I always liked “Miss lucy had a steamboat” My favorite was the second verse. “Hello operator, please give me number nine, and if you disconnect me, I’ll chop off your behind” I thought it was funny. Just think about it. The operators punishment would be that she wouldn’t be able to poop anymore. That’s what came to my mind when I used to sing this song. Quite a punishment just for disconnecting the phone!
Here is a jumping rhyme, S-C-H-DOUBLE O-L spells school for me. Each letter was said on a jump, double o being one jump,. I used to love this one. Though it messed me up spelling the word school for awhile. I used to think it said W-0. Oh well. Thanks so much for the sight. I was looking for chinese jump rope rules. Thanks everyone.
I am looking for information on the hand games played with a Chinese jumprope. I used to play with my sister and would like to play them with my daughter now. I, like one other person who left a message, can only remember the first two moves. Any information on where to get the directions would be appreciated.
Here’s another jump rope rhyme we used to sing in Queens: Fire, fire false alarm (Ann) fell into (“Kevin’s) arms How many kisses did she receive, Close your eyes and you will see, Passing three! One, two, three…. (keep counting and jumping with closed eyes until you miss.) Does anyone remember a jump rope rhyme involving telling time? One person is jumping and reciting the rhyme, and a second person jumps in becoming the “hands” of the clock circling the original person for each hour position as they say, “one o’clock, two o’clock…”?
Hi, I came looking for directions to play french elastic, (i’m from the UK) to help my daughters, and this site has been a great help,especially Catriona (uk)who described the way my daughters are jumping rope now and with that rhyme, Eirene (Australia) who did it my way(!) and Anonymous (25/5) for the MISSISSIPPI rhyme that rings some very faint bells!! But i’ll let my daughters know that one. In reply to Elaine (26/5) I remember skipping with the elastic around only one leg at different heights and then around both legs wide apart, could this be the smallies and widies you refer to? Thanks also to others who mentioned other sites that might be of help.
these are the games i know where you stand in a circle and your right hand is on top of the person on your right and your left hand is under the person on the left and you go around in a circle slapping hands: (this is my favorite) down by the banks of the hanky panky where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank singin east side west side kerrrrrplop!! (the reason i think that it was originally east side west side is cause thats where the bullfrogs jumped, doesnt that sound right?) i also know: slap-diddly o so slap slap slap talariko riko riko riko flo flo flo flo falo faaaalo 1,2,3,4!! and: my little crakerjack crakerjack he said she said jimmy jimmy jack jack flo flo flo flo falo faaalo 1,2,3,4!
Boy, we have these wonderful memories of childhood games but not the recollection of how to play them exactly. I fondly recall playing with the stretchy elastic chinese jumprope and tried searching the Internet looking for some direction on how it was done. I found some sort of essay in some forum that had a pretty good description of what I remember the game to be like. Try www.streetplay.com/discus/messages/75/77.html. It covers the In, Out, Side, On, Scissors, and then “smallies and Widies which I don’t think rings a bell with me.
We used to play “chinese jump rope” too in the 60s at our elementary school in northern British Columbia, Canada. I can’t for the life of me remember what we called this game but it certainly wasn’t “chinese jump rope”. The rhyme we used with it was a version of “Flying Purple People Eater”, not the whole song. It started like this: One-eyed one-horned Flying purple people eater Bees wear Don’t stare Flying purple people eater The game was played in the manner that Eirene from Australia described. If anyone knows the rest of the verse I’d love to hear it.