Friday 5

(Link in meme-roll)
Take Me to the Old Playground

1. How confidently could you pick up and employ a jumprope, hula hoop. yoyo, and set of jacks?

   I wouldn't be able to hula hoop, I'm sure. I could probably get a couple of jumps of the rope in before knees and lungs gave it up. But yo-yo and jacks....oh yeah, I could do those!! I loved jacks. But they have to be the metal ones, not plastic, and a proper Super Ball.

2. How are the playgrounds of your childhood different today?

   No monkey bars. No metal slides, and no slides that were higher (MUCH higher!) than teacher's heads. I don't see too many four-square/two-square or hopscotch grids on the ground. No metal merry-go-rounds, either. And now there are soft(er) places to land when kids fall off swings and such. We landed on concrete, or gravel. Is tetherball still a thing?

3. What’s a game you and your childhood friends made up, or what’s a rule you and your childhood friends made up that made an existing game more interesting or less likely to cause a fight?

   As I recall the rules for most every game were extremely negotiable. I don't recall anything specific right now, but there were always calls across the playground when recess started to the effect of "no [whatever]ies on [game]!"

4. What fad from your childhood do you remember with fondness or disdain?

   Click-clacks and jarts. Man, stupid people ruin EVERYthing fun!

5. What playground rhymes do you remember?

   "Cinderella, dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss her fella. Made a mistake and kissed a snake. How many doctors did it take?" This was my preferred jumprope rhyme at home. I often got up near to or over 100.
   
   There was a lengthy Teddy Bear one for school, but I had to go look that up:

   Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.
   Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.
   Teddy bear, teddy bear, go upstairs.
   Teddy bear, teddy bear, say your prayers.
   Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the light.
   Teddy bear, teddy bear, say good night.

   We usually did this one with Chinese jumprope, as I recall.
   
   And for long-jumprope (two people turning rope, one jumping), there was this one, in which the jumper's name was inserted:

   Miss [name] had a baby
   And she named him Tiny Tim.
   She put him in the bathtub
   To see if he could swim.
   He drank up all the water.
   He ate up all the soap.
   He tried to eat the bathtub
   But it wouldn't go down his throat.
   Miss [name] called the doctor,
   Miss [name] called the nurse.
   Miss [name] called the lady with the alligator purse.

   So, yeah, now I'm missing being 9....and continuing to wonder about that alligator purse.