Golden moments of childhood

I was thinking earlier about what I consider to be one of the great mysteries of the universe - how little things, insults, silly songs etc, manage to find popularity in every schoolyard across the country, spreading in some inexplicable way, despite many of these schools being miles apart and completely unconnected. How the hell does this happen? And somehow it always has - even way before mobiles and the net etc.
Anyway, this got me thinking about some of the things we used to say as kiddy winkles. Three things came immediately to mind. First, I can remember when kids where going around asking other kids 'if they were born with 'appiness?', and the victims (read 'me' ) shaking their heads and looking confused, only to be laughed and pointed at, because they'd actually said 'a penis', not 'happiness'. Then there was a period of people getting their foreheads slapped to a cry of 'Tefal', which was another funny one! I'm sure there will be people here who will remember this. And last, I was thinking about a song, sung to the tune of In The Jungle or whatever it's called, that went:
'In the jungle, Geoffrey and Bungle,
sat drinking a bottle of gin,
In came Zippy, a bit of a dippy,
So Bungle kicked 'im in.'

I never found that song funny at all, but it made me chuckle just when I was thinking about it.

So what do you remember from childhood? What insults/songs/jokes or whatever where popular at some time in your schooling life? I'd also be interested to see how many other people, from completely different parts of the country, recongise the same things.

'I chased a bug around a tree.'

Oh how we laughed !

But then, it was about 1951 and humour was still on ration

Well as you can see, it wasn't in abundance in the 80s!

'Appiness and Tefal are familiar.

One game at junior school which confused the hell out of me was "war". A couple of boys would start the chant of "who wants to play at war?" while wandering the playground picking up new recruits for the game. After a while there would be a huge line of people joined up chanting "who wants to play at war?" at which point the bell would ring and it was time to go back to class. To this day I have no idea whether the game of "war" was just the collection of participants or there was a game at the end we never had time for.

Quote: Badge @ December 21 2009, 11:40 PM GMT

A couple of boys would start the chant of "who wants to play at war?" while wandering the playground picking up new recruits for the game. After a while there would be a huge line of people joined up chanting "who wants to play at war?"

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Quote: Badge @ December 21 2009, 11:40 PM GMT

'Appiness and Tefal are familiar.

One game at junior school which confused the hell out of me was "war". A couple of boys would start the chant of "who wants to play at war?" while wandering the playground picking up new recruits for the game. After a while there would be a huge line of people joined up chanting "who wants to play at war?" at which point the bell would ring and it was time to go back to class. To this day I have no idea whether the game of "war" was just the collection of participants or there was a game at the end we never had time for.

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LOL! The game that never was! That reminded me of how games of bulldog started in our school - only we 'did' actually end up playing it a bit. I've completely forgotten what the rules to that game were though

Quote: Nil Putters @ December 21 2009, 11:45 PM GMT

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Nil does satire like the best of 'em!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_traditional_children's_games

Quote: Moonstone @ December 21 2009, 11:33 PM GMT

I was thinking earlier about what I consider to be one of the great mysteries of the universe - how little things, insults, silly songs etc, manage to find popularity in every schoolyard across the country, spreading in some inexplicable way, despite many of these schools being miles apart and completely unconnected. How the hell does this happen? And somehow it always has - even way before mobiles and the net etc.

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Cousins, family friends, pen-pals, moving house. Half of those kinds of things would have been derived from stuff in comics or the national news anyway. Certainly confusing on the face of it, but quite explicable when one sits down and thinks about the things that do connect us.

As far as I know, none of the games mentioned so far ever made it across the ocean.

Quote: DaButt @ December 21 2009, 11:55 PM GMT

As far as I know, none of the games mentioned so far ever made it across the ocean.

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The Great Queen decreed that they were not for the consumption of Colonials.

Quote: Aaron @ December 21 2009, 11:52 PM GMT

Cousins, family friends, pen-pals, moving house. Half of those kinds of things would have been derived from stuff in comics or the national news anyway. Certainly confusing on the face of it, but quite explicable when one sits down and thinks about the things that do connect us.

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True. I still think it's pretty remarkable to an extent though. They travel for miles and remain unchanged, and many of them couldn't have come from adults or comics etc cos they're just too rude or offensive.

Quote: DaButt @ December 21 2009, 11:55 PM GMT

As far as I know, none of the games mentioned so far ever made it across the ocean.

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So what things did the kids find hilarious in your schools Dabutt?

Quote: Moonstone @ December 21 2009, 11:58 PM GMT

So what things did the kids find hilarious in your schools Dabutt?

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I can't remember that far back, but I doubt the kids play "Smear the Queer" like we did back in the 60s and 70s. Maybe they've renamed it "Hit the Member of an Unspecified Unpopular Group with a Rubber Ball."

Quote: Moonstone @ December 21 2009, 11:58 PM GMT

True. I still think it's pretty remarkable to an extent though. They travel for miles and remain unchanged, and many of them couldn't have come from adults or comics etc cos they're just too rude or offensive.

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I dunno. Kids (generally) don't have too much life experience or knowledge to draw humour from; give a group the same 'source' material and they're unlikely to travel far from it. Silly rhymes, nicknames for teachers, farts and other assorted bodily functions, and the natural instincts to join the crowd, as illustrated in Badge's "war" story.

I always wonderd how certain games got their names, e.g. me and my mates used to play this football game, which would be either every-man-for-himself, or played in pairs, or threes. There would only be one goal, guarded by a goalie, which we'd all be trying to get the ball into. If you scored, you went through to the next round, and the game would go on and on, until there were only 2 boys left, who would battle it out in the final round, having to score 3 goals to win. I've heard this game goes by different names all over the country, e.g. in London, they call it "World Cup", but around Merseyside it was known as "Cubbies". I haven't got the faintest idea why. Does anyone remember it?

Quote: catskillz @ December 22 2009, 12:09 AM GMT

I always wonderd how certain games got their names, e.g. me and my mates used to play this football game, which would be either every-man-for-himself, or played in pairs, or threes. There would only be one goal, guarded by a goalie, which we'd all be trying to get the ball into, afterwhich we'd progress throuh to the next round, until the final two boys would battle it out, having to score 3 goals to win. I've heard this game goes by different names all over the country, e.g. in London, they call it "World Cup", but around Merseyside it was known as "Cubbies". I haven't got the faintest idea why. Does anyone remember it?

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You're describing "three-and-you're-in", I think. In which the first person to score three is goalie for the next game (great prize).