Chants, The Clap And Knickers

A tune came on the radio as I was escaping Portsmouth for my Wiltshire hideaway. I urge you all to listen to it. Listen to it LOUD, you will smile and bop.
T-Rex…. Hot Love (The repeat to fade version)
I was immediately whipped back to a time in my life that is now called ‘pre-teen’, I call it ‘happy’.
Back to a time when being cool in the playground didn’t involve smoking, ‘looking’ the part, swearing and snogging.
You did other stuff.
I played football, Bulldog and Kinger but I wasn’t like the other girls!

There were the girls who wrapped the belt from their coat around a friend’s waist, then “Rode” them round the playground like a horse. Making strange clicking sounds and shouting, ‘Walk On’. Pigtails were acceptable reins during the summer.

There was the group that would produce a huge circle of knicker elastic or elastic bands joined together. Two girls looped this around their ankles and moved 6ft apart. Other girls would then jump on the stretched elastic in a certain order chanting,
‘….. inside, outside, twizzles’ off’.
Whatever the fuck that might mean!
I have an idea for it now, but it’s probably best kept to myself!.
After each turn the elastic was moved higher, Calf, knee etc.
Only got interesting to watch then.

Then there was the ‘angry’ lot. They had a tennis ball in a long sock or leg of an old pair of tights.
They would stand against a wall and fling this thing about like a medieval flagellant, chanting the weirdest shit.
“Nebuchnezzar, King of The Jews, bought his wife a pair of shoes…”
They didn’t sound happy about the shoes.
Get in the way and they’d have your fucking head off.
Having seen the effect of bad shoes on hectic Jewish women, I stayed the fuck away from this lot. I did also think they may have been the “Cossacks” my Great Grandmother used to shout about.

There were the freakish bunch who did a handclapping thing. Clapping hands against each other in a particular order ALSO chanting!
These chants had more to do with ‘Sailors going to sea, to see what they could see….’, than pissed off women in ill-fitting shoes.
Other girls would gather round and take it in turns to try and do it faster. This activity could also be done with another girl plaiting the “Clapee’s” hair. All most strange. The orderly handclapping made me think of my Grandmother and her shouting about Nazis.
I kept away from them.

Last and by no means least.
The girls who did handstands up against the wall!
For some reason it was always the girls with the grubbiest or brightest knickers on.
This is the time in my life when I learned to read the days of the week upside down.
Noticed I was the only girl watching with the boys and found out that some girls wore the same shreddies two days on the trot.
Nobody had warned me against this type of girl!
I made a mental note of them in case of ‘Wet PE’. There was always a mad dash for “Scottish Country Dance” partners and I did not want to be stuck in close proximity to a skanky one.

My hair is now so huge I’m picking up the police frequency, or the voices are back.
Either way, I’m going with it.