“No,” I say.
“Why not? Sally has one and Ruby has one.”
“Because you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s enough crap in our house.”
And then suddenly, I get a flashback of my own childhood. Of smashing shiny conkers hung from strings together when we lived in London. Of jumping over elastics on the hot asphalt. Of being cornered by a group of boys in the schoolyard of Farrer Primary, Canberra, and bullied into swapping my huge and gorgeous cat’s eye marble for a crappy, chipped pearly one — and crying in my bedroom later that afternoon.
Yes, my friends. The fidget spinner is just the latest in an endless list of childhood crazes.
Remember these beauties?
JACKS OR KNUCKLEBONES
Knucklebones originally came from sheep but modern versions are made from plastic or metal. The game usually involves throwing them up in the air and catching them in various different ways.
According to Wikipedia, the game of Jacks is as old as the hills: “Both the [Homer’s] Iliad and the Odyssey contain allusions to games similar in character to knucklebones.”
Vicky, 66, says: “You had to have a set of five, if they were really smooth and white even better. We would trade two or three dirty ones for a nice shiny one. Boys just had them in their pockets but girls tied them up in their hankies.
“We played at play time and lunch time. I didn’t know they were Jacks until I was older and wiser, I then thought those weird metal jacks were for poor unfortunates who couldn’t get real knucklebones.
“Writing this I can almost feel them landing on the back of my hand — and the last time I played was in the heat and dust of St Augustine’s Primary School, Wodonga in 1963. The nuns used to roll up their sleeves and play too — they were champions! Oh happy days.”
MARBLES
Every time the marble craze comes around, kids think they are brand new. In fact, examples of marbles go back centuries — to ancient Egypt and the region that, once-upon-a-time, was known as Mesopotamia, in the Middle East.
There’s a massive range of marble games and lingo — terms like: quitsies, clickies, tick-tack-toe, keepsies, knuckle down and knock out. Different types of marbles have their own alluring names, too: galaxies, tonks and tronks, grandmas and grandpas … the list is endless.
Simon, 39, is the oldest of three boys. When they were kids, he got out of sharing a room with his middle brother, Paul, by using marbles to bribe his younger brother, Michael.
“Michael had his own room. He swapped a solo room for my marble collection! That’s how valuable they were at the time. Mind you, he is dark about it to this day!”
ELASTICS
Generally this game involved jumping in and out of a long loop of taut elastic held at each end around the ankles of a couple of friends. Everyone chanted rhymes and the elastic got higher and higher. Here’s a cute home video demo.
Rachel, 45, recalls playing elastics — especially the rhyme “England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Inside, outside, inside out.”
She says: “Remember you went ankies, kneesies, thighsies and then necksies? I hate to say it, but I was the school champ in elastics.”
YO-YOS
“I never seemed to be able to do all the tricks that others could,” muses 49-year-old Megan.
Personally, I relate (always was hopeless with a yoyo.)
The yoyo — made from two disks and an axle with string tied to it — became popular in the 1920s, before making a huge resurgence in the 1990s. However, you can spot yoyos in Greek paintings dating back to 440BC. Who knew yoyos were that old?!
There’s even a World Yo-Yo Contest. This year it will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland.
(Some people see so-called “circus diabolos” as being related to the yoyo.)
FRIENDSHIP BANDS
When I was in primary school, I gave myself a repetitive strain injury from making so many friendship bands. (As outlandish as this seems, it’s true.) My mother, a physiotherapist, bandaged my wrist to help it heal. And she forbade me from making more bands!
Normally, the bands are made with thread and are given to others to show friendship. Creators use different combinations of colours and knots to create attractive patterns. Sometimes beads are added too. Here’s a simple guide if you’re keen to get started or show your children how.
(To me, other trends like loom bands and “Scooby Doo” knotting techniques are just variations of the same idea.)
