skipping rhymes

Rooms to rent
Apply within
If you don't pay your rent
Mrs (name of next girl) will come in.

Mother may I go down to swim?
Yes my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on a hickory bush
But don't go near the water.

I must have had a sheltered upbringing - the only rhyme mentioned here that I knew was the Teddy Bear one.

However, we did more "French skipping" than skipping, which, rather boringly, didn't have rhymes to go with it. I can still remember some of the routines, although they probably varied from playground to playground.

When I came to Germany in the 70s, I joined an American Girl Scouts troop (as an assistant leader). The rhymes and clapping games that those 10-year-old girls could repeat at great speed left me breathless!

My mother , who would have been very old now, taught me

My mother said
I never should
Play with the gipsies
In the wood

If I did
She would say
Naughty little girl
To disobey

I had forgotten that until I came upon this old thread.
It is strange how long forgotten memories can be jolted into life.

I cant remember the whole song but i remember the first few lines of My Maws a millionaire
wid ye believe it
blue eyes n curly hair
walkin doon the High Street ...................

Number six pick up sticks .

Although I am older than you and did not go to Broomlea, I did live in the south side of Glasgow, so it may have been local to there

Can anyone help me out with the second-last line of this skipping rhyme, please?

Oliver Twist can't do this, so what's the use of trying?
Number one, touch your thumb,
Number two, touch your shoe,
Number three, touch your knee,
Number four, touch the floor,
Number five, take a dive!
Number six ...
Number seven, go to heaven!

Two girls were enders, swinging the rope, and the girl skipping did the appropriate action. Number four was difficult, as you often got caught by the rope there. If you got through all seven lines, you took the place of the one ender.
I learnt it at a small private school called Broomlea in Giffnock in the Glasgow area, when I was about 10, so 1961

Does anyone know where I can buy one of those letter games called 'fifteens'? Its a small square tray which contains 15 letter tiles and there is one empty tile space. You slide the tiles up/down/sideways using the empty space as a tool. You could also get number ones. Hope my terrible description is understood!

Sorry, Kitty, don't remember that song, but do recall the five stones, which were replaced later with jacks. Thank you for the information, nanaej, I shall order a set for my granddaughter, who always wants to know what games I used to play. Can't believe there was a world without plastic everything (her room just groans with the stuff!) - and so much based on the latest cartoon or television programme, too. My youngest granddaughter's first word was "Peppa"!
I do recall the game of donkey and perhaps some of today's children would enjoy it, as it involved skill and timing and could be done alone, too. We weren't allowed to play these games on a Sunday - no-one would understand that now!

My son got a packet of SNOBS in a party bag when he was about 5. By the time we got home he had eaten them!!

On a slightly related topic - does anyone remember a song that began 'Little brown houses, what do you hold'? It's about the bulbs flowering - I don't think I've made it up!!

We used to have little cubes,roughly size of a sugar lump with ridges on in different colours,our game was 5 stones ,which we did often play with as we didn't have any we called them GOBS haven't a clue why...we used to play queenie queenie who's got the ball..piggy in the middle,run outs ,tin can copper,and knock down ginger[ blush] we would also tie a length of cotton on to a letter box hide and keep pulling it to rattle the knocker...the fun was being chased by an angry householder.we also did French skipping which was a length of knicker elastic ,ends tied together looped round two girls ankles as they stood ankles slightly apart and about 3ft away from each other we had rhymes and set moves to do ......I used to make my baby brother stand for ages the other end looped round chair legs while I practised this game.....nellies on a roll now also remember donkey where you threw a ball at the wall and jumped over it as it bounced down......shame Eisha isn't as easily amused as I was can't see her putting a tennis ball in a stocking and whacking it from side to side and up and down to rhymes yet I was 12/13 and quite happy to bang a ball up a wall with a tennis racquet for ages or mum got fed up with the constant banging which ever came first....then I do as mum asked BUGGER OFF UP THE LIBRARY....so I did as I was asked and nuggered off up the library..happy days

www.otherlandtoys.co.uk/metal-jacks-game-p-2188.html These were quite good ..got them for DGD!

I remember playing "jacks" but could never pick up 10 in one go,I was better with my top and whip and yo-yo us girls also used to play a game called cats cradle using any bits of elastic we could find,I was not marvelous at that and used to end up all knotted.

Brain overtaxed with trying to remember this morning! If you google "metal jacks game set" or similar, you should find something. Good luck.

dahlia, I have two sets of very good jacks. I'll find out where I got them from and let you know (can't remember at the mo, but it was mail order....)

Oh, yes, Jacks was a very popular craze at my primary school, dahlia!
I was actually very good at it (unlike skipping!). And two-balls, as we used to call it.

How lovely to be reminded of these rhymes, and the wonderful play-times spent with a line of girls on one side, gradually going in one by one as we sang "All in Together Girls". Not so easy to come out, though!
Glad some of you also recall those ball games. Used to play alone (poor, only child boo hoo!) with two old rubber balls and a game called Sevens, different action with each number, usually becoming harder. Does anyone know where I can buy a set of Jacks, another game very popular during the 50's. We seemed to have a "craze" for certain games, which in time would fade away to be replaced by another favourite, going in cycles.
Hopscotch is played in my granddaughters' school playground, but does anyone remember a game called London to York, which we preferred, with the numbers marked on paving stones but different rules? Used to get told off for marking the pavement, but it came off in the rain!
All those ball games came in handy, I can still impress the young ones with my juggling skills.

jeni !

Not to be confused with the sexual life of savages which makes an excellent doorstop or bed foot elevator!

A god source is the lore and language of schoolchildren by the opies

Has anyone mentioned the farmers in his den?

Thanks Greatnan I'd forgotten Farmer Farmer may I cross your field! Must email DD right now..............just remembered "What's the Time MR WOLF?"!!
GS took my Coronation spoon into school on Monday and the WHOLE school got to admire it!

I have read a few reports of skipping being banned on 'elf 'n safety' grounds. When I was a child in the 1940's in the back streets of Salford, there was alway skipping going on - either individually or as a team game with people taking turns to hold the ends of the rope. Wonderful exercise and good fun.
WE also had lots of team games involving running, such as Rally Oh! and Farmer, farmer, may I cross your water? Note the perfect grammar!
Mums, aunts and grannies would sit outside on summer evenings and watch us.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be!

One skipping rhyme was:
House to let, apply within,
When I go out (name) comes in.

Skipping happens in schools today as it did when I was at school.. seems to come and go in seasons! We always provided skipping ropes for the children at the schools where I was working & they could bring them in from home too. DGD (6yrs) takes hers to school.
We really got all the kids skipping when a dad, a huge big man who was a boxer, came in to demonstrate his brilliant light footed skipping skills! We then got a skipping demo group in to show the kids..double skipping , ins and outs etc etc..was amazing Skipping happened in every inch of the playground for the rest of that term and no major accidents!

This discussion has just come in useful!! DD sent emergency email last night; GS needs 50s playground games TODAY do I know any. Well of course I could remember some, but copy & paste from GN was quicker