Hey, my niece does this to me all the time I see her! She’s just turned 14. Only the above style she performs like a nursery rhyme. All I can remember (usually I am all a tingle when she starts as I am very ticklish..) is the part “comma, comma, comma, comma—Question Mark!” “big squueze—(followed by a hug)” “cool breeze” with the subsequent blow upon my neck. Goose pimples every time.
I grew up in Philadelphia and I remember part of another “skin” game, similar to what you describe. You used someone’s forearm and you planted a garden (or something like that). As you said “first, you rake” you scratched the person’s arm, then you flicked as you “planted”, you spat, to “water”, slapped to “pat” down the ground. Eventually, red marks, (and a good planting left welts!) would result in the “harvest”. I can’t remember this exactly, because it wasn’t very nice, but it was clever!
I don’t even know if this belongs here, because these weren’t games, exactly – there was a whole group of physical things we used to do as kids in Queens in the 50’s that were fun. ‘Most everyone remembers the trick of leaning the side of your hand against a wall and pressing on it – when you stepped away from the wall, your hand seemed to magically raise all by itself. But the one that I’m really “nostalging” on lately was giving each other “the chills”. There was a whole ritual where you stood behind your subject and recited a sort of pseudo-poem as you traced patterns on their back gently with a finger. At the end of the ritual, your subject shivered with glee. The ritual, as I remember it, went something like this: “X marks the spot” (you’d trace an X from each shoulder to the opposite side of their waist) “A dot, a dot” (two light taps on either side of the X) “A line and a line” (two lines, parallel to the ground, about 6 inches apart) “And a BIG question mark.” (Trace a large question mark, ending with the point just above the hips.) “Trails leading up . . . ” (You’d trace a wiggly line up the person’s spine with two fingers) “Trails leading down.” (Same wiggly lines go back down the back.) “Sea breeze . . .” (You’d blow on the person’s neck.) “. . .and a BIG squeeze.” (You’d put your thumb and forefinger on either side of your subject’s neck and pull back towards the spine with the lightest, most feathery pressure possible.) Does anyone remember this and if so, did I remember the entire ritual (I’m sure it varied from block to block!)