Does anyone remember a children’s game - actually it was more of a magic trick - that went something like “Mable, Mable if you’re able, take the quarter from the table”. I’m not talking about the rhyme meant to teach kids manners, or at least I don’t think that’s what I’m half remembering. It seems like it had something to do with having syrup or something sticky on you hand and you could make the coin “appear” and “disappear”. Does that ring anyone’s bell?
I was just talking to a coworker, trying to remember the games we used to play at slumber parties (the pillow fights stopped when we were about 8, you pervs). She vaguely recalls some version of the Mable on. I also remember playing Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board and of course Bloody Mary. Can anyone remind me of some others?
Another one we used to do was Black Magic. At least two of the kids (the asker and the guesser) had to be in on the trick and I think the point was to play until you figured it out. The guesser would leave the room, the rest of the girls would silently pick an object in the room, and then the guesser would return. The asker would then start “is it the vase? is it the book? is it that picture on the wall?” The guesser would answer no, until the asker came to the correct object, at which point the guesser would say yes. Amazement!
My recollection with Black Magic was that the asker would point at random things and the guesser would say now and then the asker would point at something black and that was the hint to the guesser that whatever was pointed at next would be the secret object.
A similar game that I remember driving people to distraction with was Johnny Johnny Whoop. You’d tap the fingers of one hand with the index finger of the other hand starting from the pinky and moving toward the thumb, saying Johnny with each tap and sliding your finger down the index finger to the thumb saying “Whoop”. “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Whoop, Johnny, Whoop, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny”. And at the end of the sequence, touch your hair or scratch your ear or fold your arms or whatever pre-determined signal you come up with that doesn’t look like part of the sequence. Other kids are challenged to repeat what you did and if they don’t end with your same secret sign, they did it wrong.
I’ve never heard of those two but now I feel like having a slumber party! I just remembered how a person would stand in a doorway and extend the arms out to the side, exerting as much force as possible against the door frame. After 30 seconds or whatever they’d walk out of the doorway and their arms would involuntarily raise out to the sides. I still don’t know how that one works. I mean, I kind of do but . . .
And don’t forget the magic that is chomping down on wint-o-green Lifesavers in front of a mirror in a dark room. Green sparks!
Heh. It indeed sounds like a drinking game from my youth.
The thing in the OP sounds a little familiar. A puts a coin on the palm of their hand and B would pick it up by placing their hand palm down over A’s and lifting the coin up with it. Then C is challenged to try the same with coin in B’s hand and C can’t do it. The trick was as you say a bit of something sticky on B’s palm to help lift the coin from A’s palm that now holds it more tightly in B’s palm.
