One of my favorite things is learning what words people used for this hand game—where you sit in a circle with your hands facing up, right hand on top of your neighbor’s, left hand below your other neighbor’s, and you sequentially go around slapping right hand into left— where they lived when they were kids. The regional variations are the best. It’s in Wikipedia as “Stella Ella Ola,” but for me (and many NE USAmericans) it’s “Quack Diddly Oso.”
The way these games are taught to younger kids by older kids and spread throughout regions is so fascinating; I want a visualization where you can see what happens when one random kid 50 years ago moved to a different state. I have no idea how widespread this game is, but I think it’s all across the US and Canada, at a minimum. I haven’t seen my kids play this—is it still a thing?
I especially appreciate the versions that include “your mother smells like pizza,” “the toilet over fulled,” and “the cat peed on the floor,” “potatoes on the floor-a”
What about you? Anyone play it outside of North America?
everyone who played “down by the banks,” I feel sorry for you that you had such a boring version
down by the banks of the hanky panky
where the bull frogs jump from bank to bank
saying ees, ise, oops
east side dally ding-dong
I…think we just sang the Jello commercial jingle??
Watch it wiggle. See it jiggle. Cool and fruity. Jello gelatine. J-E-L-L-O!
And maybe whoever was the O! had to avoid getting the slap, or run around the circle and lose their seat, I don’t quite remember.
the thing I love about the barbie movie hype is that it’s revealing how people played with barbies when they were a kid. I only had Barbies so typically I chose the lesbian affairs and murder plotting route, but if I was at a friend’s house and they had a Ken, I’d often go bisexual marital troubles. hey sound off how you played with your barbies I’m curious now
