Games we played when we were small

My sister and I used to play tennis in the middle of the road we only had to stop once in a while to let the odd car pass.
I was forever doing handstands much to dads dispare as my feet were always up against the garden hedge, there was always a hole in the hedge where I had been. !
It was the 60s and we used to smuggle mums radio outside so as we could listen to radio luxembourg. The single was terrible but that didn't stop us !

We had a rhyme for throwing the ball against the wall - "Plainsy, clapsy, roll-the-ball, t'backsy. Right hand, left hand, touch your heel, touch your toe, roll your hands, and under we go". Then you had to go through it again but doing the first thing as well. So it was all "right hand". Then all "left hand", and so on.

Oh! Never mind!

I'm still quite good at it. Can impress the grandsons.

All of above plus Pussy 4 Corners and What's the time Mr Wolf.

Does anyone remember the skipping rhymes?

Cinderella dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella,

How many kisses did she give him?

Another was

All in together girls, never mind the weather girls, when it comes to your number please jump out. I think we we all had random numbers and would jump out of the line up when it was called.

I couldn't skip now without giving myself two black eyes lol.

Leapfrog, handstands against the wall, and yes, we also had a hole in the hedge that we would cut through to save going through the gate at the opposite end of the garden. In the 60s, one of our gang would bring a transistor radio to the local swing park and we would listen to Luxembourg for the top twenty on Sunday at teatime.

whatis raspberry, strawberry, marmalade, jam tell me the name of your young man and then we hit the two balls against the wall reciting the alphabet until we dropped a ball, whichever letter we dropped the ball at was the initial of the boy's name. Funnily enough it nearly always dropped on the initial of DH, balls

Ah hula hoops I had a lovely yellow one, me thinks I should get another one and if I use it enough times I may get my waist back , what do you think

I have other problems when I try to skip. (whisper - it feels like parts are gonna drop out! )

Can't do it with legs crossed.

I wouldn't dare skip now I have too many bits that wobble and as whatisamashedupphrase has put it, "can't do it with legs crossed"

Harrigran, why is there a random word at the end of your post. Is it subliminal, or have you got your mind on other things?

For ball games and skipping:
One potato, two potato, three potato, four
Five potato, six potato, seven potato more........

I think we used to make long chains of children and weave in and out under each other's arms to this:
"The big ship sailed on the alley-alley-oh!
The alley-alley-oh!
The alley-alley-oh!
the big ship sailed on the alley-alley-oh!
On the last day of September!
The Captain said it'd never never do,
Never never do,
Never, never do!
The Captain said It'd never ever do,
On the last day of September"

Harrigran I'm not sure if I should put of

OMG I have no idea where the balls came from, perhaps it was left from a sentence that I deleted

The same rhymes at Primary School as Carol. Also played "What's the time Mr Wolf", marbles, jacks, played cricket in the school playground against a wicket chalked on the wall.

At home made pretend horse jumps out of boxes etc around the garden; orange boxes stacked on top of each other as dolls houses; made mud pies(!) - lots of imaginative play there!

This was one of the skipping rhymes we sang at primary school in the 1960s, with actions to match.

Sabrina, Sabrina, you ought to see Sabrina standing there

With her legs all bare

She does the wiggle woggle and the boys all stare

She swings it, she swings it, she turns around and swings it

One, two, three

Remember the alley alley oh.
We were playing it when one of the nuns came into the playground to tell us to stop as king George 6 had died.

"The big ship sails through the alley alley ooh,
On the first day of September"

I was 11 when the King died.

I was 7or8 I think

Elastic twist...length of elastic round 2 sets of legs or an appropiate object only 2 playing....

Most of the above, but my stilts were made from Tate and Lyle golden syrup tins. Our hopscotch pitch was chalked up using pieces of shale thrown out when shovelling up the coal dropped by the lorry at the front gate. Stepfather was a miner, and we got our coal deliveries on demand, at a good discount, but we had to shovel it up ourselves.

bikergran I remember that as American skipping.

I was not quite 6 when the King died. Can remember my Dad making me tops on his lathe, I was useless at it as I couldn't keep it spinning.

My favourite plaything was a Kaleidoscope which my father made from pieces of glass and electricians' tape. It was the most magical thing and had lots of little pieces of cut up roses chocolate wrappers which I had saved from a box given to me by my Aunt Rosa. What a clever man he was.

Sook We used to call it French skipping !

Collecting 'treasure' in a small box or tin. Pieces of coloured glass, old jewellery, a pretty stone, a bit of silver chain etc. Used to get together and do swaps.