I’ve lately had occasion…
I’ve lately had occasion to recall a few more
fancies than these. Do you remember “Elevators”?
After picking up the jacks and catching the ball,
we’d throw the jacks up in the air as well as the
ball, catching the jacks in the other hand and
catching the ball in the throwing hand.
How about “Around the World”? After picking up
the jacks, we’d have to circle the bouncing ball
with the throwing hand before catching the ball.
As we got older, we played more challenging
fancies like “Black Widow.” That was onesies to
tensies without missing. If you missed, you had
to start from the beginning. We also played a
longer version (onesies to tensies and back again)
which we called “Blue Widow.” Don’t ask me why
this wasn’t “Black Widow;” it