Just kidding! I thought, “Where the heck did that come from right before bed?”

This is one of the hazards of devoting your life to childhood lore. Random childhood sayings pop into your mind at different times. Happily, it can lead to a discussion of what’s new in the area of childhood sayings and lore like it did this morning with my children.

According to my kids, they do still say “Last one in is a rotten egg!” It’s an open saying that can refer to many things. It can be about going into a pool, a car, running indoors, etc… It’s a way to challenge someone to race you to get somewhere first!

It seems like that old childhood “disease”, The Cooties, is still around! Many of you may know that “The Cooties” is a game where a girl will touch a boy or a boy will touch a girl and say “You got The Cooties!” Of course, before getting The Cooties, the girls and boys run away from each other. In some versions of the game, if your fingers are crossed when you touched, you can’t get The Cooties.

The “Stinky Cheese Touch” comes from The Diary of a Wimpy Kid (soon to be a movie). What’s so neat about this is that the game was made up based on a book that’s only a couple of years old. It’s like the Cooties. One person chases the other kids to give them the “Stinky Cheese Touch” (I believe that part comes from The Diary of a Wimpy Kid book Roderick Rules). If the kid has any part of their body crossed (that you can see) they can’t get the Stinky Cheese Touch. If they do get the Stinky Cheese Touch, they have to get rid of it by touching someone else. This is played at my daughter’s elementary school.

A game I hear my daughter play a lot is “Five Minutes to Get Rid of It”. The way this game works is that as soon as you hear a person say “What”, you say, “Five minutes to get rid of It!” It seems to drive kids crazy and it makes it harder for them to speak without using the word “What”. So much so, that it has been banned form my daughter’s school! (No one has ever been able to explain to me what “It” is and what happens if you don’t get rid of “It” in five minutes.)

Finally, I leave you with some taunts that I grew up with in the 70’s and 80’s that are still around today.

When someone farts you can say:

“Who laid an egg?” or
“Who cut the cheese?”

Then the reply to this is:

“Whoever smelt it dealt it!”

If someone lies, kids say:

“Liar, liar, pants on fire!”

Here are some old time responses to taunts which are still used today:

“I’m rubber, you’re glue. It bounces off of me and sticks to you.”

or

Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names (or words) will never hurt me.”

Feel free to share any childhood games or sayings you know in the comments below.

Meanwhile, keep your fingers crossed to protect you from those nasty childhood diseases!

Mama Lisa