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children's playground games

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Fennel Sun 05-Apr-20 12:04:37

Something made me think of this one. Children stand in a circle, one in the centre:
Wallflowers Wallflowers growing up so high.
The rest is very sad and I think there are other versions. the one we sang, during WW2, was
"We're all little children
We're all going to die.
Except for .... she's the only one.
Fie for shame fie for shame!
Turn your face to the wall again"
Then the one picked turned their back on the circle until all were turned, and the last one took the centre.
Can anyone remember this or any other versions?
And other playground games?

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boheminan Sun 05-Apr-20 12:26:35

Wow! Your memory is good Fennel. It's a very poignant little rhyme.

I can remember fragments of lots of children's chants - dipping, circle games, two balls, skipping songs (I lived in London at the time) but they all seem to get muddled up or merge into one. I remember a similar skipping chant - on the lines of:

Bluebells, cockle shells, evvie, ivee, over....
When I call your birthday,
please come in..
January, February, etc...
with two girls (always girls) turning the rope either side (right across the road) and participants would have to skip in and out quickly without being caught, and if you got caught you would have to take over one of the rope ends.

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CherryCezzy Sun 05-Apr-20 12:43:04

I remember that one Fennel. A cruel game really.
There were lots of skipping rhymes I the school playground and I remember that one bohemian. There was a similar one which was one of only a couple where the boys joined in too. There were 'rounds' which got more and more complex and the more successful you were the higher the army rank you achieved. If you got knocked out in round one you had to leave the army in disgrace.

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