skipping rhymes

By the way, should have said, thank you anagram and yogagran for your support over that little niggle.

there came duke a riding, a riding, a riding
there came a duke a riding
tissem a tassem a teaser

what are you riding here for, here for, here for
what are you riding here for
tissem a tassem a teaser

i'm riding here to marry... (and so on)
who are you going to marry... (and so on)
i'm gong to marry [name]

this wasn't a skipping game. it was a game where two rows of girls skipped (without ropes, the 'other' skipping!) towards each other then skipped backwards away.. then forward again. one girl was the duke. she chose the next person (the one she would 'marry') and together then chose children...

again from my gran, so it was in playgrounds around the first world war, and resurrected in the early sixties.

eGJ isn't it fun doing yard duty with the children alot of them don't know the games we played when we where young,their parents are so busy at work they have no time to show them

Schools often supply baskets of ropes, quoits & hoops in the playground for each year group. Not the plastic coated ropes though(and THEY were ace!) Last summer term I taught the children French skipping and it ended up with most of the boys and half the boys all queing for a turn!! (I was on duty; the playtime overran with three cheers from the other staff!)

Let us not rise to carboncareful's comment about my user name which, I might add, had GNHQ approval. If we do, it will spoil this happy and amusing thread.

I'm so glad to hear that skipping is still allowed in school playgrounds! I haven't lived in the UK for 8 years, so I'm not sure what is still acceptable.

She may mean "specky for eyes" carbon implying that she likes wearing glasses so much that she has several pairs! I'd love to have lots of different pairs to ring the changes. Anyway, I personally don't see this an an insult, I wear glasses and it wouldn't bother me if people call me 4 eyes.

Oh dear! I do think that was uncalled-for, carboncareful. Specki can call herself what she likes - this isn't the children's playground.

specki my DGD still plays skipping games at her junior school so maybe the "elf & safety" have not caught up with this bit of enjoyment yet ?

grossi we used to skip with plastic coated lines to Salt and Pepper Salt and Pepper Pepper Pepper Pepper where you had to skip really fast or be out.

Why have you called yourself specki4eyes ? Does this mean you wear glasses? If so, then you should be more sensitive to the feelings of glasses-wearers. 4eyes is what glasses wearing children get called in the playground. I know this from experience. It is a rude word worse, to my mind, than a conventional swear word. Its use implies prejudice against someone who is different. Sight impairment is not funny.

Thank you to all you Grans who responded to my query. I have laughed at all the memories these rhymes conjour up. One teeny question though, posed by my son as I drilled my granddaughter with the skipping rhymes.. is skipping still allowed in school playgrounds? He has a point - Health and Safety and all that madness

Plastic coated washing line ? don't think it existed when I was a child. Grossi are you just in your 40s ?

Gagagran, I feel sorry for children today too although even when I was at school the boys' playground games (mainly football) seemed very boring compared to the girls' ones.

Did anyone else skip with "bumps ropes"? They were lengths of plastic-coated washing line and turned much faster than the normal skipping ropes. The rhymes were different too.

Here's another dredged up from the memory store!

Little fatty doctor
How's your wife?
Very well thank you
That's alright
Can't eat a bit of fish
Or a stick of liquorice
O U T spells out

and another

House to let
Apply within
When I move out
Mrs (name of next girl) moves in

Skipping seemed to be seasonal along with other communal games. We had whip and top in Spring and coloured the tops of the tops with chalk patterns - anyone remember those? Then hopscotch with a bit of shiny tile to slide up the grid pattern chalked on the pavement or playground. I feel sorry for children today - they miss out on all those simple but hugely enjoyable games we played.

I wasn't born until my Mum was 37, she only married when she was 30. Thankfully I had my children when I was young otherwise my parents would not have had any time with their grandchildren, I was the only one who had children.

i'm not particularly young, harrigran.
you might be a bit... older... but that doesn't make me young!
my gran was in her mid twenties before she married and bred, my mum a bit younger, me about the same, my daughter a bit older.
its amazing what one family can accomplish in just over a hundred years!

You are a young granny granbunny if your Grandmother was born in 1909, my mother was born that year.

my gran (born 1909) taught me this:

janey (or name) had a bloater
and it was double-jointed
she gave it to another girl
and she was disappointed
my word (name)
i'll tell your mother
for kissing (name)
around the corner
if you love him clap your hands
how many kisses will you
give to him
one
two
three...

eGJ. I think we must have been at different schools!

gross our last line was Kick her out!

gillybob BIG

Vote, vote, for (name of child skipping, e.g. Elsie Smithers),
Calling (name of next child waiting to skip, e.g. Patsy) at the door.
Patsy is the one who makes all the fun,
So we don't need Elsie any more,
Shut the door.

Elsie has to skip out and Patsy skips in without missing a skip.

.............used to get a slap for singing

Auntie Mary has a canary up the leg of her drawers !!

GRANNY by Spike Milligan...

Through every nook and every cranny
The wind blew in on poor old Granny;
Around her knees, into each ear
(And up her nose as well, I fear).

All through the night the wind grew worse,
It nearly made the vicar curse.
The top had fallen off the steeple
Just missing him (and other people).

It blew on man; it blew on beast.
It blew on nun; it blew on priest.
It blew the wig off Auntie Fanny--
But most of all, it blew on Granny!!

Miss Lucy had a baby
she called it Tiny Tim Tim Tim
She put him in the bathtub
to see if he could swim swim swim

He swallowed half the water
he swallowed half the soap soap soap
miss lucy got excited so she grabbed him by the throat throat throat

Miss lucy called the doctor
miss lucy called the nurse nurse nurse
miss lucy called the lady
with the alligator purse purse purse

Don't ask what on earth that was all about !