Chinny reckon...

[Caramellattelady]

I have seen that phrase on MN several times since I started lurking around on here, despite never having heard it in real life. But from context and similarity, I guess it means the same as "itchy chin" which we used to say as kids to mean "yeah, right". I'd be willing to bet the accompanying hand gesture was the same too!

It got me thinking cos I'm a loser about other (possibly regional?) differences in sayings or games. One example I always remember cropping up when we were kids is the hide & seek game known either as 40-40 or 50-50 (obviously the 50-50-ers were just wrong..)

I find this kind of thing fascinating and would therefore like to open the MN floor to other examples....anyone?

Anyone remember counting fists as potatoes to decide who was 'it'?

One potato, two potatoes three potatoes four, dropping a fist each time until there was only one person holding a fist up and they'd be it.

Midlands...
"When we get married we'll have sausage for tea,
Sausage for tea,
Sausage for tea,
When we get married we'll have sausage for tea,
And I wont have to work no more"

If only!

a. croggy
b. pumps
c. cob

Not very pc but...

"Ching chong chinaman went to milk a cow,
Ching chong chinaman didn't know how,
Ching chong chinaman pulled the wrong tit,
Ching chong chinaman covered on shit."

I loved elastics and British bulldog and stick in the mud. The clapping songs are really weird when you look back on it.

I went to a chimes restaurant to buy a loaf of bread bread bread,
He wrapped in up in a five pound note and this is what he said said said,
My name is elvis Presley, girls are sexy, sitting in the back seat, drinking Pepsi...

And another one,

Eenie weenie popsadaisy, oobub shaweenie weenie,
Education, operation, I love you.
Down down baby down by the roller coaster, sweet sweet baby never going to leave you,
Ate all the candy, greedy greedy,
Didn't wash the dishes, lazy lazy
Jumped out the window, crazy crazy....

Francis thank you! Also just remembered the words to one of the ball in Sock games.
Please Miss, Madam Miss I've come to tell you this Miss
That I Miss, won't Miss, be in school tomorrow Miss.

French skipping
Sevenses
Kick the can
It
We used to play it on our bikes too.
Cops and robbers
Cowboys and Indians
40, 40, in
3 and in
Cat's cradle

" Joey Deacon/Joey (as with Jimmy Hill, I never knew who this was, as we didn't have a TV at home)"

I remember him from Blue Peter.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Deacon

A common playground insult was to call someone a "Joey", implying that they were stupid. And we usd the n word in the eany meeny rhyme, although I had no idea what it meant. I never made any connection between golliwogs and black people, either. We were horrible, ignorant, near feral little shits, really. Different times, different world.

Ackee 123 was a Midlands name.

That would make sense as I grew up there.

As such

1. Backie 2)Pumps 3)Cob

Memories upon memories coming back!

When girls had fallen out and wanted to make up they (overseen, usually, by a self-appointed mediator/peacemaker or several) would join hands crossed over and chant 'Make friends, make friends, never, never break friends; if you do you'll catch the flu (or 'fall down the loo') and that will be the end of you'

And the boys/girls would sing to each other 'We protest, girls/boys are a pest, flush 'em down the lavatory and hope for the best'

And there was a song about school dinners to the tune of Frere Jacques which ended 'I feel sick, toilet quick, it's too late, done it on me plate'

And yes, I remember the lines of kids with linked arms chanting 'all join up for playing xxxx' and getting longer and longer.

More appalling non pc-ness:

"My mother's Chinese
My father's Japanese
Look what's happened to me!"

(Sung while pulling outer corners of eyes in opposite diagonal directions)

It's shocking to look back at how ignorant we were back then.

We used to call hide and seek tip/kick the can where I'm from and to determine who's on you always started with dip, dip, dip and then either eeney meaney or my mother and your mother were hanging out the clothes, my mother gave your mother a box in the nose, what colour was the blood?...
Lift on your bike was a backer..

In the Midlands had a game called stony 123 which sounds like acky 123.

Also this rhyme:
Eeny meeny
Macaraca
Rare eye
Dominaca
Knickerbocker
Lollypoppa
Om Pom push

Ip dip dog shit
hairy fanny, juicy tit
You are not it

We felt soooooo naughty saying that

if you don't want to be caught in It, you cross your fingers and shout 'scribs'. Essex, late 70's.

we had a school dog. it was chaos. it would hump the little kids and shit on the playground. huge yellow Labrador called Charlie. inveterate crotch-sniffer and stealer of break time biscuits. I went to a weird primary school.

if you don't want to be caught in It, you cross your fingers and shout 'scribs'. Essex, late 70's

Crossed fingers was called Arley Barley and we called it Tig. There was a no tigback rule too. So you couldn't quickly dab the person who'd just tigged you as they ran away.

I remembered another one from NI:

Johnny and Jenny up a tree
K i s s i n g
(something something something)
Doing things they SHOULDN'T be.

Oooh just remembered a rhyme we used to sing!

In 1996 the queen pulled down her Knicks
She licked her bum
And said "yum yum"
"It tastes like weetabix"

Also
Spider Spider on the wall
You think you're smart
You know fuck all
That wall youre on has just been plastered
Now you're stuck
You stupid bastard

Jack be nimble, jack be quick
Jack jump over the candle stick
Stupid bastard, should've jumped higher
Goodness gracious, great balls of fire.

X and y sitting in a tree
K I S S I N G
First comes love, second comes marriage
Third comes a baby in a golden carriage.

violet we had,

CeCe my playmate
Come out and play with me
I cannot play with you
My dollies got the flu
Climb down the drainpipe
And through my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
For every more more, shut that door, fling your knickers on the bathroom floor

😳

The last we sang really fast and you'd end up all over the place with the clapping!

Oh yes! Knocking on doors and running away, we called that rangabang skoosh! I mind one time there were neighbours who's front doors faced each other, we tied their door handles together with string and knocked the doors! . Thankfully one of friends lived there so I'm sure the parents would have found it oh so hilarious

Wow it's great to remember some of these rhymes! I knew loads as a child and can't believe I can't remember them all

We had (north west) What's the time Mr Wolf, the chinese restaurant/elvis presley one, the playmate one I think, dusty bluebells, the rhyme about Diana Dors but slightly different to the one a pp posted above.... Odd to think that in the early 80s we all had no idea who Diana Dors was. It must have been very old one still going about! I wonder if the rhyme is still going!

I reckon that now schools all have play equipment in their yards some of these old rhymes are dying out. The school playgrounds of my memory were just yards of plain paving and tarmac, we had to make our own fun! I remember primary school begin a bit like the "craze" episode of Charlie and Lola - one month everyone would be mad about marbles, the next about skipping, the next about Lolo balls, and so on....

My favourite was always the long skipping games with a big rope. Did anyone else have this one?
All in together girls
Never mind the weather girls
When it's your birthday
Please jump in:
January
February etc. (with girls jumping in to skip in the rope on their birthday month, until the rhyme was repeated only with jumping out)

There was also another one we had which involved jumping in and then out on a particular cue but I can't remember it....anyone have any more skipping rhymes?

Backie
Pumps
Cob

East/West Mids border.