| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Eileen |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 10:29:08 AM
Hi Everybody,
As I was sitting leafing through my new Mary Jane Book last night I was struck by a memory that I just had to share with all of you and get your memories of this also.
I grew up in the 50s and out door games were our main entertainment.
One neighbrhood favorite that we played until our parents made us come in and go to bed was "Hide and Seek." We played it all over the neighborhood for one complete block meaning that the rules said you could hide anywhere in the front or backyard of the houses facing eachother across the street anywhere along the entire block. The person who was "it"  had to count to twenty and then shout "Ready or not Here I come" He or she had to go all over the neighborhood looking for those of us who had hidden. After the warning was shouted out nobody could move unless it was to run from hiding to the porch that was designated as Safe. If you were tagged by the one who was "IT" you were "OUT" and became "IT" for the next round and the previous "IT" would call out " OLLIE OLLIE OXEN FREE" At least that was what we thought you were supposed to call out. It never made any sense to me so I asked my husband what his memories of this game were and he said that they always called out "Allie Allie Auction Free." A few years ago I was having a discussion with a friend about this odd phrase and she told me that she was taught that it was "All Ye ,All Ye , All Come Free" which meant that anyone not found was free to come in to the base without becoming "IT"
It tickled me so much and I laughed for so long about this that tears were running down my cheeks.
Anybody else have one of these memories lurking around?
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| WisGal35 |
Posted - Aug 23 2005 : 4:34:14 PM
Slug Bug instead of Punch Puggy, padiddle instead of bdida. LOL |
| Julia |
Posted - Aug 23 2005 : 4:09:20 PM
We did the one headlight game only we called out "padiddle". Where do we get such names?
"The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach is joy. Take joy!" Fr.Giovanni |
| The Handmaiden |
Posted - Aug 21 2005 : 7:02:14 PM
Good one, Cat! and how 'bout the one where you'd punch the person you were with and yelled "PUNCH BUGGY" when you saw a volkswagon bug. another favorite - in high school, when you saw a car with only one headlight you said,"Bdida" and your date was suppose to kiss you. i have NO idea where this came from. I'm thinkin' some guys musta made it up. and don't forget yellin' "SHOTGUN" to ride up front on the passenger side.
"Faith shall finish all that Hope begins."
joan walsh anglund |
| CityCat |
Posted - Aug 21 2005 : 2:06:20 PM
Hey everyone, remember this one?
Circle, circle
dot, dot!
Now I have my cootie shot!
(this was back when boys were icky)
Cat |
| WisGal35 |
Posted - Aug 20 2005 : 3:45:46 PM
SeeSee my playmate,
Come out and play with me,
And share your dollies three,
Climb up my apple tree,
Slide down my rainbow (rainbarrel)
In through the cellar door,
And we'll be jolly friends,
Forever more!
Then...
So sorry playmate,
I can not play with you
My dollies have the flu
Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, boo-hoo
Can't slide the rainbow,
Down to your cellar door
But we'll still be jolly friends
Forever More 1-2-3-4 :) |
| The Handmaiden |
Posted - Aug 20 2005 : 1:25:31 PM
What a fun walk down memory lane this was!!! Eileen, i loved those coke can tap shoes...how 'bout playing cards clothespinned to the spokes of your bike...was that a wonderful sound or what???... besides being seriously cool!! when we played Hide & Seek we said "ollie, ollie, and what sounded like "in the front seat"...had no idea what it meant. My daughter and i were sitting in the living room the other night and heard the music of an ice cream truck and almost knocked each other over trying to get out the door...we missed him! obviously, he didn't know you have to drive realll slow. I'm afraid to know what a push-up costs these days.
How blessed we all are!!!
"Faith shall finish all that Hope begins."
joan walsh anglund |
| Julia |
Posted - Aug 20 2005 : 11:58:38 AM
Did anyone ever play Statue? One person would swing each person, let go and they would stay still as they landed. After each person was swung, the "Swinger" would walk around seeing if anyone moved. You would try to move without the "SWinger" seeing you. If you were caught you became the "Swinger".
"The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach is joy. Take joy!" Fr.Giovanni |
| CityCat |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 10:12:47 PM
Kids games and songs aren't all that different in Japan too. I was born in Canada, but I did go to Japanese school, and we learned games and songs. Everyone knows Rock, Paper, Scissors, right? In Japanese, instead of "One, two, three" for some reason it's "Jan, ken, pon!" They are nonsense words. And some kids songs I thought were purely Japanese tunes, my co-worker knew it! With English words, but it was the same song. I was stunned. Not that I can remember the song or anything.... For hide and seek, the person doesn't count, but instead calls out, "Can I come find you now?" and if you're not ready you respond "No, not yet!" and when you no longer get a response, you can start searching. There are also games similar to Red Light, Green Light and Red Rover.
Cat |
| realme52 |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 7:20:29 PM
I grew up in the 50's also. The "big" difference is: I grew up in Germany. Reading through these posts, I am in tears. Why? Because I realized that the world of children is ONE World! We played exactly the same games that you all describe. Of cause, our words were German, but they also served the same purpose within the game and we all had our own, "local" versions created from misunderstanding and from trying to make some sense of it. The hide and seek, skipping rope, Red Rover...all of them.
One of my favorite ones was were one child (usually a girl, cause rarely did we have boys and girls games) sat in the grass, the others would form a circle around her and then sing something like: parsley and ...(? serveral herbs) are growing in my garden, ...(name of the center girl) is the bride, can't wait much longer...( continues..)
During my training to become a nurse midwife I discovered that the herbs mentioned in that rhyme were in the olden times used to make uterine infusion to cause abortions! Can you imagine? Of cause, as kids of maybe 5 or 6 years, we had no idea.
From this hour on I ordain myself loss'd of limits and immaginary lines. Walt Whitman |
| Julia |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 7:18:54 PM
How about Red light, Green light? I remember all these and the first time I was taken snipe hunting. Last Sunday at our church picnic we had 20+ people,kids and adults playing Red Rover. It was great fun!
"The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach is joy. Take joy!" Fr.Giovanni |
| Morning_Dew |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 7:12:16 PM
wow the mwmories... we played blind mans bluffwere one person puts on a blind fold and tries to find the others by the sound of thier voice.and double dutch with the jump ropes i loved that. thnanks for the smile from all the memories i hadn't thought of in yrs.
every gardener should make time for the humming BIRDS and honey BEES, stop and smell the flowers. |
| Eileen |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 5:48:07 PM
Hop Scotch anybody? Or how about stomping your foot in the middle of a pop can and walking around clomping clomping clomping. Kind of like tap shoes only sillier!
Walk with a wiggle
walk with a jiggle
walk with a little dog
that bends in the middle!
pease porriage hot
pease porriage cold
pease porriage in the pot
nine days old
some like it hot
some like it cold
some like it in the pot
nine days old.
Oh for the hot summer fun days of childhood.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| CityCat |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 4:14:54 PM
Well, I'm not sure that the Susie Steamboat one is appropriate to share here... (it's rather naughty!)
SeeSee my playmate,
Come out and play with me,
And share your dollies three,
Climb up my apple tree,
Slide down my rainbow (rainbarrel)
In through the cellar door,
And we'll be jolly friends,
Forever more!
Miss Sue,
Miss Sue,
Miss Sue from Alabama,
sitting in her rocker,
eating Betty Crocker,
Watching the clock go
tick, tock, tick-tock, shawallawalla
tick, tock, tick-tock, shawallawalla
A B C D E F G
wash those spots right off of me!
Moonshine, moonshine, double freeze! (then the first person to blink loses) |
| WisGal35 |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 2:56:22 PM
Kick the Can was a biggie in my neighborhood in Chicago 'burbs. Freeze Tag (like tag, but when you got caught, you had to freeze like a statue). Something called "Spud," kind of like tag where the person who was it would throw a rubber ball in the air, everyone would run, then the ball was the tagging mechanism. Red Rover was lots of fun...'til it got banned from the school playground when someone 'came over' and broke another kid's arm. We played Ditch and Flashlight Tag, too, but I had forgotten all about it.
Plus one neighbor with kids had a wonderful blacktop driveway, and we would spend hours with chalk drawing cities, villages and farms for the matchbox cars to drive down. The dad would get home from work, and we'd make him park on the street, then pray for no rain.
We'd pretend our bikes were horses... and a nearby duckpond with a bridge to an island was the source of lots of 'pretend' castaway games.
And when new houses were being built, we used to love to climb around in the framing (lucky none of us were hurt!). Years later it was a great sales tactic for us kids selling cookies and candy for various activities.
Re-staging our favorite movies was also a favorite, ya know, singing into hairbrushes. It was the 70s, so "Grease" was the word.
I almost feel bad that my 3-yr-old son will miss out on this kind of neighborhood fun in the country...but I also know things aren't the same in suburbia, and I'd be unlikely to let him run wild until after dark. |
| mdotterer |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 12:22:20 PM
Oh gosh! I always thought it was "Allie, Allie outs in free" meaning that anyone still "out" could come home free! I always had to call people in 'cause I could never find them, but I was pretty good at getting home free - I think I was pretty sneaky! And, tetherball! That was a blast! I don't why I was so good at that, cause I was a tiny little thing - but I guess I could jump pretty good. And, all those other games! I really feel sorry for kids these days. They never get to play outside with a bunch of other kids and just run all over like we did. Even when my kids were little, during the 80's and 90's, I felt it was too dangerous for them to be outside unsupervised. I think it's even worse now. Do you ladies think that society will ever get back to being innocent, again?
Marlene |
| Clare |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 10:35:51 AM
Eileen, I remember that one, but the ones mentioned previously are new to me. I think I'd like to learn them!! Care to share the whole verses? 
**** Love is the great work - though every heart is first an apprentice. - Hafiz
Set a high value on spontaneous kindness. - Samuel Johnson****
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| Eileen |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 10:05:30 AM
And then there is "Pease Porriage hot , pease porriage cold, pease porriage in the pot nine days old...."
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| Kim |
Posted - Aug 19 2005 : 07:53:50 AM
Oh my gosh. I totally forgat about these!!!! What great memories!
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
| CityCat |
Posted - Aug 18 2005 : 7:10:12 PM
What about hand clapping games? SeeSee my playmate, (clap, clap) come out and play with me... Miss Susie had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell... Miss Sue, Miss Sue, Miss Sue from Alabama, Sittin' in a rocker, Eatin' Betty Crocker, watching the clock go tick, tock, tick-tock shawallawalla...
I'm sure there are others, but those are the only ones I remember.
What about foot hockey? Played a lot of that when I was little.
Cat |
| Kim |
Posted - Jun 20 2005 : 4:17:01 PM
Oh, gosh! I forgot about that game!
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Jun 15 2005 : 11:19:53 PM
We called that same thing chinese jumprope...isn't that funny? We played hopscotch alot too. Bullrush sounds alot like what we called Red Rover.
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
| bubblesnz |
Posted - Jun 15 2005 : 11:08:20 PM
We played American skipping for hours. It was with elastic, two friends had the elastic around their ankles or legs, depending how many levels you were up too, and you had to do different moves and jumps in the middle of the elastic. You could also use 2 chairs, if no friends around.
Have never found out why it was called American skipping, but that was what we played in New Zealand. Also hopscotch and bullrush. That is where 1 person stands in the middle of the field and you have to get past them to other side. Everyone runs at once. |
| PJJ |
Posted - Jun 15 2005 : 9:27:40 PM
My kids are playing lots of flashlight tag since we moved. And they're outside roaming in the little neighborhood until 10 p.m. some nights! It's great they can do that here, although I still keep a close eye on them.
They still play many of the games mentioned here. And both *love* jacks!
Paula J.
Paula J., with Ty, Cara, Brody, Blue, and Fidget |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Jun 15 2005 : 7:23:16 PM
Cinderella, dressed in yella
Went downtown to meet her fella.....
I don't think we have mentioned jumping rope have we? Remember double dutch? We spent a lot of time jumping rope on our street and I loved running in with another girl and the two of us jumping at once.
jpbluesky
Heartland girl |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - Jun 08 2005 : 8:24:01 PM
KJAMES, your phrase "time to take a bath and go to bed" was exactly what my mom said every night! It was always after dark when I came in, very dirty and sweaty, with new mosquito bites. It felt so good to get into the warm water and then get PJ's on. Then it was oreos and milk and off to bed. The house and the bed felt so secure and comfy. Oh, to be a little girl again for just one night.
jpbluesky
The sun is but a morning star.
Last sentence from "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau |
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