Playground games

We used to skip like oldgoat with a girl either end of a long rope, but everyone took it in turns to skip in then out. We used to skip to:

The big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh
The ally-ally-oh, the ally-ally-oh
Oh, the big ship sails on the ally-ally-oh
On the last day of September.

The captain said it will never, never do
Never, never do, never, never do
The captain said it will never, never do
On the last day of September.

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
The bottom of the sea, the bottom of the sea
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea
On the last day of September.

and

All in together girls
never mind the weather girls
when I call your birthday
please jump OUT
January, February... etc

and

My mother said that I never could
Play with the gipsies in the wood
If I did she would say
You naughty girl to disobey.

(apologies, politically incorrect nowadays, but that is what we skipped to in the 1950s.)

Lots of handstands, two balls against the wall or juggling and the spinning game in NonnaW's post and cat's cradles

And in the winter sliding on the frozen puddles in the playground (wouldn't be allowed nowadays, health and safety!)

We used to play Please Mr Neptune, which went like this:

One person was Mr Neptune, who stood with his (or her, usually!) back to all the other players, standing in a line about 12 feet behind him. They would all chant "Please Mr Neptune, may we cross your golden water", to which Mr Neptune would reply, e.g. "only if you are wearing something green". Then all the players would try to cross the space and reach Mr Neptune before he turned round. When he turned round suddenly everyone had to freeze in position. Anyone caught still moving was out. He would then ask the remaining ones to prove they were wearing green. Anyone who wasn't, was out. The others would then continue from their position as Mr Neptune made another stipulation. And so it went on until only one was left, who became Mr Neptune for the next game.

Then there was Poor Jenny is a Weeping - all in a circle with one girl in the middle, apparently weeping. The chanters would ask her to "stand up and choose your loved one". She would pick someone from the circle, but I can't honestly remember what happened next. Does anyone else know?

We used to play hopscotch, French skipping, two balls, Grandfather's footsteps. Street cricket with as many friends as we could collect.

There was a game they played at my junior school where everybody held hands in a long line then one end started spinning round so everyone was running in a circle and the end person was almost flying round
D. That was usually me as I was very small for my age. I hated it but was so shy and scared of the others I couldn't refuse! Wouldn't be allowed now thank goodness

Wow, so many memories. It seems that the children don't play those games anymore but I really enjoyed on our breaks and after school. Occasionally you would get grazed knees but these days everyone seems too scared to let children play and wrap them up in cotton wool for fear someone will get hurt

Skipping games were popular in the playground and in the street. A length of clothes line would be secreted in a school bag and one at each end 'cawed' the rope while the others jumped. I was not very good at that game!

Not quite a Glesca Keelie - but Ayrshire is close enough and we did play peevers, sometimes with a boot polish tin filled with stones or with a piece of marble that had broken off my granny's marble slab. As not many people around us had cars, it was quite safe to draw the 'beds' on our road. We also played ball beds which involved bouncing a ball round the 'beds'.

grannyqueenie....in Edinburgh the game was called peeverie beds and we used an old tin or a smooth pebble. I remember skipping with double ropes and being 'called in' by the girls turning or 'cau'in' the rope to the words;

'on the hill there lives a maiden,
who she is we do not know
All she wants is gold and silver
All she wants is a nice, young man
So call in my (insert next skipper's name)

Another rhyme I remember must have predated my childhood given the names of the film stars!

'One, two, three o'leerie
I saw Wallace Beery(?)
Sitting on his bumbaleerie
Kissing Shirley Temple!'

Oh, yes marpau, we sometimes used one of my dad's pipe tobacco tins for the peever - very similar size to a shoe polish tin, with a tight fitting lid. Same kind of chalked area as you too, happy memories!

Does anybody remember
I wrote a letter to my love
And on the way to post it
I dropped it
somebody must have picked it up and put in their pocket

(Not sure that I've got it exactly right)

Everyone would sit in the circle
One girl would go round the back of the circle and drop the letter behind somebody. (Can't then remember what happened next)

We moved house a few times. Some of the primary schools I went to still had boys and girls entrances and separate playgrounds. I often wondered what the boys got up to. British bulldog was one of their games. Any guys on here played that?

One of our skipping rhymes went like this:
Nelson lost one arm at the battle of Waterloo (arm behind back)
Nelson lost one eye at the battle of Waterloo (close one eye)
Nelson lost one leg etc (hop)
Then the other arm and eye. He never lost both legs!!!
You'd usually be out long before he got to the last remaining limb...

Grannyqueenie I grew up in Arbroath playing peevers we used a shoe polish tin full of gravel the shape of the board was square with a semi circle at the top

We put a small ball in a nylon stocking and then would stand back to the wall and hit the ball against the wall
First right then left of body
Then lift each leg in turn and hit the wall.
At the same time singing a rhyme (but can't remember it!)
The rhyme and the ball hitting wall gets faster and faster

Ooh, lots of memories flooding back, remember all these things!

We have no GDs only GSs and many of these games in my day were girly games so I just wonder if the children of today still play these sorts of games or is it all screens nowadays?

Fist not first! Grr!

Chasey not chaste!! Read on for proof!

I'm guessing 'dibbing' was choosing who was 'it' (rather than 'he') in chaste games? We used dips. Here are a few we employed:
Dip dip dip
My blue ship
Sails on the water
Like a cup and saucer
Dip dip dip
You are not 'it' (last one was therefore 'it')

Lady, baby, gypsy, queen, elephant, monkey, tangerine!

One potato, two potato, three potato, four
Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more!
This was done going round tapping everyone's fists held out in front. If your first was 'more' you had to remove it from the round till the last fist left was 'it'. The chanter had to include their own fists too.

One of the boys, Nicholas, was hugely popular. He played kiss chase with a hareem of girls and only kissed the last one to be caught! He definitely engineered the result too! I think this game taught me (at about 7 or 8 years old) that it wasn't necessarily the prettiest girls who were liked. He usually left me till last and I was by no means the prettiest. A great confidence boost for someone with two pretty sisters!

Dabs, circle games, eg: 'The Farmer Wants A Wife', pass ball, plus most of the above mentioned. Also there was lots of 'dibbing'.

Kiss chase! Girls chasing the boys more often than the other way round. Happy days.....

Skipping ( callings in and callings out) had to stand at side of rope until some called you in and someon to come out
Two balls up the wall
Gobs same as jacks but you had little coloured cubes

In Glasgow where I grew up hopscotch was called "peever", the peever being the thing we kicked from space to space. I seem to remember it was a tin (like an elastoplast tin) weighted down in some way. Any other Glesca Keelies out there who remember playing it that way?

Skipping with a really long length of rope, one girl at either end turning the rope and as many people as possible skipping. Everyone would chant
"All in together girls
This fine weather girls.
When I call your birthday
You are out."
Then when your birthday month came up you would have to try to run out without getting caught up in the rope.
Boys never joined in skipping games at our school.

Two balls, skipping and jacks - I was really good at jacks!

Hopscotch, Luckyducky?
Skipping, marbles, the above hopscotch, oranges and lemons.