I remember games like:  

Moral,

Hopscotch

Marbles with the big Gommie Man (the big marble)

Skipping - Can d weddin go Yes No Yes No .....YES....Knife Fork, Spoon Stick

And JAX - I bought a Jax ball for Christmas 2009 for $1.75 but booh hooo I cant find Jax.....so I going use small stones....and during my lunch hour, I will play.....ONES Z's, GLORIES, PING PONG, PICKINGS, PUT TOGETHER,

Night time, when the Moon was ripe, and the adults reflected on the olden days, we kids played:

JIPSY IN D MOONLIGHT

1, 2, 3  red light.....

Coo Pee

Ooooooo ooooo   PAN AH PAN......hehhh hehh

And we would eat boil corn and breadnut

Or go for moonlight walks.....and pretend to see jumbie.....stone a dog (am sorry now) or run from a drunkard.....

We didnt know bout KFC etc.....We thief milk and sugar.....and i remember some lil condensed milk called Little Mary fo 5 cents

Oh and we grandpappy died and left us a goat....that was all he could afford.....We used to tie it out over the hill in some bushes.....no raper man was in then....and we would raid the jamaica plum tree and JAR PLUM trees and mango trees, and eat a thing called Sugar, and eat bread and cheese (a plant).....we even eat dirt.......Serious, dirt yes....oooo weee.

My version of baby house mud pies and beating dasheen bush with a belt.....and we used to play Cowboy

Beem Beem ah see Yute behind d stone......Yute dead.....

Oh boy, I miss dem days.....and I aint old yet....

Those were the good old days, you're back down memory lane. I played many of those games and I look back with such joy.  When we didnt have jacks we actually used small stones. :-) Jacks are still available though, just check the toy departments...bought some recently.

Did you ever play?

 "Miss Amy Amy coming down with ah bunch ah roses, coming down."

"Jane and Louise"

"Dog and bone"

"Ships sail..."

We spun taps which were made from spray can

We skated down the hill on cardboard

We tied vines/ropes in the trees and made our own swinging ropes.

We played cricket with coconut bats

We played dodge with plastic bags stuffed with paper or bean bags if we couldnt find balls.

Wow...we continue to fail this generation though, for many of those games have not been passed on widely enough.  We definitely need to start...

Could you believe my mom used to tell us that we not having fun when we were young....cause her days of fun playing the same games and more used to be so much fun....I remember birthday time mommy baked a cake, and me daddy bought a VP wine or Night Train or Thunder Bird and we had a family party with our neighbours.  Wait Wait.....waitttttt.   Back in the day we and we neighbour used to exchange food.....yes....when mammie cooked she sent over a plate and the neighbour would send her plate too......Wait.....Lord Mercy.....Man I want to go back....unfortunately I cant.....But me waistline stilll can move to "show me yo motion....cha la la la la.."

And there was hardly an obese child around cause all dem games and eating more fruits and fibre kept us all fit as a fiddle....I mean at school you hurry up eating the food which could take 5 minutes, and before the food settled you gone play for the next 55 minutes and burned off all those calories.  But you still had you little plastic bag with stewed damzel and tamarind, or some green plums with salt, or some hog plums.  And when I catch a cold nowadays it is  maybe one every 2 years that lasts 2 days......Now it is sad to say......we are committing suicide by all the preservative and junk....chemicals and all that stuff....boooh hooo.

We learnt independence, we learnt negotiation as we shared time, space and the breadfruit baby with we friends. Is it possible? can we return to village life. It is said that it takes a village to raise a child, but we are busy building cities as those cities construct the minds of our children. But, let me now take this sweet discussion down that road.

It too sweet. Somebody please tell a story- please!

Story Time

And now is the lentern season.....yes.....long ago, or not so long ago.....for 40 days we celebrated the Lentern Season..Once ash Wednesday came.....we go to Church....got ash on our forheads and we holy for that period.   Children had they own way of commemorating the season.....If we heard our friends singing calypso or cuss dirty words, WOO TOOM!!....one hard thump in he/she back....and that thump will be continuous until the friend said "LENT".  You see we had values....at such young age to even mark the death of The Most HIgh. It was like saying "stop it, respect the Master"

And remember Good Friday......Well we had yard fowls back in the day.....Mommy uses to take a fresh fowl egg, get up early before sunrise....put the white of the egg in a transparent glass of water, and leave it to form with the rising of the sun.....It apparently predicted the future.....hmmm......A Church meant wedding.....Boat meant travel....and Coffin?  Need I say more?   ..I swear to this day, one year, she got a church in her glass....Looked like the Catholic Church with steeples, doorway and all.....Serious.....I was a kid, but my memory still here.....I could remember she put the glass on the wall and what a lovely church....then she  took it and put it on the dining room table ....with one table foot rocky...  Yes we had a table that rocked...but we ate dinner there....just thought i would say that.

And during that season....mainly fish was eaten....And on Good Friday we looked forward to breakfast....BUNS....HOT CROSS BUNS.....the tradition still continues....people does rush fo buns still........And lunch was hard food aka ground provision....yam, dasheen, potato, plantain etc and coconut dumpling...with MACKEREL....(i dont like).....That was sauted down with onion, sweepepper , tomato.....It was delicious, i just didnt like it.  ....That would go down well with ginger beer or lime juice....hmm. 

And in the night when your mammie said "GO WASH YO FACE AND HAND", that meant Dinner time and you not going back outside.....and also meant Wash your feet cause we never used to wear shoes when we out at play.....and to date I haven't stumped a toe......

And ole people say if you cut certain trees like peas tree on Good Friday the stain would be red to symbolise Christ's blood..   And dirt would be red....Well I aint know eh.....And if you look early morning at a cow, it would kneel down saying prayers......Oh that was Christmas morning.....Well.....Ummmm....I used to macco Mr. Joshua's cattle but havent seen that....Well the cow had to make sure no one watching.....  Ole people said so....

Then Easter Monday......Bayside....yes.....we gone beach to eat back and neck pelau.....and play.....we used to pound almonds with stone and sand used to stick to the almond and we couldnt blow off all  so we ate everything ....sand and all...and pick sticky cherries, and eat them suckers.(same cherries u used to stick book wid) .....well I did......What fun.!.

One more thing at the end of the day when we parted with friends we would play LAR-LICK.......hehhh hehhh.....It was a jovial way of saying "bye, see you tomorrow"......Well hear this......Up to Monday I larlicked my co-workers.....DEM BUS OUT LAFFING LOUDLY......

And the story end....and the wire bend....and dats de end of the fountain pen.............