Oh my gosh! I just found this website and I was looking for this particular game. We used to play it sitting crossed legged in a circle as well clapping and snapping but we would say “Concentration concentration navigation, keeping rythym keeping rythym to the beat, ok, lets play and we would choose a topic….
Just found this site and noticed that most of the posts were from Brooklyn and the Bronx. I grew up on Staten Island in the ’60’s and early 70’s in the Stapleton Houses, and spent many days playing skully in the park. We had skully boards already painted on the park grounds by the housing management.Bright yellow! In reading the postings I noticed the names of other games we used to play:Hot peas and butter, red light-green light, etc. Brought back some good memories. One game I haven’t seen was called black tar, or cau cau, I think. I was only about 8 at the time. Anyway, thanks for a great site.
What a fabulous site. I was just talking to a couple of friends about A my name is Alice and my husband’s name is Al etc. A friend from the next generation (she’s almost 42 so about 16 years younger than me) said she left out the husband. She said A my name is Alice, I come from America, etc.
forgot to add that we didn’t flick the caps with our fingers, but slid them along the tar with our index finger…not fair to cross the line, and a max of six inches displacement was allowed…By the way..ballentine beer bottlecaps wer the best…the beer of the Phillies !
I grew up in northeast phila…in the ’60s we used to melt down solder and fill the bottlecaps to get some really deadly impact into the game. since the twistoff cap didn’t exist, the trick was to get the cap off the bottle without damaging the sides..this let you get the maximum amount of solder into the cap. We ended up making a rule (after some knock down and drag out fist fights) that the solder couldn’t crown over the top of the cap…it had to be flush…to try to equalize the game. My old man was an electrician, though, and the otherkids didn’t know that I was doping the caps with mercury. I would cast the lead around the mercury and my bombers were the B52’s of the block…
I grew up in Miami in the 80’s. I’m the only person I know who remembers this one: When Susie was a baby, a baby, a baby When Susie was a baby, she used to go like this: [Pretend to suck thumb and say Waa! Waa!] When Susie was a schoolgirl, a schoolgirl, a schoolgirl When Susie was a schoolgirl, she used to go like this: [???] I can’t remember what she did, but the verses took her through teenager, mother, grandmother, angel, mummy, skeleton, etc. I know the for the “mother” you’d scold your finger at the other girl, and the “skeleton” would place her arms over her chest. Anyone else remember? i know it differently, miss susie was a baby, a baby, a baby, miss susie was a baby, and she went like this wahh, wahh! miss susie was a toddler, a toddler,a toddler, atoddler, miss susie was a toddler, and she went like this mommy,mommy tie my shoe, daddy, daddy 2 + 2 miss susie was a teenager, a teenager, a teenager, miss susie was a teenager, she went like this, oo ah forgot my bra, left it in my boyfriends car, but he don’t care, he don’t care, he forgot his underwear! miss susie was a mother, a mother, a mother, miss susie was a mother, and she went like this, get your hands out of that cookie jar! miss susie was a grandmother, a grandmother, a grandmother, miss susie was a grandmother, and she went like this, are you hungry? want some ice cream? miss susie was dead, was dead., was dead, miss susie was dead, and she went like this, la-dee-da-dee-da, boom crack oww, alllllll miss susie went to heaven, to heaven, to heaven,miss susie went to heaven and she went like this, o wut the f*** is goin on up in here??? miss went to hell, to hell, to hell, miss susie went to hell and she went like this , hey, you, do you smell spmething burning, oh wait, you’re burning ah!!!!!!!! and that’s the end, of miss susie!!!!!!!!
i kno it differntly…. ms mary had a steamboat The steamboat had a bell ms mary went to heaven, The steamboat went to Hello operator Give me number 9 If you disconnect me ill kick you in behind the yellow curtain there was a piece of glass and when ms mary sat upon it drove right up her Ask me no more questions I’ll tell you no more lies the boys are int he bathroom zipping up there flys are in the city the bees are int he park ms mary and boyfriend were kissing in the dark D-A-R-K the dark is in the theatre the theatre is the show and thats all i know i know i know i know i know i know my mother i know i know father i know i know my sister wears a 30m wire lol but i would also really like to know the one wear the girl grows up please email it to me if you get it ok well, u know the number nine thing i kow a different way, it goes miss susie had a steamboat the steamboat had a bell *ding, ding* the steamboat wen to heaven miss susie went to hello operator, please give me number nine and if you disconnent me i’ll chop off your behind the fridgerator there was a piece off glass miss susie sat upon it and broke her little ask me no more questions tell me no more lies the boys are in the bathroom zipping up the flies are in the meadow the bees are in the hives miss susie and her boyfriend are kissing in the D-A-R-K,D-A-R-K, dark, dark dark! The dark is like the movies, the movies like the show, the show is like the T.V and that is all i know, i know my ma, i know , i know my pa, i know,i know my sister with the 80 acre bra my mother is godzilla, my father is king-kong, my sister is the stupid one who, made up this dumb song!!
Wow! I just tried last night to teach my grandkids the one, two three o’leary game and couldn’t remember it. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who left messages about this game. I played it in the early 50’s and we used either a tennis ball or a rubber ball the size of a tennis ball. I couldn’t remember all of it but some of your messages have brought it all back to me. thanks.
i kno it differntly…. ms mary had a steamboat The steamboat had a bell ms mary went to heaven, The steamboat went to Hello operator Give me number 9 If you disconnect me ill kick you in behind the yellow curtain there was a piece of glass and when ms mary sat upon it drove right up her Ask me no more questions I’ll tell you no more lies the boys are int he bathroom zipping up there flys are in the city the bees are int he park ms mary and boyfriend were kissing in the dark D-A-R-K the dark is in the theatre the theatre is the show and thats all i know i know i know i know i know i know my mother i know i know father i know i know my sister wears a 30m wire lol but i would also really like to know the one wear the girl grows up please email it to me if you get it
The one I remember best was a clapping sort-of patty cake rhyme with two completely unrelated verses. But we always did both, the second one right after the first. The clapping was done sitting across from your best friend. The clapping steps were: 1) Clap your shoulders with your arms crossed. 2) Clap the top of your thighs 3) Clap your hands together 4) Clap your right hand across to your friends right hand. 5) Clap your hands together. 6) Clap your left hand across to your friends left hand. 7) Clap your hands together. 8) Clap both your right to your friends left and your left to her right together. Repeat over and over. One clap per syllable to the following verses: My mother told me if I was goody That she would buy me a rubber dolly My auntie told her I kissed a soldier Now she won’t buy me a rubber dolly. Three Six Nine The goose drank wine The monkey spit tobacco on the street car line The line broke The monkey got choked And they all went to heaven in a little rowboat. Clap-clap.