played by blackface minstrels.  In the mid-19th century "Walk your chalk" originally referred to a procedure consisting in making a person walk on a straight line drawn with chalk in order to establish whether he or she is inebriated. However, it soon came to mean to "go away" or "to be off"--a synonym for depart, similar to 'make tracks' or 'make yourself scarce'.  
|f_printed_sources=George H. Coes ('''Coes Album of Jigs and Reels, something new, for professional and amateur violinists, leaders of orchestras, quadrille bands, and clog, reel and jig dancers; consisting of a Grand Collection of entirely New and Original Clog-Hornpipes, Reels, jigs, Scotch Reels, Irish Reels and Jigs, Waltzes, Walk-Arounds, etc.'''), 1876; p. 47.
}}