Friday 25 July 2008

GIRLS PLAYING ELASTICS - 1960's

Around the playgrounds and streets of Dundee in the 60's, one of the games girls used to play was ELASTICS.
They would tie dozens of elastic bands together to form a large loop and then they were ready.
2 girls stood opposite each other with the elastic loop around their ankles and a 3rd girl would jump in & out of them, as they did with skipping. There were different moves & different degrees of difficulty - twisting them, hopping in between etc.
After the first ankle level was complete, the elastics would be moved up to knee height, then the waist.
Can't recall now if there were rhymes that went with it too.
Anyway, here below is film of Dundee lassies showing how it's done...although demonstrating that you could also tie the elastics around a lamp-post to play the game.

6 comments:

  1. I REMEMBER SEEING THE GIRLS PLAYING THIS AT THE GLEEBIE.
    I SUPPOSE NOWADYS THEY JUST PLAY AROUND WITH THEIR MOBILES.

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  2. "In", (jump inbetween elastics with both feet) "out", (jump out of elastics on either side with both feet) "sidey", "sidey" (just as it sounds, jump to the side with one foot out of the elastic the other in the middle, swapping sides each time, in (again) out (again) swizzle (drag the right elastic towards the left elastic making a K shape, Kick (jump out of the whole elastic without tangling anything
    That was what we played in the 1970s

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  3. wow! im 18, and when i was about 7 or 8 (1998) my mum tought me how to play it and i managed to get my school hooked to it! (EVEN THE BOYS!!!) hahaha

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  4. Im really keen to know what the music is in this movie clip!! Any info welcome....

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  5. It's the theme tune to kids tv programme "Vision On". It's official title is called "Accroche-toi Caroline!" by Claude Vasori.

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  6. At Forthill School in the 70s, we played it as a sort of high-jump. If you could jump-spin and clip the top of the elastics with your shoe, you could get over the line even at head height. I was pretty good at it!

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