Skipping Songs

Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you.

my Mother said, I never should, play with the gypsies in the wood.

Sausage in the pan, sausage in the pan, sizzle crackle sizzle crackle sausage in the pan, this was a long rhyme, and involved other food but can't remember more.

There was another long rhyme, and when you jumped in on your turn, it became skipping 'doubles' you had to be really fast and it was great fun.Can't remember the actual rhyme , but I do remember it featured well known people one of them was Clark Gable!

Roses - did that one continue:
Jelly on a plate, jelly on a plate,
wibble wobble wibble wobble,
jelly on a plate!

Up and down, up and down all the way to London Town.

Swish swash, swish swash all the way to Banbury Cross.

Heel toe, heel toe....can't remember where that one went.

All done with appropriate actions and double quick time. We were ever likely be skinny. Was skipping season in the winter? .....and it all flowed didn't it...
Skipping into two-ball into top and whip. There would probably be H&S issues surrounding the equipment these days.

roses I have a vague memory of the film star one - I remember the line 'Betty Grable is a star, S-T-A-R

Mother's in the kitchen doing a bit of stitching, in comes the burglar and out goes she..

Charlie Chaplin went to France to teach the ladies how to dance....
.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground, teddy bear, teddy bear turn around. There was more but I forget it. My knees wouldn't even let me hop now. Not that I need to.

My maw's a millionaire
Sitting among the Eskimos
Playing a game of dominoes
My maw's a millionaire.

Weird!

We played ball to this one ..

Johnston Mooney and I'Brien bought a horse for 1 and 9
When the horse began to kick Johnston Mooney bought a stick
When the stick began to break Johnston Mooney bought a rake
When the rake began to rust Johnston Mooney bought a bus
When the bus began to stop Johnston Mooney bought a shop
When the shop began to sell Johnston Mooney went to hell

This was a chant for two ball.

Plainsie, clapsie, round the world to backsie, first your heel and then your toe, bounce the ball and through you go.

I can still do it.

A strange song for skipping was this one with two girls in the rope some of the time. I'll call the girls Pam and Wendy.

Vote, vote, vote for little Pam
Here comes Wendy at the door
Wendy is the one who gives us all the fun
So we don't want Pam any more,
Shut the door.

mrsmopp. I think the ending of Bluebells, cockle shells was another 'When I call your birthday, please jump in"...which meant you'd join in, skipping into the long rope, then the rhyme would be repeated, but telling you to jump out, and if anyone got caught in the rope, they'd have to take a turn at swinging it. There's a very interesting book written by Iona and Peter Opie - 'The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes' that explores the roots of not only nursery rhymes but skipping chants, 'dipping', circle songs, etc., looking at their regional roots. Unfortunately, these are all now mostly dim memories held within a school playground.

It was "Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground, teddy bear, teddy bear turn around. teddy bear, teddy bear,read your book, teddy bea,r teddy bear, sling your hook" At "Sling your hook" you ducked out to leave room for the next person.

The Teddy Bear rhyme we used for more goody goody:

Teddy Bear, teddy bear, touch the ground, teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around, teddy bear, teddy bear say your prayers, teddy bear, teddy bear run upstairs.

Yes Mrs Mopp, it was the jelly on the plate song, which featured a few different foods.
Ash tree , it may be the same rhyme as Grable rhymes with Gable, must look it up and see it may be somewhere if we Google it.

We had one:

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 out you jumped allowing the next in line to jump in

We had seasons at primary school for different games. Whip and top (with coloured chalk patterns on the top), hopscotch with different shaped chalk grids and of course the aforementioned skipping. We also had ball games against a wall with those clever enough using two balls in various rhymes.
Happy days!

We used to have -

The farmer's in his den, the farmer's in his den
eey ay adio the farmer's in his den

The farmer wants a wife, the farmer wants a wife
eey ay adio the farmer wants a wife

Then someone would be picked to be the wife then -

The wife wants a child, then the child wants a dog etc

We were all desperate not to be the last one picked! or not picked at all.

KatyK I remember that one as a circle game, with the last person picked to come into the circle being the bone. The last verse was 'we all pat the bone' with the pats being delivered a little more forcefully than was strictly necessary by one or two.

Here are another couple..

Want a ciggerette sir?
no sir
why sir?
'cos I got a cold sir
where did you catch the cold sir?
At the North pole sir
what were you doing there sir?
catching Polar bears sir
How many did you catch sir?
one sir, two sir, three sir,
the rest caught me sir!

1,2,3 O'Leary
4,5,6 O'Leary
7,8,9 O'Leary
10 O'Leary
I love thee.

Oh these bring back such happy memories.

I'm sure we all remember "all in together girls." You had to jump in when your birth date was called and then stay in the rope until it was called again and then you had to jump out (that's how I remember it.)

Piggy on the railway picking up stones along came the engine and broke piggy's bones, can't remember the rest!!

Has anyone else said:

I like coffee,
I like tea,
I like [name of friend]
Next to me.
?

I loved skipping, we even used two ropes at the same time! Goodness knows what would happen if I tried it now, especially with a broken leg
The song we sang was: On a mountain stood a lady, who she is I do not know, all she wore is gold and silver ....... Oh!! Can't remember the rest. It really made you want to jump high when singing it. Lovely days. Shame, you don't see too many children skipping anymore.

Absent, we had another version of that one. Would not be allowed today.
I like coffee, I like tea,
I like sitting on a b* man's knee.

Very naughty.....!