Everyone talks about the ‘good old days’ when times were simpler. Take a look at this picture from yesteryear and see if scenes are familiar.
Chinese skipping (1980s)
Isn’t it amazing the things we forget from our youth until a photo jogs our memory?
I was going through the Old Cayman Facebook page (always a joy – so much history there) and stopped suddenly when I saw this picture, posted by Rose McLaughlin Hurlston, of three girls playing a game I had long forgotten: Chinese skipping.
The first time I was introduced to it was when I went to the Cayman Islands Middle School. Do you know where John Gray High School is now? It used to be George Hicks High School and, before that, CIMS. It was a brand new build when my class officially registered, with us girls in white shirts and red-and-white checkered pinafore dress uniforms.
Now, imagine school breaks and lunches with no mobile phones, iPads or anything of that ilk to keep one entertained. What were kids to do? You could play a ripping game of marbles, read in the library, or try your skill at Chinese skipping.
How did it get introduced to the school? Where did it come from? I have no idea, but what I do know is that all of a sudden, wherever there was space on a walkway, by the bathrooms or on the sports courts, the long piece of elastic would come out. Two girls would stand facing each other, with the elastic taut around their ankles, and the third girl would get her foot over the first line, then jump so her feet were on either side of the second line, then both feet outside the two lines, inside the two lines, then out together.
The next step was for the girls holding the elastic to bring it up to their knees, and the jumper started off again with the same routine. Of course, it got more and more difficult as the elastic went higher. You basically had to be almost part-kangaroo to enjoy a successful run when it was up near neck height.
I was no athlete – at all – but I was actually half-decent at Chinese skipping. Keen to hone my talents, I got my own piece of elastic, and turned the high-backed dining chairs in our house so the seats were facing outwards. Then I put the elastic around them so I could practise without the aid of two friends.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t counted on my foot catching on that line while I worked on my jumps, which resulted in both chairs flying backwards into the game space and nearly crushing my toes. A parent intervened, and they decided that the furniture was worth more than my Olympic Chinese skipping dreams.
Funnily enough, I thought I was the only child who had tried this, so I had to laugh when I saw Leila Chisholm Grassman’s comment on the picture admitting to the same thing.
“I’d even use my mom’s dining chairs to hold it so I could play,” she said.
Her confession subsequently encouraged Bianca Moore Downey to ‘fess up to the same crime. I guess there was many a dining set that suffered from our obsession with the game.
Not everyone knew it as Chinese skipping. Alison Jared Arch said she used to call it French elastics and Kris Beacock said, “We called it French Skipping back in the 50s/60s UK.”
No matter what the name, we loved playing it in school. I couldn’t wait for break, just so we could get back to it.
I can’t recall when Chinese skipping was phased out, or was it just that when I went to high school, it wouldn’t be considered too cool to bring one’s elastic with one. I think it’s been decades since I’ve seen anyone playing it… but I’ve got dining chairs and Super Stitch is just a short drive away. Maybe it’s time to revive the dream again.
If you have some old photos that you’d like to submit, we’d love to see them to consider them for publication. Be sure to include the credit for the image and any information you have about it. Email to [email protected].
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