Dodge ball, double dutch, and double bubble gum

Alliteration again. I didn't like dodge ball, until I got good at it. It seemed, since I was the smallest kid in the class that I was usually the target of the ball. But I practiced dodging pretend balls and got good at avoiding getting hit. And I practiced throwing that big round brown ball and was able to hit whomever was in the middle of the circle at the time we were playing.

Yes, folks, dodge ball was one of the playground games we played, often. We were mean, and hurtful, and didn't care. We were competitive and didn't care about anyone but our selfish competitive selves. It wasn't until way after I was out of school that dodge ball was abandoned as a playground game.

Double Dutch, I loved. I really wasn't good at jump rope in kindergarten, but I watched the "big girls" on the playground playing double Dutch, and then I got a piece of clothes line rope and started practicing jumping (alone) so I would be able to jump in with the "big girls" and play double Dutch. Double Dutch is a rope skipping exercise played when two ropes are turned in eggbeater fashion.

Double Dutch then was nothing like double Dutch now. No hip-hopping, just jumping. Of course, those of us who were good could jump first on one foot, and then the other.

When we played double Dutch, we would chant D-I-G-F-S-H-A-R. And when we jumped in we would jump until we missed at double duth, then whatever letter we missed on, that was the type of jumping we had to do our number counts to. The two people in line with the lowest numbers had to take over being the double Dutch rope turners. Can you believe some girls couldn't get the hang of turning the ropes? Yeah, right. I think they did it on purpose, because while their hands weren't coordinated, their feet were. They were the best jumpers.

D-I-G-F-S-H-A-R -- originally was D-I-G-F-S, then we added the last three letters. D stood for Dutch, and that was the same as you went through to get to the letter you missed on. I stood for Irish; G- German; F - French; S - single; H - (hop?); A - anything you wanted; R-Russian.

I wish I could remember what each type was, but I can't. I remember one of the letters was double Dutch backwards. In other words, instead of turning the two ropes toward each other, you turned the ropes away from each other.

Another letter was where you put one rope on the ground, held in place by the rope turners' feet, and the rope turner would turn one rope and you had to jump to avoid the rope on the ground. You could do this using two feet together or using one foot then the other.

Another was the same situation, only the rope was swayed back and forth. I think "H" stood for hop -- hop on one foot only while double dutching -- no putting down the other foot, and no switching feet. Another one of the letters meant you had to pick someone to jump with you. Remember the goal was to get the highest number so, you had to make sure you picked a FRIEND who didn’t want to turn the ropes either.

I went on-line, but can't find anyone who played DD the way we did when I was growing up. And, I have to say that clothes line was the best rope for jumping double Dutch. I did find lots of pages that have jump rope rhymes, and that brought back a lot of memories.

On to double-bubble gum -- Double Bubble is the ONLY gum that gives good bubbles. The bubble gum in baseball cards is the worst.

So, there you have it -- dodge ball, double Dutch, and double bubble gum. Any of you out there that can help me with the double Dutch game, comment, please.