Slappers

[Tony Tony Tony]

Drove past my old secondary school the other day whilst on my sojourn in the frozen north. (It's in Leigh for the fact fans out there). 

There has been a thread about the schoolboy practice of the "chinny reckon" also known as the "Jimmy Hill" and  I was musing over another commonplace habit at my school. This being the "Cowslap". Whenever one of the boys (all boys school BTW) got an obviously new haircut it was customary to slap their newly shorn neck and shout "cowslap".

Curious to know if this was peculiar to my particular school (though I am sure I recall it from others in the area) maybe it was a northern thing?

Did your place have any such schoolboyish pranks or habits?

Happy to hear of girls slapping each other in the interests of equality if that was a thing.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

RAPS!
( That was the name of the practise mentioned in the OP in my own specific North West of England type region, nothing to do with that then contemporary  Sugar Hill Gang way of verbally rhythmic riffing.)

The practise deffo took place in Newcastle as well, under another name, I remember it being referenced in Viz's " Sid The Sexist" comic strip, after Sid had gotten himself a haircut.

[JaDanketies]

The closest I can offer is "birthday beats"

[Replies From View]

Bullies would slap their own foreheads and shout "slap head" at any non-bullies who'd had a haircut manufactured with an especially short fringe, rendering a larger forehead than acceptable

[Porky]

Drove past my old secondary school the other day whilst on my sojourn in the frozen north. (It's in Leigh for the fact fans out there). 

There has been a thread about the schoolboy practice of the "chinny reckon" also known as the "Jimmy Hill" and  I was musing over another commonplace habit at my school. This being the "Cowslap". Whenever one of the boys (all boys school BTW) got an obviously new haircut it was customary to slap their newly shorn neck and shout "cowslap".

Curious to know if this was peculiar to my particular school (though I am sure I recall it from others in the area) maybe it was a northern thing?

Did your place have any such schoolboyish pranks or habits?

Happy to hear of girls slapping each other in the interests of equality if that was a thing.

I went to Leigh back in 2005 .. I have never had the inclination to return.

[Tony Tony Tony]

I went to Leigh back in 2005 .. I have never had the inclination to return.

A wise decision.

I visited the town centre recently after many years away. The blight it is suffering probably contributed to it turning from being a 'red wall' constituency to going Tory at the last election.

Still, I didn't get Cowslapped so a good result.

   

[Ornlu]

Cow Bites? Where you forcefully grab at someone with your clasped hand, like you're attacking them with an invisible Emu.

[Gurke and Hare]

Cowslaps was a thing in Bury too, with the obligatory "no rebounds" thrown in.

[The Mollusk]

Giving someone a "dutchman" was to deliver a swift knee into the side of their thigh. I don't recall being struck in the thigh since my youth so I can't say for sure whether the thighs of a child are more susceptible to a blow (NOT A NONCE) than that of an adult, but it was fucking crippling. Hurt like hell and would send you withering to the ground.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Giving someone a "dutchman" was to deliver a swift knee into the side of their thigh. I don't recall being struck in the thigh since my youth so I can't say for sure whether the thighs of a child are more susceptible to a blow (NOT A NONCE) than that of an adult, but it was fucking crippling. Hurt like hell and would send you withering to the ground.

You have brought to mind another fun school activity. We had a variation of that which involved kneeing the victim from behind just above the crook of the knee. If expertly delivered you could catch the nerve which would render your subject effectively crippled for the duration of lunch. Known at our school as a "dead legging ".

Schooldays huh? Happiest days of your life.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

I remember deadlegs as being the punishment for "grassing" or kicking the ball over the fence. Usually administered by someone's illiterate older brother.


Doubly feared as not only did they hurt like fuck but the tell tale pegleg walk they gave the victim would flag them as having been "fighting" and therefore likely to lose tomorrows lunch in detention.

[idunnosomename]

It's quite nice down by the canal in Leigh. Except for the lycra louts bombing towards Manchester

[Lordofthefiles]

"TEFAL"


*slap*

[Catalogue of ills]

I can confirm that the new haircut slap is alive and slapping at my lad's secondary school in the North/Midlands

[JesusAndYourBush]

I don't remember any slapping but when someone had had their hair cut we used to call them a skinhead (regardless of how much hair they had left) but call it out so it sounded like a football chant, sometimes elongating the words to a long drawn out "skiiiiiiiiiineaddd", "skeeeeeeeeeeeeee nedddddddddd" etc.

[Dr Rock]

Disappointing thread titles.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Disappointing thread titles.

I know exactly what you were expecting you dirty old bollocks you.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Standing behind someone with your outstretched palm hovering over their head and then following them around doing it.

[Butchers Blind]

A particularly short haircut meant you were administered the back slap of the head followed by the forehead slap with the withering put down 'council cut'.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Cow Bites? Where you forcefully grab at someone with your clasped hand, like you're attacking them with an invisible Emu.

I never recalled these at school but a mate who went somewhere else did and called them 'horse bites', the underside of the upper thigh seemed to be a preferred place and it fucking hurt when he demonstrated.

'Hedging' was also a thing round my way.

[Tony Tony Tony]

'Hedging' was also a thing round my way.

I misread that as 'Edging' with is a thing on certain Gentlemens Special Interest web sites... or so I'm told.

Still, I am interested to here exactly what "Hedging" involved.

My money is on it involving being pushed into the privets?

[ProvanFan]

Baldy slap

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Head slapping?

[Video Game Fan 2000]

I associate headslapping more with the kids who dared to wear baseball caps. Cap off, slapped, cap back, then pull the cap backwards as if they were from that America

[flotemysost]

Not sure if this is just for physical pranks, but "Do... you... lickadickaday?" was pretty standard in the playground as far back as I can remember.

There was also that slice of classic late-90s playground homophobia, the rumour that if you wore clothes from GAP you must be gay because it secretly stood for "gay and proud" (I don't think you needed to even actually own anything from the shop, kids would just go round asking "do you like GAP?").

I remember in secondary school there was a thing doing the rounds saying that if you place your fingertips together lightly on your knee then slowly spread them out it gives you 1/8 of an orgasm, so everyone was sitting cross-legged in assembly massaging both knees and going I JUST CAME 1/4. Think there was a similar one about sneezing.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The lickadickaday trap was less funny than someone falling for the "did you catch 'benders say no' on telly last night" from a completely puerile perspective.

[Ornlu]

Head slapping?

A system of...

[Video Game Fan 2000]

"your shoe's untied"
Lad bends over to check
"hur hur bender"

[Brundle-Fly]

The dead arm. accompanied with "Make you look, made you stare, made you lose your underwear". ...and I've also just assaulted you.

Also was 'sea gulling' really a thing?

[studpuppet]

I never recalled these at school but a mate who went somewhere else did and called them 'horse bites', the underside of the upper thigh seemed to be a preferred place and it fucking hurt when he demonstrated.

'Hedging' was also a thing round my way.

Horse bites in my neck of the woods as well (Hertfordshire/London borders).

Also 'postings' where two kids would grab someone by each arm and drag them to a post, column or tree, and pull them around it until their arms almost came out of their sockets.

Another classic was for one kid to crouch behind someone and their accomplice to push the victim backwards so they fell over and probably cracked their head open against the floor.