When I was in primary school, which would have been in the sixties, we used to play proper games in playground. Playtime was in the morning, lunch time, and one in the afternoon.
I still remember many of the games. One of my favouties was called French Skipping, I never knew what was French about it! We’d spend hours threading rubber bands together until is was big enough to have one girl each end, and one to skip. (Occasionally a boy would play but it was mainly us girls.)
Another game was What Time is it Mister Wolf. One person would face the wall and start calling out the time, one o’clock, two o’clock etc., and at any given moment the wolf could spin round to face the advancing children. They would have to creep up towards the wolf while he wasn’t looking. If he turned and saw you moving then you were out. Whoever got to the wolf first without being caught, became the next Mr Wolf.
Everybody skipped, there was nothing more fun than a big long rope and lots of girls, and sometimes boys skipping in the middle, too.
We never seemed to be short of games to play, and they were such great fun. In my book, The Magic of Stories, I talk about them in detail and the accomping songs.
Who remembers I had a little bubble car number ninety eight? Or A sailor went to sea, sea, sea, to see what he could see, see see, and even the clapping song – Under the bambush, under the tree, whoah, whoah, whoah? What is a bambush? I never thought about that before, they were all just words that we knew off by heart.
What games did you play and what was your favourite?
Karen J. Mossman 
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