Playground games anyone?
So there we were, standing in the market, miming throwing tennis balls against a wall and trying to remember the rhyme that went with it. Anyone watching us would have thought we had gone completely bonkers! (as opposed to just slightly bonkers – as they already know we are)
Hopscotch grid from Wiki Commons - by Paul Farmer
All this began with a song I’d heard on the car radio on the way in, it wasn’t one of those ‘game rhymes’ but it had triggered off one of in my mind – or rather a snatch of it and I asked Anthea if she knew what the rest of it was.
It wasn’t long before we were reminiscing about other playground games from our (long ago) youth. Unlike hopscotch, which is ‘institutionalised’ in primary schools by having neat grids painted on the playgrounds, ( where we’d had to find a stone that could scratched a line, or a nub of chalk) I suspect that many playground games that we played may have died out.
How about this one? Do you remember ‘ The big ship sails through the alley alley oo, the alley alley oo, the alley alley oo, on the first day of September ‘ ? Played by a chain of children, one with her hand pressed up against a wall, the child at other end of the chain leads under the arm against the wall, then under the next pair, and so on until the whole group is knotted up, then to the continuing refrain, they un-sew themselves. (or all fall over – depending on where you came from) Having looked it up since, I find it is thought to be one of the last survivors of the ancient ‘thread-the-needle’ dance games. I wonder if it still surviving?
Clapping games were also popular in our small rural primary school. The clapping game ‘Have you ever, ever, ever, in your long legged life seen a long legged sailor with a long legged wife?’ was the rhyme I was trying to remember, as we also played it as a ball game, juggling a pair of tennis balls, bouncing them off the wall and doing a ‘drop, spin, catch’ on every ‘long legged life’ part.
And I can’t go without mentioning skipping games – particularly the ‘long rope’ games requiring two ‘turners’, one at either end – and usually a queue of children ready to jump in at their turn. ‘Keep the kettle boiling, never let it stop’ – w here you must jump into the rope at ‘keep’ and out of the rope at ‘stop’ edging your way forward on the skips so that the next person has room to jump in. Anyone missing the beat takes the rope end. Or ‘Salt, Vinegar, Mustard, PEPPER’ – where the first 3 words have leisurely two jump skips and at ‘pepper’ the rope is spun really fast. When you trip up you take the rope end and the turner joins the skipping.
You know, we really did ‘make our own fun’ back then. A long length of heavy rope, a few tennis balls or even just a wall and we could fill every playtime with fun.
What games do you remember?
How many do you know of that are still being played by the primary age children of today?
Do share – you know I love to hear from you all!
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Oh you so tempt me to reply.
My young years were spent in Lithuania and Poland . I Remember the snail shaped hopscotch and then the pattern you show was played with a tennis ball. It had to be picked up, usually barefooted, and thrown to a partner in another hopscotch along side who had to catch it and hop to the next square. Then back to you again and so forth. It was very engrossing and I taught it to my own children.
The ball games were the same, played against the very tall outside walls of my next school in Belgium. Also a running game we all adored in which a caught girl joined hands with the chaser and the next caught joined on also until a long line of little girls swirled across the play grass. This was eventually stopped as too dangerous as children fell over all
the time.
Skipping games were always solo, lots of the rhymes had points at which you had to pass the rope under your feet twice before coming down to the ground again.
No clapping games that I knew of. All of this was nearly 50 years ago.
Not the same but a Ukrainian exchange student who lived with us for A semester while at Oregon State University was delighted to find that the same paper folding games were known to him as to us– not Origami but the ones children play: paper hat and boat, drinking cup, fortune teller and so on.
Oh, I didn’t make it clear that the ball had to be scooped up by foot and fielded and thrown back in the same way…
Hi Erika,
Wow some interesting games in your childhood. How on earth do you scoop up the ball and throw it to the other hopscotch grid with your foot – bare or not?
I remember the long string of children playing tag – but can’t remember what we called it? Anyone out there know???
I’ve also just remembered playing ‘stuck in the mud’ where if you were tagged you had to stand still with both arms out until someone else (still running free) touched your hand – upon which you were released to run again…
Ooo the memories!
Thanks for sharing
“See see my playmate…come out and play with me…”
Clap along if you remember this one!
Oh Liv!
I can’t clap along — I don’t know this at all!!
Perhaps it’s a US clapping game rhyme ? …. do share the rest!
Ann
This has no connection to the subject at all but is too good not to share. It came back to mind as I thought of this very sweet young man. After he moved into a college dorm he arrived on our doorstep almost shaking and gasped ” I’m I’ll. I’m really Ill ” I calmed him down and got from him ( his English wasn’t wildly good) ” This is terrible. We don’t have it in the USSR any more. The student health service just sent me to the dorm and told me to stay in bed for a couple of days. I have to telephone home!”
Have you guessed? He had chicken pox…he had looked up POX and found small pox! Anyway we kept him with us for 4 days and soon he could laugh at himself, spots and all.
Poor guy – he must have been convinced he was going to die :0
Fairly easy, to answer your question, you jump with the ball firmly clutched between your feet and give it a shove in the right direction. Mind you I couldn’t do it now to save my life. We drew the two sets of squares larger than I ever saw them in England.
Ah! I can see it now! (silly me I was thinking of one foot!!) Energetic game! Just what the youngsters need nowadays!! Thanks for sharing
No playground games stand out for me I’m afraid, but I do vividly remember a nonsense rhyme we used to chant, it went….
Inna Minna Macka Racka
Rare Rye Dominacka
Chicka Bocka Lollypoppa
Rom Pom Push
With emphasis on the “Push” to choose the person who was going to be “it”
Good to see that the education wasn’t wasted, eh!
Hi Krissi,
Well, I certainly never heard that choosing rhyme! Eeny meeny miny mo.. and one potato, two potato, etc I do remember.
Thanks for bringing up another whole aspect of playground games!
it’s funny how similar playground games can be, even when cultures are so different! Korea, even before it was as modernized/Westernized as it has become now, had its counterpart of jumprope (though they called it rubber-string-rope for some reason:P) and the jumprope rhyme of “Little bear, little bear, turn around, little bear, little bear, touch the ground…” existed in our country for years as “Little kid, little kid, turn around…” ^-^
Hi Esther!
Yeah ! Though we sang ‘Teddy bear Teddy Bear…’ I remember doing that with my children and those I taught at playgroup (without the skipping rope though) It is not one I recalled it from my own childhood and I can’t remember where I learnt it.
Did it have the same ‘tune’ when sung in Korea?
Thanks for sharing – brings another flood of memories !!
Ann