Monday Memories - Jump Rope, Hopscotch, Rotten Egg, and the Like

thank you google images

Recently our school district had another shooting threat.  Our town went through its own school shooting in 1996 and every now and then we get warnings.  Sadly, it’s today’s new normal.  On this last call the middle school decided to keep all the kids indoors for the day.   I would think the kids had a better chance at not being hit on a playground running to and fro then in a crowded hall or lunchroom of wall to wall kids, but it’s a tough call.  No matter what an administrator decides it will be second-guessed if someone is hurt. 

School playgrounds and playground rules are definitely not what they used to be and that is a sad reflection on us. 

I have great memories of playground games.  Here are ten of my childhood favorites:

·         tag (in many forms – regular, freeze, TV, etc.)

·         pom-pom-pull-away

·         baseball (work up)

·         jump rope

·         hopscotch

·         rollerskating

·         blister bars

·         merry-go-round

·         Helen Keller

·         Rotten Egg

I imagine every school had versions of Helen Keller and Rotten Egg:

We played Helen Keller in a small foyer.  “Helen Keller” put a coat over her head (if she couldn’t be trusted to keep her eyes closed) and was twirled around while everyone counted to ten.  Then she groped her way around the little room until she caught someone and felt who she was.  If she guessed correctly Helen Keller joined the game and the one that was caught became the new Helen Keller.   (A game like that would never fly today what with political correctness and students touching each other.  The real Helen Keller was a favorite heroine for many of us and we thought we were honoring her to play a game in her name.) 

We played Rotten Egg on the big cement steps.   Eight or ten of us sat quietly thinking of a color.  Whoever was “it” called out a color (any color) and then one by one rapped her knuckles on our heads.  If the color was the color we’d chosen we chirped, “peep, peep, peep.”  “It” and a friend swung us back and forth between their arms.  If we smiled or laughed everyone chimed “Ewwwww, you’re a rotten egg” and we were out.  If you didn’t smile or laugh you went into the good egg pile.  The game continued until there were no more rotten eggs.   The last (or first depending on the day) good egg got to be “it” the next game.

Two of the jump rope rhymes we used were:

Spanish Dancer touch the ground

Spanish Dancer turn around

Spanish Dancer do the high kick

Spanish Dancer do the splits

Spanish Dancer go upstairs

Spanish Dancer say your prayers

Spanish Dancer turn around

Spanish Dancer get out of town

Cinderella dressed in yella

Went upstairs to kiss her fella

Made a mistake and kissed a snake

How many doctors will it take

1…2…3…

We also sang these nonsensical songs:

So-and-so stole a cookie from the cookie jar.

(So-and-so would say) “Who me?”

(Everyone would reply) “Yes you.”

(So-and-so would say) “Couldn’t be.”

(Everyone would respond) Then who?”

(Then so-and-so would call out another name and the rhyme would start again.)

Miss Lucy had a baby

She named him tiny Tim

She put him in the bathtub

To see if he could swim

He drank up all the water

He ate up all the soap

He tried to eat the bathtub          

But it wouldn’t go down his throat

(I hated it when kids taunted with this next song.  It was embarrassing.)

Two little lovers sitting in a tree

K-i-s-s-i-n-g

First comes love

Second comes marriage

Third comes (names two people) pushing a baby carriage

(I guess I shouldn’t have disliked that jingle.  It did teach us the proper order of things:  love, marriage, and then children which is much better than how some play today:  children, marriage, and maybe love thrown in there somewhere.  Maybe it had its purpose afterall.)

How about you?  What did you do on the playground?  What were your jump rope rhymes?  What games do your kids play on the playground now?