# Were there any weird or stupid things that were fads specific to your school/area growing up? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 8, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330 "2021-09-08T20:22:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/61 "2021-09-10T17:53:19Z")
[“Light as a feather, stiff as a board”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_as_a_feather,_stiff_as_a_board) was briefly popular when I was in elementary school.The bible-thumpers claimed that it was satanic, and nobody bothered to explain the gimmick, so the fad ended quickly. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/62 "2021-09-10T18:13:06Z")
Not really a fad but now that you got me thinking…penny soccer. Also, did anybody else play dots? Was it ever made into a flash game? You take turns drawing lines between two dots. No diagonals. If you drew a line that completed a small square you put your initial in the square and got another turn. Whoever had the most squares at the end, won. We passed many music classes and study halls filling notebook pages with hundreds of dots and lines. Like below, only much, much, bigger. **. . . . . . . . . . .** **. . . . . . . . . . .** **. . . . . . . . . . .** **. . . . . . . . . . .** ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/63 "2021-09-10T18:16:20Z")
My mom taught me this game when I was really young. I strongly associate it with doctors waiting rooms. Hangman too, but that’s pretty common. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/64 "2021-09-10T18:27:18Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > In my middle school, pencil fighting became all the rage. It was like someone sent out a memo, one day everybody was pencil fighting. Which I lost. In third grade. I still have a grey dot on my wrist where future fencer and powerlifter Scott Carlisle\* stabbed me with an insanely sharp Dixon #2. The scariest part was when the teacher walked in. I had blood streaming down my hand, and every single student was screaming that I’ve got lead poisoning now. \*yeah, I’m naming names… until justice is served! ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/65 "2021-09-10T18:39:05Z")
For us, pencil fighting rules were each person take turns holding their pencil horizontally while the other person would pull back the top of their pencil to snap the metal part onto the wood of their opponent’s pencil. The first person to break the other person’s pencil was the winner. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/66 "2021-09-10T18:42:45Z")
Yes, we called it pig pen. WIkipedia calls it dots and boxes. > **[Dots and Boxes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_and_Boxes)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Dots and Boxes is a pencil-and-paper game for two players (sometimes more). It was first published in the 19th century by French mathematician Édouard Lucas, who called it la pipopipette. It has gone by many other names, including the dots and dashes, game of dots, dot to dot grid, boxes, and pigs in a pen. > The game starts with an empty grid of dots. Usually two players take turns adding a single horizontal or vertical line between two unjoined a... ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/67 "2021-09-10T19:44:43Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > We had a pencil machine that was stocked with sports team pencils. Oh yeah, we had that, too. It would have been 1981 or so, and was two NFL pencils for a quarter. I still have a complete pencil set of all of the NFL teams from 1981. Baltimore Colts, LA Rams, and Houston Oilers! ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/68 "2021-09-10T19:59:34Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > We did the pencil thing in grade school also but some other kids preferred to be more creative and took up the fad of taking large wads of toilet paper, wetting them into mushy blobs in the sink, and throwing them up to stick on the bathroom ceilings. When I was in elementary school, it became a fad to toss stuff up into the inverted bowl-shaped shades hanging pendant-like from the ceiling when the sister’s back was turned. They were the shape that’s now called “schoolhouse” and were opaque. Since it was California, there was rarely a day when the lights needed to be turned on – especially because the outside wall was almost completely covered by huge windows. One rainy day, the lights had to be turned on, and all that junk tossed up into the lights showed up silhouetted against the shades. Busted. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/69 "2021-09-10T20:03:05Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > In middle school, it was a given that only “sluts” wear black and red on Fridays. Ha! In my school (jr high), red and black worn on Friday meant you were a Lesbian! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/70 "2021-09-10T23:31:47Z")
I don’t know if there’s an official name for this, but there was a short-lived fad in my 7th grade cafeteria of guys tossing M&Ms (for example) in the air and catching them in your mouth. Higher the better. I made it all the way to the lunch room ceiling, about 20 feet. The clacking of candy on teeth when you didn’t quite make it was quite loud, even with all those kids eating lunch. The air was dark with free-falling candy and the floor was bloodied with the remains of failed attempts (or maybe that was the ketchup packets that were constantly being stomped). The “fad” only lasted a week. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2021, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/71 "2021-09-10T23:32:16Z")
Slam notebooks were big for about 2 months at my junior high in the 70s. I thought it was just local to our school, but they eventually turned up on an episode of _Facts of Life._ Wikipedia says there are reports of them going back to the 1920s. At my kids’ high school, everyone knew that girls who wore white pants liked anal. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/72 "2021-09-11T01:10:15Z")
I grew up on a chicken farm, so I had to do it for nothing but a roof over my head and food in my belly. I had to watch the other guys getting cash. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/73 "2021-09-11T01:14:02Z")
I taught kids at a school where I worked how to do it. Their teacher didn’t mind me teaching them, since I’d set the bar pretty low earlier by giving them tips on armpit farts. My record, with quarters, was somewhere in the low forties. I’ve done over thirty in the past 10 years, and could probably get up and do that right now if I had that many quarters lying around. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/74 "2021-09-11T13:44:00Z")
You have my sympathies! 😄 ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/75 "2021-09-11T16:16:27Z")
Something popped into my head last night related to this thread. You know those weird little not-quite-songs that kids make up and repeat to each other? Like what the two kids do in _Big_ – how Tom Hanks convinces his friend that he’s really him? And the Laverne and Shirley rhyme in the credits of that show? Well, in my elementary school we had the following little nonsense verse: IshsSKIDilly OSHen TOSHen bo bo baDITTen DOTTen WATTen TATTen shhhhhhh. Anybody else have something like that? I always wondered if it was “real” that someone was repeating from somewhere or something that just someone made up. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/76 "2021-09-11T16:21:57Z")
^ During the football game at the end of MASH (the movie), the cheerleaders use that as a cheer, which leads me to believe it was something popular in the late '40s – a song, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/77 "2021-09-11T16:24:26Z")
Was it exactly that phrasing? I’m really surprised I wouldn’t have recognized it when I heard it … I saw the movie when it first came out which was years after I was out of school. So, it was probably some 40s phrase that a kid picked up from a parent and spread to the other kids. It sounds really 40s, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/78 "2021-09-11T16:31:30Z")
^ This is crazy – you got me doing research! It’s a school room chant – author unknown – called, “Bo-bo Ski Watten Taten.” > **[Bobo Ski Waten Taten - The Singing Classroom](https://www.thesingingclassroom.com/articles/bobo-ski-waten-taten)** > > Bobo Ski Waten Taten is a popular hand clap for grades 4-6 demonstrated by a bunny animation. Great for teaching eighth-quarter-eighth (syncopa.) Can you believe it? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/79 "2021-09-11T16:42:01Z")
Hey! That’s really close, so I’m sure it’s the same thing. We never did it in class. And it never was sung like that – just rhythmically chanted. It was totally one of those “passed around on the playground” things. Thanks for all the hard work! 😄 ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330/80 "2021-09-11T17:02:39Z")
Hard work, nuthin’, this is the most fun I’ve had all week – thanks for bringing it up! 🤣 Can’t find a YouTube clip of the cheer but I think the cheerleaders are doing the clapping bit with their pom-poms in hand and smacking themselves in the face! There is a clip of team-4077 #69 getting the drop on one of the goons on the opposing side and the cheerleaders have a nifty cheer for that. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/o6eYjus_Olc/hqdefault.jpg "Mash 1970, Football") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6eYjus_Olc) Freeze! Freeze! American cheese! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-weird-or-stupid-things-that-were-fads-specific-to-your-school-area-growing-up/950330.md?page=5)