alaira: children's game
alley-apples: rocks
alley-band: pick up neighborhood band
backstop: wicket keeper in cricket
banny-mug: pottery chards for play money
barley, to be in: truce, a safe spot
billy cart: makeshift board and wheels cart
bob-apple night: Halloween
boboes, to go: to go to sleep
bogies(or snot): large marbles
bombdie( or bomby): playsite in a bombed out area
bonce: large playing marble
bossy boots: domineering child
bunk into, to: sneak into the movies
buttons: children's game
chalking out: children's game
cherry-wobs, or wags: children's game
clat tale tit: informer
clew on the ear-hole, a: a disciplinary whack
diabolo: children's game
duck-apple night: Halloween
fagger out: cricket fielder
faggin': fielding at rounders
filmy: cinema quiz game
fivestones: children's game, with jacks and marbles
flinchers: children's ball game
footee: football(soccer)
fourpenny one: a chastizing blow
gear skea: great hiding place for young people's prized possessions
glannies: glass marbles
god-forbids: kids
golly: a children's game
half-sovereign, a: china shard with a gold line
heavy on ton weight( also: sedate, weak house, Solomon's donkey): children's game
(h)ummer: child's toy
jacks and ollies(also fivestones, jackstones): children's game, with jacks and marbles
jerkers: a playground ride
Jinny Greenteeth: a child-eating ghost
jockey: extra bit of food from storekeeper for children
Judas Burning: Easter Week variation on Guy Fawkes burnings
jumping figures: children's game
kick the can( or: kick-de-can, kick-ther-can): children's game
kidden: place where sexual abuse of children occurred
kipwack: baby food
Knock and Run: children's game
lazzie and ups: game involving marbles
littly: a child
lollipop man: crossing guard
looking at the dead: inviting neighborhood children to wakes
ludo: indoor children's game
Moses basket: infant carrier
nurky( also: relievo, kick the can, denio): children's game
nutpox: ringworm
ollies: marbles
one, two, three, alara: children's game with a bouncing ball
Ow's yer father: children's jump rope song
paddywack: meat gristle used as a child's pacifier(dummy)
parrot: a red and white playing marble
piggy: a children's street game
pinky: small clay marble
Pitch Pat Pepper: rope-skipping game
plain,clap, rally, fold: children's ball game
postman's knock: teenage kissing game
prisoner's base( relalio, relievo, kick the can, nurky, denio): street game
Robin's Breakfast: breakfast for needy children
sag, to( or: saggin skewl): to play truant
scaldy: swimming hole
scissors: toy six-shooters
scoots: roller skates
sedate(heavy on ton weight, weak house, Solomon's donkey): children's game
segs: variant of marbles game
shaddle: see saw
shove halfpenny: children's street game
sken holes: hiding places in alley walls
skippin leckies: riding trains without paying
Solomon's donkey( sedate, weak house, heavy on ton weight): children's game
Sorbo ball: child's bouncing ball
stonies: marbles
sunbeams: children who are church-bound
tanner-megger: small football
tick: game of tag
tiddlers: infants
tip-cat( or: bouncy, knurr, spell): children's batting game
ton weight heavy on( Solomon's donkey, sedate, weak house): children's game
twoer: a kind of playing marble
utney: leap frog
water-tight door: diaper, nappy
Whip behind!: stealing rides on the backs of vehicles
CHILDREN: SAYINGS
Born, we didden know we was(Oh, those were the days!)
That will be a pig's foot in the morning(said to help a child bear up with a minor injury)
Parent to child: Don't come running to me when you break both your legs.
Parental warning: keep that up, boyo, and you'll have a thick ear!
Parental exasperation: Ye tinker's scut, yer!
A child's assertion of privilege:
Bags the leftovers(I have first rights to the leftovers)
Bags I sit next ter Mum( I get to sit next to mother)
Friendship from a non-parental adult: I won't be yer mam but I will be ya mate.
Parents to children: Chance is a fine thing.
Parent to an endlessly inquisitive child: Ask Father Fleck
Parents on protecting their children: I want to put a big mushroom around my child, knowing all of what is out there.
An adult's memory: Mouth Almighty, as me mam used to call me....
PARENT TO CHILD:
Sleep on the edge of the bed, and you'll soon drop off
Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire: up the stairs to bed
Or: up the dancers!
Or: up the apples and pears
Lift that chin, before you trip on it!
Yer'll trip over that face!
Or: straighten your face, it's freezing out.
Or: what's wrong with you? You've got a face like a slapped arse.
Or: you've got a face like a wet Echo
Or: you've got a face like a wet weekend
Straighten your face or I'll straighten it for you.
Wipe that gob off your face.
To the question "what's for dinner?": cow's shit and onions, or shit, shit, and onions
Or: Shit, with a big spoon
Or: Shit with sugar on
Or: If it. What's if it? If it goes round, you'll get a bit. If it doesn't, you don't.
Or: to the question "What's for tea?": Windmill cake--if it goes round, you'll get some.
Or: three runs round the table, and a kick at the table leg.
To the question "where did you get that?": I found it on a doorstep and a Bobby gave it to me.
Run round to the shops and get us ten pounds of spuds. Just put them in your cap
Or: (when being sent to the store): don't let them give you any Polish eggs(which is something like being told in America not to take any wooden nickels.
To a child racing about or who has done something quickly: "Whip It Quick the Cat Burglar." Or: You're in and out, like a fart in a colander
Or: if you took their seat when they left the room for a minute: would you be as quick in my grave?
Or: (quick) like a blue-arsed fly
To the child's question "What are you doing?": a wim-wam for winding up the sun. Wim wam has long been a word for something foolish or trivial.
Or: a gift lad, and only the gifted know how.
Or: Laos for medlas and a wigwams to wind the sun up with
To the question "How old are you": as old as my little finger and a little bit older than my teeth
Or: I'm as old as me tongue, and a little bit older than me teeth
If a child cried, a parent might say: carry on. The more you cry, the less you'll pee.
If a child finds something which was hidden: can't keep anything around here. If I took my eyeballs out and put it here, you would still find them.
If they were noisy: Children should be seen and not heard, like pictures on the wall.
If they had made a mess: if you're born ina pigsty it doesn't make you a pig. Jesus was born in a stable, He wasn't a horse.
If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can't go to the store with me.
Or: if you get lost, don't come crying to me
If you don't stop stopping, I'm going to take you home.
If they havenn't got your size, get something that fits.
If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they're going to freeze that way.
Or: be careful, if a frost comes, you face will stay like that.
How did you get here? You were found under a cabbage leaf or brought by the stork
Or: a mystery packet, a penny one, not an ‘apenny one
When that lawn-mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.
If the children don't want to eat: You don't eat, you don't shit; you don't shit, you soon die
Or: Think of all the right arms you could have. What do you mean? Hundreds of little starving kids would give their right arms for that.
One parent's post-meal prayer of thanks: Thank Christ that's over.
Parent to child on money: what can you do when you're poor? You can't rob a bank! Children: not bloody much!
At table with bread: eat all your crusts, and you will get curly hair
If you put a stale crust of bread in the fire: you're feeding the devil; if you dropped a slice of bread on the floor: God bless the bread, before the devil eats it
About carrots: eat them, and you will see in the dark
At the dinner table or in parlor: sit right!
To any question "Why?": Y is a crooked letter and you can't straighten it
Oh, I love you so much, I could even kiss your bum!
Or: God bless yer little cotton socks.
Thought? You know what thought did: planted a feather and thought it would grow into a chicken.
A surprised parent might say "Well slap me in the face with a finnon haddie."
To a child who won't or can't shut up: You've got a gob like the Mersey Tunnel.
From a teacher to students whose shoes or hands were not clean: You will end up being a ragman's bugler
Or: is that a tide mark around your neck?
Or: when was the last time you washed your ears? They've got spuds in them.
A parent who asked a question, but no one was paying attention: no answer green lady
A warning: Do that again and I'll knock seven bells out of you.
Or: I'll knock you into next Sunday
Or: I'll knock you flying!
Or: you're headin for a Chinese burn
Or: I'll marbelize (marmalize) you
Or: I'll splificate you
Or: I'll kill you stone dead
Or: I'll toss you spinning
Or: come here while I give you a clout
If you don't wipe the smile off your face, you'll be smiling with the back of your neck.
All this laughing and you'll be crying before it's bedtime
You won't be happy till they carry me off in a box.
CHILDREN TO CHILDREN: SAYINGS AND WORD GAMES
1. Who Are You?
Where do you live?
Down the grid!
What number?
Cucumber!
What house?
Pan of scouse!
What street?
Pig's feet!
Or:
What's your name?
Mary Jane!
Where jer live?
Down the grid!
What street?
Pig's feet!
What's your number?
Cucumber!
Or:
What door?
Forty four.
2. Want to Hear a Poem?
I saw a man who was not there.
He was not there again tooday.
I wish that man would go away.
Or:
The corporation muck cart was full up to the brim,
The band legged driver fell in and could not swim.
He sank to the bottom just like a piece of stone.
And all the fishes said, "There's no place like home."
They flung him on a stretcher, they flung him on a bed,
They rubbed his belly with a two pound jelly,
And this sis what they said: "Rule Britannia, two tanners make a bob...."
Or:
God made all creatures that creep and crawl,
Lancashire Constabulary employs them all.
Or:
Sleepy bed fell out of the bed,
The bed fell over sleepy head
Or:
How much oil does a gum boil boil
When a gum boil doesn't boil oil?
No oil does a gum boil,
Cos a gum boil doesn't boil oil!
Or (to a peer who has squealed or revealed a secret):
Clat tail tit,
Yer tongue is gonno split (or: you don't know all of it)
And all the little dicky birds (or: the little doggies)
Are gonna have a bit.
(or: and all the dogs in the street/shall have a little bit)
Or:
On the mountain stands a lady,
Who she is I do not know.
All llshe wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young man,
So call in my very best friend,
very best friend, very best friend,
Call in my very best friend,
While I go go out to play.
Or:
Yum yum, pig's bum
Wrapped up in chewing gum
Take a slice
Very nice
Or:
Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo
Sit the baby on the po.
When he hollers let him go,
Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo
(or: When he's done, wipe his bum,
Show his father what he's done)
Or:
One Two Three
Me mother caught a flea.
She put it in a teapot
And made a cup of tea.
The flea jumped out
Me mother gave a shout.
Here's comes the Bobby
With his shirt hanging out.
Or:
Yerrokay, and worrabouh
One two, three,
Mother caught a flea
She purrit it in the teapot
Ter make a cuppa tea.
The flea jumped out,
And Johnny give shout,
An along cum a copper wiv ‘is shert ‘angin out.
Or:
One morning in September,
Last October in July,
The sun lay thick upon the ground,
The mud shone in the sky.
The flowers were sweetly singing,
The birds were in full bloom,
When I went down the cellar steps
To sweep the upstairs room.
Or:
Twas in the month of Liverpool
In the city of July
The rain was snowing heavily
And all the streets were dry
Or:
The elephant is a bonny bird
It flits from bough to bough
It makes its nest in a rhubarb tree
And whistles like a cow
Or:
Where you goin, cock?
Down the lane, cock.
What for, cock?
To buy a shuttlecock.
Let's come cock.
No, cock.
Why, cock?
Cos you'll pinch me shuttlecock.
Or:
I'll tell me ma when I get home,
The boys won't leave the girls alone.
They pull me hair, they call me names,
And they won't let me play their games.
She was handsome, she was pretty.
She was the belle of Belfast City.
Or:
Pounds, shillings and pence,
The monkey jumped over the fence,
The fence it was sticky,
It stuck to his micky.
Pounds, shilling and pence.
Or:
Inky pinky plonky,
Daddy bought a donkey.
Donkey died, Daddy cried,
Inky pinky plonky.
Or:
Billy Mac
Had a kak
Right in the middle of his back!
Or:
Sally Ann
Fryin pan
Stuck her head in a jar of jam
When she's dead
Boil her ead
And make her into gingerbread
Or:
Strike a light, strike a light
Unny ferra minute.
Owwa Eddie's pissed deh bed
Annam lyin innih.
Or:(from an autograph book)
I dreamt that I died and to heaven did go
Where I came from they wanted to know.
When i said Liverpool oh how they did stare,
And said "come in quick, you're the first one from there."
Or: (from an autograph book)
The good king needed a sword,
To make him a belted knight.
His wife only needed a poker,
To make him an angel bright.
Or:(from an autograph book)
First will come love.
Next will come marriage.
Then soon you'll be
Pushing a baby carriage.
Or: (from an autograph book)
Good, better, best.
Let it never rest,
Until your Good be Better,
And your Better, Best.
Or: (children can be wonderfully disgusting)
Yeller matter custard, (or yeller beller custard)
Green snot pie,
All mixed together
With a dead dog's eye.
Spread it on a butty,
Spread it on thick,
And swallow it down,
With a cup of cold sick.
CHILDREN'S SONGS, CHANTS:
We three kings of Leh-hester Square,
Selling knickers, thripence a pair,
How fantastic, no el-a-astic!
Why don't yer buy a pair to wear!
Or:
I work down, in the pawnshop there
Shifting away the things,
Till the sweat drops off me brow.
You ought to see the things, the people bring to pawn.
I would like to burn them all, when the boss is gone.
Every night I pinch a parcel, every night,
And I take it home to me mother every night,
Silver watches, silver spoons and pantaloons as well,
I take them home to me mother every night.
Or:
3,6,9
The goose drank wine,
The monkey chewed tobacco on the streets of carline
Line broke, the monkey got choked, and they all went to heaven in a little row boat.
Or:
Lazy Mary, had a Canary, up the leg of her drawers
She pulled them down for half a crown
And has never been seen anymore
Or:
Me auntie Mary, had a canary
Up the leg of her drawers.
She pulled them down for half a crown
And send them to Santa Claus
Or: and when she farted it departed,
Down the leg of her drawers
Or:
Auntie Mary had a canary
Up the leg of her drawers
While she was sleepin' we were peepin'
Up the leg of her drawers
Second verse, same as the first,
A little bit louder and a little bit worse!
Or:
Ee by gum
Does yer belly touch yer bum
Do yer tits hang low
Can yer tie them in a bow
Can yer throw them over yer shoulder
Like a regimental soldier
Or:
Do ya tits hand low
Do they wobble to and frow,
Can ya tie em in a knot,
Can ya tie em in a bow
Can ya slingem over ya shoulder
Like a regimental soldier
Do ya tits hang low.
Or:
Let's sing a song of Liverpool,
A shanty rolling free.
Of ships and docks and sailormen
And hearts filled with the sea.
Of quest, adventure, love and fame;
Homecoming andfarewell,
There's magic in our Liverpool,
Our first Port of Call.
We're loyal sons of Liverpool
Til the last ship of all.
To God we praise for happy days,
Good working days and holidays.
And good days for Liverpool
And the best luck of all.
Or:
The big ship sails on the alley-alley O
The alley-alley O, the alley-alley O,
The big ship sails on the alley-alley O,
On the last day of September.
We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea,
The deep blue sea, the deep blue sea.
We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea,
On the last day of September
( The alley-o may refer to the Manchester ship canal, but Irish children used to call the sea the "Illey Alley O," which is probably what the phrase refers to)
