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?
In my school in the 90s, it went like this—
Quack diddly oso, Quack, quack, quack, Señorita, Rita, rita, rita, Velour, velour, Velour, velour, velour, velour, 1, 2, 3, 4!
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
