Elastics. Did you used to play?

[lurker172602]

Having a discussion yesterday with friends, me (ex NZ) and two similar aged friends, (mid fifties), 1 ex Sydney, 1 ex Melbourne, all remember playing Elastics as young girls, although the Victorian didn't think that was what they called it. Two other, older, friends had no idea what we were talking about.

Did you play, and what did you call it?

[imastawka]

Mine looked like this., and we had to wait until we had five leg lamb roasts

to get them.    They were real knuckle bones

 

(yeah, I know, there's only 4 there)

[debra9275]

ours looked like this. I think it was another kid who told me they were really bones, which freaked me right out, i hope mine were plastic 

Lurker, those instructions look way too complicated for me to re-learn how to do it now 

[cherry*135]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

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@am*3 wrote:

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@j*oono wrote:

We must have had a thing about France.  French knitting was popular at that time too.

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Knitting on spools? We called that rat's tails.

We played elastics also.

Used to put them on chair legs to practice by yourself.

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That never worked - one tiny mistake and you'd bring both chairs toppling inwards.

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Worked for me, they were pretty heavy solid wooden chairs.

Knucke bones - I think the ones we had were made of metal, they were heavy than plastic anyway and not bone.

[i-need-a-martini]

I bought my daughter a set of jacks about 6 months ago. It came with instructions but they were so complicated!! I didn't have the patience to figure it out and so my daughter lost interest after a minute.

I said yo my husband, how the heck did we ever learn how to play anything so confusing...

[lurker172602]

Those instructions from wiki that I posted earlier, although sounding complicated, are exactly as I remember them.  I suppose because we used to spend hours playing it became automatic.

[lionrose.7]

The metal knuckles bones where heavy but the bone ones the butcher used to save us were lighter.

Mum would not let us have the bones ones till they had been in the sun for a few weeks 🙂

[cherry*135]

I said to my husband, how the heck did we ever learn how to play anything so confusing..

Learnt from older siblings/cousins, kids at school I guess.

[kopenhagen5]

I still have my Jacks (knuclebones).

And the girls let me play elastics, but they were much better at it.

Starts at ankles, then at the knees and then the waist.

I liked it.

[beryl_green]

my jacks were the same as j*oono's picture, I used to love playing, I'm also ex England

[youcandoityoucandoityoucandoit]

OMG I cant believe how many remember jacks (aka knuckles) let alone played them!! haha

lurker, reading the wiki, brought it all back..every play lunch...squatting down, calling out the moves...'dumps!'.. 'no clicks'..'catching flies!'..loads of fun- probably quite good for hand eye coordination and you didnt have to be particularly sporty..