Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from Klara contains these words:

In message , Janet
Baraclough writes
'scoubidous': thin plastic tubes in
all colours of the rainbow and even glitter, and must-haves for
primary school children: they braid them, make jewellery and
animals out of them

My schoolfriends and I were making scoobidoos with coloured
plastic
tubelets back in the 50's :-)

I can only remember plaiting pipe-cleaners and straws!

So did we. My cousin (pipe-cleaner-doll fanatic as a child)
told
me recently that she'd introduced the joy of pipecleaners to her 3
yr old neice :-)

But did you really call them scoobidoos then?

Yes.

I thought that name was
born from a 70s cartoon!

Evidently not. I think it may possibly have been WW2 slang, but
apart from the game, the only web reference I can find is the name
of
Breton boats which harvest seaweed .

Very interesting: I have never actually seen one, and was told about
them by French friends in about 1970. I, like them, assumed they were
a French thing. There's a French site which says they appeared in the
'60s after being introduced by a manufacturer of plastic curtains:
http://www.webzinemaker.com/admi/m14...br=3&id=152839
so I suppose they must have crossed the Channel from Britain after
the craze Janet was involved in, and the curtain-maker took the
credit.

The French friends said that at the height of the craze some
electrical shops actually ran out of connecting wire.

--
Mike.