You can buy ‘Elastix’ from toy shops now.. but back in the day, you had to run the gauntlet and nick some from your Mum’s sewing basket. I preferred the wide stuff, as it didn’t cut into your ankles too much.. but really, any old elastic could be transformed into a fabulously tangled game of cats-cradle with your skippity feet.
I did once have a very terrible Elastics accident. It was at Mount Nelson Primary, I was in grade 3. I went running down the hallway and out into the yard, failing to see that 3 girls were ensconced in some Elastic fun right across the doorway… I caught my foot in their game and skidded face first across the (concrete) quadrangle. Nowadays, you’d have to have safety elastics… super bright so they can be seen by running girls in full flight… but way back when, theirs was thin knicker elastic. In a flesh tone. Impossibly dangerously invisible, that stuff.
I did not look pretty for a few weeks after that – skid marks all over my face. I still have an Elastics scar above my lip.
Beware thin flesh toned knicker elastic. It can scar you for life.
xx Mikes