Scottish Traditions
Games
There are a number of traditional games that one could expect to see in school playgrounds around this time of year. Games seem to come round in their season. Spring sees the skipping ropes come out and girls jump over ropes to chants such as:
Hokey-pokey (icecream) Penny a lump,
That's the stuff tae mak ye jump.
or
Matthew Mark Luke John
Haud the cuddy (donkey) till I loup on
or
I wish I wis a boabby (policeman)
A big fat boabby
Tae wash ma mither's loabby wi soap an soda.
But the soap an soda meltit
And I got skelpit....
Then the rope is turned really fast and the jumps are counted until you trip.
There a huge number of these rhymes, some very local and others quite international, but many of them survive from generations ago and tell us a bit about life in the past. Icecream has gon eup in price a bit and when was the last time you washed a tiled floor with soap and washing soda?
