Patricia wrote:
Wondering if you have heard the words to a 50’s skipping game we played using elastics?
I believe it was originally a Korean children’s game and the children of missionaries brought it back to Canada in 1939. Original words:
Rioyun, Kaiyo, Yaku navide etc.
This song was taught to commemorate the victory of Russian-Japanese war of 1905 and written by a Japanese poet (After this war, Japan occupied Korea).
The words we sang as children here in Ontario were:
Yoki and the Kaiser, Yoki addy ay, Tamba, so-ba, Sa-du, say-day. Yoki in the Kaiser, Yoki allee-ay, Kick him in the so-po, Sa-du, sa-day!
We had no idea what we were singing!
Patricia
Ontario Canada
It just so happens that Bill Conrad had asked me about this song last year. Here’s what he wrote:
In Montreal, in the 50’s, girls used to celebrate Spring with skipping ropes and elastics. While playing the elastic game they sung a “ditty” that went somewhat like this,”Yolem a Kaiser,Yokem addiay….” Do you know what I am referring to? Bill Conrod
I’m not familiar with this song. If anyone else can help out with the lyrics, meaning or origins of this song (or of the original song it comes from) please comment below.
Thanks!
Lisa
PS I have one question for Patricia and Bill: Does skipping ropes with elastics mean playing Chinese jump rope?
This article was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 10:57 am and is filed under American Kids Songs, Canada, Canadian Children's Songs, Children's Songs, Chinese Jump Rope, Countries & Cultures, Elastics, English, Games Around the World, Japan, Korean, Korean Children's Songs, Languages, Questions, Readers Questions, Skipping Game, South Korea, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
January 12th, 2015 at 3:08 am
I have asked many friends if they know this song and not one remembers.
Glad to finally know i didn’t image it lol
March 27th, 2015 at 1:04 pm
Yesterday I was teaching at an elementary school and the skipping ropes were coming out at recess – as the snow has finally melted off the pavement. Many of the girls were in groups playing a game called “Helicopter” where they call out a verse while swinging the rope around overhead. It made me think about the games we used to play back in the early 60’s (in Ottawa) and for the rest of the day I had the first two lines of “Yogi” stuck in my head. So glad to find this posting and clear up the rest. “Hello Sir” was also very popular – I’d forgotten that one!
March 27th, 2015 at 10:55 pm
I just remembered the version of a ball-and-stocking song, similar to Catherine’s (May 29 2014):
hello hello hello sir
are you coming out sir?
no sir
why sir?
because i have a cold sir
where’d you catch the cold sir?
at the north pole sir
whatcha doin there sir?
catchin polar bears sir
how many did you catch sir?
one sir
two sir
three sir
etc.
that’s enough for me sir
I have a vague memory of one girl wielding the stocking and other girls having to enter the swing zone and flatten themselves against the wall to escape the ball.
April 3rd, 2015 at 8:19 pm
Pam wrote:
“Yes Janet we sang it exactly as you have posted! We played it the same way…ball in a stocking and one girl against the wall. Fabulous memories indeed!”
April 18th, 2015 at 3:21 pm
I totally forgot that there was a song that went with the elastic ‘rope’ game! We played it non-stop in the early 60s in the west end of Ottawa. Now that I’m remembering it, we sang it to “twinkle twinkle” and it was pretty simple nonsense words: Yogi (probably thought it was the bear!)in the kaiser, yogi ai-aye, …?, sadoo-saday. We emphasized the sadoo-saday part.
A very popular game with the younger kids (maybe grade one) was a congo line that would weave the school yard (D. Roy Kennedy). Each kid would wiggle left & right while we sang “Jelly in the bowl. Jelly in the bowl. Wiggle-waggle, wiggle waggle. Jelly in the bowl” over and over. I wonder if anyone else remembers that?
We also did the ball in stocking, but I remember singing “On the mountain stands a lady (…who she is I do not know. All she wants is gold and silver…)” to it.
April 23rd, 2015 at 2:41 am
It truly is a glorious trip down memory lane, isn’t it girls. I am 60 now, and thank everyone very much for adding some new memories over and above good old Yogi on a Keiser whatever the version! :)
June 17th, 2015 at 5:29 pm
We played this for years at Pape Public School in the late 1950s and then to a lesser degree at Earl Grey Sr. Public. So nice to read all the comments.
Now, does anyone remember what we called “brotherhood jackets”? I know they just look like Levi jeans jackets of today but why were they called “brotherhood jackets”? We decorated them and wore ribbons of our school colours attached to one shoulder too. If anyone has a picture, that would be awesome.
July 23rd, 2015 at 11:01 am
In Leaside in the late ’50s, early ’60s we played variations of almost all of the above-mentioned games.
The song we used was: Yokis in the kaisa, yoki didy ay, tangis in the sobo, saw doo saw day. (or words to that effect)
I studied music in university so I will describe the song to the best of my ability without actually writing out the tune.
Do do do me so so, la so fa la so, do do do me so so, fa me ra do. (solfeg)
Terry teery tah tah, teery teery tah ah, teery terry tah tah, tah ah, tah ah, tah ah tah ah. (Rhythm in 4/4 time)
I wish I could write out the music to show you but this is the best I can do. I hope it makes sense for at least some.
This was what we sang to that tangling method that someone described above. Wonderful memories of outdoor play/exercise from early morning until dusk.
July 23rd, 2015 at 7:11 pm
Thanks for sharing! If you’d like to sing it for us, we can post a recording. Please email me if you’re interested. We have an answering machine where people can record songs. Thanks! Mama Lisa
July 30th, 2015 at 7:29 pm
Is this the tune to Yoki and the Kaiser? This midi here.
September 9th, 2015 at 7:57 pm
So glad to find this site. The words to Yoki have eluded me for years.
And the rest of “On the Hill” as I remember it were “All she needs is a fine young beau”…..so call in my (girl of your choice)dear,____dear____dear. So call in my ____dear, and I’ll fly away. Whereupon you would run out of the rope and she would run in.
I was in Franklin Horner school and I remember these games from the WWII years.
September 10th, 2015 at 12:54 am
I also lived in Leaside in the 50’s. The words were as MB indicated. Always referred to it as “Yokus”. Elastics looped together or a length of elastic if you were able to get your Mom to buy it for you. Thicker elastic lasted longer if you could get some.
Double dutch was difficult to master, but with everyone playing every recess, after school, after dinner…you just practiced!
The refrain with the stocking and India rubber ball (hard on the ears whoever was in the house!) was:
The lady in the tight skirt can’t do this. (raise leg and bounce diagonally)
Repeat with alternate leg and then back to the next.
Good times if you did not have a friend available….
September 10th, 2015 at 2:09 am
I am so glad Joki on the Kaiser was mention in a Toronto Star story today, as it made me google it which brought me to this site- although I too went Summit Heights where we called it Yogi in the Kaiser. I remember playing yogi, skipping single ropes and double dutch, playing with the rubber ball in the stocking and singing
A sailor went to sea sea sea
To see what he could see see see
But all that he could see see see
Was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea.
The ball went under our leg with each sea or see.
I remember the Ordinary-Moving game too, now that you reminded.
Thanks so much for these memories.
September 10th, 2015 at 2:15 am
I refer back to *Christine Roberts comment – Aug. 25, 2011.
I too attended Rawlinson P.S. on Glenholme Ave., (south of Rogers Rd. & north of St.Clair) 1949>58. From Kindergarten > Grade 8. Perhaps we have played Yoki together, Christine? Your comment is bang on, what fun we had at our recess breaks & lunch time playing Yoki & the Kaiser. Yes, our elastic string was held taut by two enders (one girl on each end) while the rhyme was sang by ‘all’, the one playing went through the actions & gradually moved up from ankle to knee to hip to waist etc. Once she ‘missed’ getting her leg over the elastics or tangled in it, she became an ender. The last of the moves was to ‘jump the elastic string’ at each height level. Easy to do when it was at ankle height, not so easy when it was held by the enders on top of their heads, or arms length above their heads. Any number could play, we just rotated through the line taking our turn in the middle. What memories! We kids certainly got our ‘required 60 minutes of exercise’ each day.
I also had a Double Dutch Skipping Rope, & it was also great fun, on a par with Yoki. My Grandfather (in a previous life) had been a rope maker. He kept me supplied with what I thought was ‘the best Double Dutch Rope’ at school. When the rope became worn & frayed from constant beating on the ground, it went back to Grandpa & he would provide me with a new one. Then he would repair the worn broken one, ready for my next trade-in
September 11th, 2015 at 6:39 pm
FYI The Article in the Toronto Star that mentions Yoki and the Kaiser can be read here.
September 25th, 2015 at 5:06 am
You girls have made my day, I’ve been looking for the game with the long stocking, ball and wall…. for I don’t know how long…. We were playing that in the 60s, early sixties in Montreal. thanks
September 29th, 2015 at 2:42 am
Russsell Nadel’s post from March 2008 is amazing. I went to Hume Public School back in the 50’s when that game was introduced. We played it ALL the time. i had no idea what the words really were or what they meant, but we loved it.
September 29th, 2015 at 12:35 pm
I went to Whitney School in Moore Park in the 50s and the version of Yoki that we chanted was:
Yoki in the Kaiser
Yoki audy ay
Tank in the sobo
Sedoo, seday.
And it was more of a chant than a tune.
Great to be reminded also of “Ordinary Movings” which, to my recollection, went like this:
Ordinary movings – laughings – talkings – one hand – the other hand – one foot – the other foot –
clap front – clap back – clap front and back – clap back and front – tweedles – twidles – curtesies –
salutesies – bowsies – jumpsies – and underground.
September 29th, 2015 at 7:29 pm
Does anyone remember the game Mississippi? It was played with joined elastics like the Yoki game except you used two lengths instead of one. You’d spell out the word Mississippi while you put one leg over the elastic then back again. For the single letters in the word, you put your leg over a single strand but for the double letters…ss/ss/pp… you’d have to pop your leg over the second strand of elastic. Like with Yoki, you held the elastics at different levels…ankle,knee,waist etc. Such fun times back then! There was no shortage of games to play at recess or with your friends out on the street after supper.
September 29th, 2015 at 8:34 pm
I’m having so much fun with this thread. Thank you all. Thanks Bronwyn for the words to “Ordinary Moving”; I was trying to recall them. I think we said it exactly the same way, except for your very last word. Instead of ‘underground’, if memory serves, we said ‘and away she goes’. Did anyone else say it that way?
Also, while we’re on the topic of the playground, do you all remember the rhymes that went with partnered clapping games? I know we had a few of them.
And any more skipping rope rhymes?
Also I remember playing cat’s cradle with a piece of string. One person looped the string between their hands and the other re-looped it on their hands, in a changed pattern. I think I still remember the patterns, but I forget the names of them.
October 1st, 2015 at 4:19 pm
Re Janet’s note August 28, 2010 about the game of Elastics… This is the exact game and the exact song lyrics that I remember playing in Stratford, Ontario, around 1960. The notes in the do-re-mi system were do-do-do-mi-so-so, la-so-fa-la-so, fa-fa-fa-fa-mi-mi, fa-mi-re-do. And once again the words were: “Yokis in the kaiser, yokis oddy-ay. Tangus in the sobo, saw do, saw day.” It’s so much fun to remember, and possibly to reference in my current creative writing activities.
October 28th, 2015 at 4:15 am
A trip down memory lane reading these posts! A chance photo on Facebook of a yoki rope made me start looking for the words to the chant. I was at Deer Park Jr and Sr Public at St Clair and Avoca from 1963 to 1966. We played yoki only in Grade 6 because for Grades 7 and 8 we didn’t have a full recess…and probably thought we were too grown up to play at lunchtime! But for one year we played and we sang:
Yoki on a kaiser
Yoki addy ay
Tank in a sailboat
Sadoop saday
I knew it was gibberish but the words “kaiser” and “tank” made me think it was something derogatory about the war. I never liked saying the verse but it was important to be part of the crowd!
We also played the ball game Ordinary Movings and it was at Deer Park where I finally started playing Two Balls…preferably with tennis balls as they were less slippy. And there was a rhyme that went:
Mickey Mouse went under the house
Clapped his hands…..(and you did motions and tricks with balls but I was never really good at more than the basics).
Somebody here mentioned groups of girls linking arms and walking around the playground chanting the same line until the teacher on duty broke us up:
We are a little bit crazy (quick walking)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (deep kneebends)
We are a little bit crazy (quick walking)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (more kneebends)
….ad infinitum….we were easily amused!
February 19th, 2016 at 10:00 pm
Nancy, yes, i remember Mississippi with the double elastics..we called it YOGI, and single elastic was “jumpsies”… Went to Wedgewood PS in the late 50’s and 60’s
..and 1,2,3 o larry w. Ball (tennis, in case it hit yer head ;)) in stocking
…”on the mountain lives a lady” too
…cant remember the words/tune to a line of girls holding hands and then dragging the line over and ducking under 1st girls arms and ending up w.linked crossed arms
..what fun, no fighting, no bullying
April 2nd, 2016 at 8:05 pm
I went to Armour Heights P.S. in the late fifties – we played all of the games mentioned above.
If you were the owner of the skipping rope, or the yogi elastic, or the rubber ball, you had increased status at recess. This back in the day when the girls and boys play yards were separated as were the school entrances. Seems so quaint now.
Yogi, double dutch, Red Rover (which I never liked), hopscotch, various games involving throwing a ball against the wall (or in a nylon stocking). We seemed to be very busy with the very minimum of equipment.
“On the mountain stands a lady, who she is I do not know…”
“Jelly in the bowl, jelly in the bowl, wiggle woggle, wiggle woggle, jelly in the bowl”
May 16th, 2016 at 9:16 pm
It’s amazing how those games migrated around neighbourhoods, cities, etc. via a children’s culture independent of parents, teachers. I went to Blessed Sacrament School in North Toronto (Yonge & Lawrence) in the 50’s. I remember the Yoki game well. I remember the tune something like Twinkle, Twinkle but not quite. These are the words from my memory
Yoki an-addy kaiser
Yoki audie-ay.
Tank in the sailboat,
Saw do, saw day
I also thought in later life it must have to do with WWI with references to Kaiser, tanks, etc.
I remember playing “Ordinary Moving” too. With an India rubber ball (sort of lethal it was!) against the school wall.
June 23rd, 2016 at 2:45 am
Oh my! This has been a wonderful read. I grew up in Leaside & during the ’50’s all of the school yard games mentioned here were played – for hours & hours. Yokus in the Kaiser or Yogi was a favourite & I was fortunate to have had garment elastic purchased for me by my Mom. There was only one problem. I was really short & rarely made it past waist height. I held the “end” a lot. lol
August 29th, 2016 at 5:05 am
I played yoki in Toronto in the tune..m i ss I ss I pp I played this game with elastics for hours and double Dutch skipping. Never thought of it as exercise… Just a game!
September 26th, 2016 at 8:14 pm
We received this email:
During the 50’s in Willowdale (Toronto):
Penny game in bathtub-shaped ceramic cast iron drinking fountain (taps and drain out for winter frost). It was outside on the west wall near the staff parking. Sorry that is all I remember about that game.
I was usually tossing baseball cards against the school wall (closest wins).
Making roads with Matchbox, Corgi or Dinky toys.
Catching pop-flies off that angled stonework.
Doney Whackers (chestnuts on a string)
In the fall Duncan Yo-Yo pros would be outside after school to demonstrate new tricks. Quick run home and get money to buy one!
Or playing with my Duncan Imperial spin-top. The white deluxe one with fake diamonds on the top.
I remember girls in my class playing with origami things with messages, cat’s cradle, double-dutch & yoki as well.
The janitor would put a wooden red-flag out when the playing field got muddy and you had to keep to the asphalt.
Ignoring this meant risking having Mr. Jones, Mr. Barker or whoever was on duty, putting your name-in-the-book in the principal’s office. Three times in the year and you got the strap. I made sure that I never passed two times in a year.
It kept us obedient!
September 28th, 2016 at 2:42 am
Re Game played with looped elastic to form rope….I remember in the very early 60’s on Ottawa St in the Summerhill and Yonge area we looped elastics together and two held it while one did leg work over it and all sang ” yoki in the kaiser yoki audi ay ” and what we sang after those words is a mystery to me …lol lol ..lots of double dutch too. Anyone commenting from the Yonge and Summerhill/ Shaftsbury area of Toronto??
October 14th, 2016 at 4:32 pm
Re: Yoki. We played it for hours every day. I went to Finch Ave P.S. in Willowdale, a suburb of Toronto. We sang:
Yoki in the kaiser
Yoki audi-a
Tang in the sofa
Sawdu, sawday
Always thought it referred to the first war so the actual origin is very interesting. We also played lots of Double Dutch and tag.
October 15th, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Humewood Alumnus 1946, 47, 48, 49
The girls chanted “Yoki and the Kaiser” on the girls’ side of the playground (a strictly observed voluntary segregation by both sexes), while doing all their skipping games. I was very impressed, none of the boys could do any of this. Especially the double-dutch thing with the two long ropes flying in opposite directions. We fellows would never admit it back then, but we amazed at the athletic ability of the girls jumping in and out of those flying ropes. Congatulations ladies, can you still do this today?
(The boys did handball against that giant wall on the “boys’ side” of the old building)
December 30th, 2016 at 5:21 pm
I played this ages ago at school in Montreal in the 50s and have been looking for the words to the song since then. We lived in Beijing in the early 70s and it was a very popular game at that time.
I am very glad to have found it!
Cheers!
December 31st, 2016 at 4:26 pm
Was it played in Beijing Susan or just Montreal?
Cheers!
Lisa
February 9th, 2017 at 3:40 pm
I played Yogi in the 1960s in Pointe Claire Quebec. I have really enjoyed reading all these different versions of the words and realize we had no idea what we were saying. We did not sing the words by kind of chanted to a rhythm with no tune. We thought it was Yogi in the Tiser, Yogi ottyay, Tennessee asoda, sedu, seday. Hilarious. I don’t remember who taught us these words! The Teachers must have had lot of fun watching us!
February 10th, 2017 at 2:52 pm
I love hearing all of these versions of Yogi too! Would anyone like to record it for us? :) Mama Lisa
February 26th, 2017 at 3:58 am
I grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario and played Yogi in the early 60’s. My memory of the words is
Yogi in the kaiser
Yogi Audy ey
San Francisco, USA
I think it is really humourous how we all have different versions of these words, yet we all played the same game! Thanks for the great memories!
March 24th, 2017 at 4:24 am
I played a game with elastics all joined together in a long ‘string’ way back in the 50’s.
The game started by two girls holding the ends of the long elastic at different levels measured by ones body. The girl who was ‘the player’ used her leg bent at the knee to move it back and forth over the elastic ‘string’ as everyone sang the words:
Yoki on a kaysa
Yoki on an ay
Tank in a sobo
Sadu, saday
I simply thought it was a nonsense rhyme.
The two girls holding the elastic ends then when up to waist, chest, underarms, shoulder etc. until the ‘player’ could go no higher.
Once that happened another girl took her place. If you were the one that got the highest, say the ‘shoulder’ you felt great at having ‘beat’ the other girls. It was a sense of pride to ‘win.’ Fun to reminisce about this very old children’s game. I lived in Toronto and attended Spring Garden Elementary School. I now live on the West Coast and have never seen that game played. I wonder if it is being played anywhere.
April 24th, 2017 at 3:42 pm
I know this is an old questions but I played this game with my friends in Oakville, Ontario Canada back in the 1950’s public school. My Mom provided me with the elastic she bought from the sewing and notions store in town. I remember only part of the saying going as follows: “Yoki on a Kaiser, Yoki ody eh, tany in a sobo, suey, suey, eh!” Not sure of the spelling, but this was the saying I remember. We only used 1 elastic, held at each end by some and the player started at the ankle, lifting only 1 leg back and forth over the elastic saying this phrase and at the end we would jump over the elastic, then the elastic was raised to the knee and the player would do the same process and saying, lifting their leg grabbing onto the elastic and jumping over, then it was lifted again to the waist, same process, then lifted to the chest, then shoulder, then the last was the top of the heads and the whole gist was to be able to lift your leg high enough to catch the elastic to be able to get over the elastic. If you failed at any point then you were out until the last girl was left. Usually, there was a line up of girls. I saw on YouTube that the new Yoki is done differently with 2 elastics, almost like a hop scotch type of process. I guess like all games this one evolved. Hopefully you get this message and it’s not to late to comment. I was talking about it with my friend the other day (we are now seniors) and she grew up in London, ON and had never heard of this game. I found that odd because it was very popular back in the early 1950’s.
April 24th, 2017 at 6:52 pm
Thanks for sharing Margaret! Yogi and the Kaiser seems to have been played mostly in Canada.
May 27th, 2017 at 9:45 pm
Friends and family here in the U.K. look at me with that ‘poor old thing’ expression on their faces when I recall playing Yoko Nada Keiser (or whatever the proper words are) in Toronto in the early 1950s. The difficulty of explaining a game where the main move is hooking your leg over stretched elastic while you chant an unknown language cannot be exaggerated! I have never heard of anyone playing this game anywhere else, and I have lived in many countries. Thank you so much for this blog – what a delight. I also remember ‘Ordinary Movings’ very well, and have recently taught a local 8 year old how to play it, complete with a double twist on ‘Away She Goes’, so at least it has one young enthusiast here in (what is still) The European Union.
Don’t think I’m quite up to the Yoko Nada these days. I was quite addicted. A permanent line at shoulder height stretched across the basement area – thank, you mother! And possibly the start of a pelvic misalignment. (For the record, I went to St. Matthews school and we lived on Silverthorn).
June 19th, 2017 at 1:09 pm
What a wonderful site. Yesterday my 6year old Granddaughter came home from the park with a bunch of elastics tied together and I thought she had been playing Yoki but when I described it, she did not know what I was talking about. Either did her mother who I thought would have played it as a child. It seems to have been lost over the years.
I grew up in North Toronto in the 1950’s so I fit right into the timeline. It seems the lyrics are all similar but like “whisper the secret game” change in the telling. We played it very much like Sandra J. above. Jumping it at different heights.
June 19th, 2017 at 2:16 pm
Is “whispers the secret game” the same as the game of telephone?
June 19th, 2017 at 3:49 pm
Not sure if the “whispering game” is the correct name but what I am referring to is a game you play while sitting in a circle and you whisper something to the person beside you and it is then whispered to the next person and so on. Usually by the time it get back to you it is a totally different from the original words. Like the Yoki game the words were changed over the years.
July 19th, 2017 at 5:58 pm
I was looking for the words today. And found Ordinary Movings here too. I had absolutely forgotten that game. Thanks for all the words. I did remember as far as the first two of the clapping steps, and was surprised at that. Yoki. Yoke. Hmmm. I remember the “words” but my spelling would be merely by ear. Similar to some of the ones I have seen here. We played this game in the 50’s using the string of elastics as a “rope”. Hopping up and down, we would fling one leg over the rope and back while singing the words. From ankle to above the head, although after shoulder height it would just be single jumps over the rope. Here’s my “by ear” spelling:
Yoke in a ky’s eye,
Yoke in eye dee ay
Tank in a soble
Sa do, sa day.
Never associated it with the Kaiser, which would have been WW I, wouldn’t it? We played it after WWII. At John R. Wilcox Public, Ava Road Toronto, not far from Vaughan Road Collegiate. 1955-1960 approx.
September 3rd, 2017 at 4:34 pm
I grew up in Newtonbrook (or Willowdale, North York) and played `Yoki`(yogi) in the late 50s, early 60s at Drewry Avenue P.S. I remember the words as being similar to those stated by Jeamie (above) –
Yogi on a kaiser
Yogi on a bay
Sampson in a sail boat
Skidoo skiday
Our school had a row of bricks (about 5-6 feet off the ground) jutting out on which we played the Ordinary Movements game with an India Rubber ball. If we could hit that ledge the ball would bounce up much higher giving us more time to do the movements. I think we also used to aim for the ledge and count the number of times we could do it in a row. Oh for the days of simple games!!
October 2nd, 2017 at 2:16 pm
The words I sang in Ottawa in the 1960’s were “Yoki on the kaiser, Yoki on the aye, Stand at a syllable, Sudoo, Suday. I have challenged my senior women friends to come out to play elastics, Ordinary Movings and skipping. This could be the next big fitness trend.
January 31st, 2018 at 11:50 pm
Just tonight I discovered this site. How interesting. My sister and I played Yoki in the late 40’s at Regal Road Public School (Davenport & Dufferin). We played by the hour as others have stated. The words varied somewhat due to the telephone game influence I think.
We also plated lots of ball games against the large brick wall on the east side of the school in the “GIRLS” play area.
I also tonight looked for and found my copy of Sally Go Round the Sun and the 33 1/3 LP that goes with it.
This was fun.
February 21st, 2018 at 6:12 am
In Montreal (Hampstead School) in the 50’s we played what I thought was:
yoken-a-keiser,
yoken idee-ay
soldiers contestant,
sadu, saday.
I never had any idea what it meant. It did always sound a bit Japanese to me but I never made the connection with the war.
While the boys were doing whatever they did, we girls played various skipping and double dutch games and Yoken a-keiser, the elastic game, a girl at each end raising the elastic higher and higher, and the other girls in turn going through the song raising one leg over and back and then finally leaping over the elastic and back on “sadu, saday”. The tune was closest to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but not quite identical. The goal was to not touch the elastic. If you did you took over holding one end of the elastic.
It’s been great fun to read through these replies and to reminisce about all the games and skipping rhymes we knew. I don’t know if little girls have anything like this anymore, but I hope they do.
March 18th, 2018 at 8:08 pm
While organizing a drawer containing some elastic bands, the chant “Yoki and the kaiser, Yoki oddy- ay” suddenly popped into my head. A quick Google, and I was engrossed in this charming blog! Such memories! I can relate to most of the retrieved memories that have already been contributed (Yoki, double-Dutch, ball in the nylon, ‘broken telephone’, yoyo, hopscotch, tag, etc.). I attended West Preparatory [‘West Prep’] on Ridge Hill Dr. in Toronto in 1957 that had a playground with pavement but also sandy areas where, in good weather/alley season, we honed our budding gambling skills and risked our hard-won marbles by playing for keeps.
This school also had a couple of enamelled cast iron drinking fountain tubs on the outside of the building, so no one needed to run in and out of the building during recess.
I remember standing in line with my classmates in the fall as we waited for the bell to ring while practicing our playground chants/rhymes and snacking on raw sunflower or pumpkin seeds that we carried to school in our pocket, skilfully spitting out the shells onto said pavement – a cool thing to do at the time, and well, no sugar and biodegradable.
April 26th, 2018 at 7:54 pm
Patricia, I believe the lyrics you suggested are spot on! At least as far as I can remember, and it’s a great memory to re-live!
I was born in the 50’s and played Yoki ALL THE TIME with my friends.
It worked like this: two people would stand on either end, while a third player jumped over the elastic rope until they “missed” jumping over it. Then the third person would take an end and let that “end-holder” have a turn at jumping. We’d start at “ankles”, meaning to hold the elastic rope at ankle height on either end and having someone jump over it (easy!). Then it was held at knee height; then hip height, then waist, shoulder, ears, head and finally “arm’s length”.
We were so beautifully fit, some of us could even run, spinning and twisting at the last moment to snag the elastic rope (we just called it a “Yokey”) with a toe, landing and with an exalted satisfaction on the other side!
Of course, it helped if you were tall for your age, but some smaller kids had great confidence and jumped much higher than you would have thought them capable of — it was an exciting challenge! We couldn’t wait for recess so that we could race to the macadam and play our little addictive sport. It was dirt cheap to buy the supplies (elastics of various sizes and colours) and provided hours and hours of fun, all the while resulting in making many friends! I still talk regularly to one of these friends of mine, even though she lives on Vancouver Island now and I live in Belleville, Ontario. Now I’ll call her and recite these lyrics to her — she’ll probably want to pass it along to her granddaughters!
l wanted to teach it to MY grandkids now and thought I’d look online for the lyrics, so when I found your post, I very much appreciated reading and recalling these lyrics, My Fellow Elastic Jumper… wish I could jump that “Yokey” now instead of enduring the chemo I had this morning! There’s probably some comparison I could make between the two, but I’ll leave that unsaid, and instead, continue to recall the memories of a magical youth!
Jane