I’m about to unlock some childhood memories here.
Earlier this week my youngest son Myles told me he’d heard of this “really cool” new game called “Ding dong ditch”.
So I asked him what it was about.
And he explained: “You ring people’s doorbells and run away before they answer.”
So that’s what they’re calling it now?
In my day we played “chap door run” and it was a lot of fun. At the time.
As an adult I can understand how hearing the door go, then getting up from your comfy sofa so you can answer it, only to find nobody there (unless you count the sound of kids giggling as they run away) might just be a bit annoying.
But the saying “Remember we were kids once too” always pops into my head.
Names change but childhood memories remain the same
I chatted about this on Pure radio and posted about it on Facebook and it turns out there are lots of names for this cheeky game.
Other people call it chappy, chappy-knocky, nicky nicky nine doors, ring bang scoosh and even chickenelly, which I’d never heard before.
I guess we all have different names for it, depending on where in Scotland we come from, but effectively the rules remain the same.
And it’s a classic.
It’s with a heavy heart that I have to advertise an 11 year old boy for sale.
The wee man just referred to the art of knocking a door and running away – officially known as “chappie” or “chap door run”, as…
I can’t…
No, I MUST..
He calls it “ding dong ditch”
🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭
— Nick (@WheresMaJaiket) June 5, 2021
It got me raking over childhood memories and thinking about all the other games we played as kids.
Who else remembers kerbie? What’s the time Mr Wolf? Tag?
They were simple and effective. And often we’d just make up our own to entertain ourselves.
I’m convinced I started “kick the shoe”, although I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to play it.
You have to be at a swing park for this one. On the swings going as high as you can and then with one leg you kick your shoe off into the air and see how far it goes.
Ah hours of fun.
Wouldn’t it be nice to step back in time?
Back then, when your parents said “These will be the best days of your life”, it made no sense.
Where’s the fun in going to school and being told to come home at a certain time?
What’s so great about not being able to do what you want while the grownups have the easy life?
Now we know they were right all along.
I’m still all for living for the moment. But I’d also like to go back to the days of not paying bills and not having to deal with “adulting” because sometimes it hurts my head.
I’d much rather be making a den out of jackets and jumpers, or giving my friends backies down the steepest of hills with not a care in the world.
And if it wasn’t for worrying about what the neighbours would say, I’d be tempted to show my boy how the experts played chap door run in my day.
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