Hop-scotch, gambos and levitation

Loved John's comments on the Opies and kids' rhymes. I love all that stuff and have blogged about some I remember:
 omp-pomp-pee-and-lousianna

I went to junior school in Aberenfig, but when I went to Secondary school I was with children from Bridgend and Maesteg and realised they had different games, game words and rhymes despite being only two and eight miles away. When I went away to college in the big city - Cardiff(!) - a whole twenty miles away I found more differences. What I thought of as aeroplane hopscotch was simply hopscotch and the rhymes for playing two balls or skipping were endless. I particularly liked:
??????? had a fright
In the middle of the night
She saw a ghost eating toast 
halfway up a lampost

And there were those naughty rhymes where you nearly/sort of swore:
Lily was in the garden playing with the cat
Down came a bumble bee and stug her on her...
Twice she went to the doctor's...

While I find it hard to remember poetry or lyrics to songs I can recite the whole of the piece of filth above!

The word gambo has caused me great excitement - I should get out more! - it was what we called home made go-carts in Aberkenfig but were buggies or go-carts in Cardiff. The word actually came up on"call my Bluff" many moons ago.
 Wiki -Call My Bluff
The definition was a hay cart in the West Country.
Further excitement was caused when I saw the word on a cart wheel in the wonderful coracle museum in Cenarth in Cardigan:
 coracle museum.


 I wonder how many people attempted the levitation thing where you chanted to try and make a person weightless and the group attempt to pick the person up from a prone position supporting them with two fingers of each hand. There was a variation to make someone fall back as well where you pretended to make holes in their back and then thread and pull an imaginary string... Universal or just Aberenfig I wondered, but - as so often - the wonderful Wiki provided an answer:
wiki Light as a feather, stiff as a board

Caramac bars

 

There's nothing like confectionery to take you straight back to your past. Proust may have had his madeleines but yesterday I spotted and bought some Caramac bars in Azda. Tasted so wonderful I ate the lot - four bars - I always think there are more interesting things to cause guilt than what one eats so I remain unrepentant and smiling. I am pretty sure Caramac used to be called chocolate, but is no longer - presumably it doesn't qualify under EU regs and is probably well dodgy in terms of  non-nutrients but tasted delicious!
While looking for a picture I discovered Caramac icecream bars and Kitats - such unrealised dreams! There were also search suggestions for Caramac cakes, recipes and Easter eggs - what a World!


I also found this picture of 60s confectionary - a jigsaw from the Robert Opie collection. Robert is the son of the couple who collected the games, language and lore of children.
Wiki -Iona and Peter Opie
He had an amazing museum in Gloucester called the "Package" which had wonderful collections of - packaging! I seem to remember reading it had all started with a Munchie packet and I was right: Robert Opie's museum info

So what do you remember? Many old favorites are now back and some never went away but may have changed names. I loved the shilling bars of Cadbury's Milk tray where you got a pretend box of chocs in a bar. I also remember being given a one layer 1/4lb box of Milk Tray - not seen less that 1/2lb or equivalent for years.

Although I find marzipan quite sickly I seem to remember the ratio to marzipan and Cadburys chocolate worked for me and it's one that's not been resurrected. And I'm sure Mackintosh used to do a soft caramel in chocolate bar for 2d (now I'm showing my age!) that was shaped like a long oval but indented so it went in in the middle and seemed rather bone-like in shape to me.
The current Cadbury's small flat bar were once thruppenny bars and there were smaller tuppeny and penny bars available. I also liked the Cadbury's minatures which I seem to recall being known as "flat 20s" when in boxes of 20.

And of course there was the classic Fry's Five Boys which rivalled the Cadbury's bars until they got taken over by what was once Cadbury's and is now a massive food empire.

I was more into chocolate than sweets, but did like sherbert - the coloured crystals rather than the white powder you got in Sherbert dips. The only way to eat it was with a well-licked finger which would then change colour...

I also remember when Lucozade was thought to be for people who were ill and I got weird looks when I drank it  regularly in the seventies. I once took Lucozade to a party and my friend John Taylor got all nostalgic then polluted it with whisky! I was obviously not the liveliest of party-goers...

Now there are all these nostalgia/sweetie shops springing up everywhere it's easy to trip downthis particular memory lane.

Snow...

I love wandering around Aberkenfig and the surrounding area so was lovely to see it in the snow. Click on pictures for bigger version.

Life's Necessities...

This is the view from my back garden.

Had been snowed in for a few days - not dramatically, but access to motorway was closed and my car was under a blanket of snow. Decided to have a walk around the village and surrounding area and it was all very picturesque as expected.


The local foodshops were open and had bread and milk - there'd been panic buying in South Wales supermarkets - and to my amusement and delight  the sex shop and gun shop were also open - Other businesses were closed but you could still get sex and guns in the village!

Will post more pics, but having problems with where pictures are being placed - still - you get the picture..

Front garden and my car

View of my street

The snowmen!

I'll post pictures on new entry.