There's a little girl who lives a couple of cottages down from us...she has a trampoline and a rather swish set of swings and a little outdoor Wendy House...I've never seen her playing in or with any of them.
When I was about ten my little group of friends and I built a tree house from bits of wood and tin begged from neighbours...we had a swing made from an old car tyre with a length of rope attached to the same tree as the tree-house...
But what I remember the most was the year we made a trolley...a proper trolley with old pram wheels and a seat and it steered with rope and we had the very best of times taking turns in driving it up and down the country roads...
We often crashed into the hedge and went home with skinned knees but we were so proud of having made it all by ourselves and the pleasure we had from playing with it was immense...
At school the playground was full of children playing...skip rope was a favourite and accompanied by songs and rhymes...'What's the time Mr Wolf' we'd play until we went up to the secondary school...never tiring of it or thinking it too childish...two ball up against a wall...with someone shouting out the score before you dropped a ball and it was somebody's else's turn...
Marbles was mostly for the boys...they'd haggle over the most brightly coloured or the ones with 'an eye' and buy a little string bag of those pretty glass balls from Woolworths with pocket money...bring them to school on the Monday and gloat just a little over the specials...
There was always 'Five Jacks' as well...much like a game of chance I suppose, but that kept us absorbed for much of the mid-morning break...
We played hop-scotch and impromptu games of rounder's on the school field...collected and swopped the cards from the P.G.Tips tea packets and filled albums full of Tropical Birds or Countries of the World...desperate to find somebody who had the one card you were missing to complete your album...
We learned to share and to take turns...we learned to help those less able than ourselves when they couldn't climb into our tree-house for fear of falling...we learned to cope with disappointment when we lost a game...our teacher in primary school was a stalwart sort of a woman who wore thick lisle stockings that were always wrinkled and had no hesitation in taking a child on her knee for a cuddle if they'd fallen over...who smiled a great deal and laughed a lot. She'd admire the marbles and praise the full books of tea cards and give us a stick of coloured chalk for the hop-scotch...
The little girl just up the road from us has missed out on all that...she has a mobile 'phone and they have Whiteboards in her school and the teachers are no longer allowed to take a child on their knee and give them a cuddle...she has properly planned 'play dates' rather than her friends banging on the door to see if she's coming out...she has a wide screen television in her bedroom and access to the Internet...she can't play two ball or scramble up a wonky ladder into a tree house or swing back and forth in an old car tyre...dreaming her afternoon away...
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Thanks for the memories I too did those things and feel sorry for kids of today who will never know the joys of tree climbing, camp building, skimmed knees and simple games
Vashti, yes we did all those things you mentioned, we also played cowboys and Indians and I always had to be the squaw tied up as a prisoner for a while, didn't bother me, I loved the indians. The only to play as we did would on a iPad .....so sad. Blessings LeeLee. X
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I'd forgotten about cowboys and Indians!
What memories that brought back to me. We were blessed indeed to have grown up at a time when there was real freedom. Today's children miss so much. xx
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We never came to any real harm either...nothing a bit of sticking plaster wouldn't solve!
Morning Vashti, We were brought up in the same era, played all the games you mentioned,taught to knit at school.making lovely cream coloured dishcloths,large needles and thick cotton.lots of holes where the stitches were dropped.Played outside from morning till night,quick dash home for something to eat. Weren't we lucky to be so free. Can't remember ever being scared or in any danger from strangers. Must admit tho, we all seemed to know what man to avoid.very best wishes. Bulpit
There'd be a very occasional odd-bod hanging about...we just used to run away!
We were so free in those days. School holidays were spent with our gang of local children,the older ones looking after the younger ones. We would go on adventures. No mobile phones for our parents to keep tabs on us. I was told what to do if approached by strangers and didn't go home till teatime. With a friend we once decided to repair an old tin bath which had a hole init and use it as a boat in a local pond,of course it sank and we came home soaking wet. We played cricket and rounders with bats recycled from other things.we would crawl through a huge pipe under the canal which led to the other side, very scary and slimy but we all survived. Joyce
Ohh how right you are Vashti. I remember all those games with such fondness. Our friends used to knock on the door and ask for my Dad too....lol. He always used to play cricket with us in the street. I loved hopscotch and playing two balls against the wall. The kids don't know how to be kids these days. I'ts so sad. They would have so much fun if people introduced these games back into their lives.
I too loved Two Balls against a wall for hours, and skipping, and Whip and Top was popular we used to colour designs on the tops, so that when they were spinning they gave a colourful display. We also had games of hide and seek with many children involved that would go on all day sometimes, great fun! We also had a game we used to play in the playground which involved joining together packets of coloured rubber bands, and doing a sort of Cats cradle game with our feet! Remember walking on 2 empty tin cans with string attached?! When I look back I see how independent I was, travelling around on buses and trains into the city, and I was only about 10 years old, but so free, now parents wont let their kids out of their sight for a minute, I know and understand why, but there were funny men around when I was a child too, but we knew to stay together and run if necessary and not to talk to strangers, or get into cars with anyone. Happy Days. These days very few kids even play on the park without Mum or Dad around.
I too loved to play whip & top Fern. We used to have races with them up and down the road where I lived. You never see them now though, not even in shops. We were told about "strange" men and to avoid them, but there wasn't much fear of being taken in a car - hardly anyone had one! Lol
We always stayed together...and there'd often be a bigger brother or sister looking out for all of us...not because they had to but because that was just the way it was
Yes my brother used to play hide and seek with us younger ones to keep an eye on us, and you are right no-one had asked him to, he just assumed that role.
Oh fern I used to love the elastic band games! And hotscotch was another favourite and jacks.
I remember one glorious summer where the sun shone every day and loads of us local kids played on a building site and kept being chased by the workmen who could never catch us. We used to sing this song - Dan Dan the dirty old man, washed his face with a frying pan, combed his hair with the leg of a chair, Dan Dan the dirty old man.
We made a swimming pool out of a dip in the ground when it rained and the boys chased the girls with frogs. I caught one once and took it home to mum who put it in a big bucket for me.
Oh those were the days - no responsibilities just fun. x
We used to play on a building site too, I can remember playing on walking over the beams that were placed to hold up the floor boards balancing as we walked across them. There were no fences put up around new build houses in those days. We also did handstands against a wall until we could do it no more. My Mum never knew she had me I was up had breakfast out back for a banana sandwich for lunch and out for the rest of the day until teatime then out again until it was time for us all to go in and go to bed!
Yes,I remember all you have mentioned we used 3 balls to play up against the wall,also did hand stands,made tents out of old sheets and blankets and the broom handle, children have too much today,I know we want to give our offspring more than we had,but I don't think this has to be possessions. I really do think we had the good old days,I had no complaints.
Good morning Vashti, once again you have touched on a subject dear to my heart.
The early years!
What a wonderful one my generation had in spite of the war. They were tough days but they left us with the most incredible experience any child could ever have, the knowledge and understanding of what it meant to use their imaginative minds to enjoy a creative resourcefulness that knew no bounds in moulding their childhood.
Brilliant Vashti, and so many of us related to it; childhood was a blissful time, and it wasn't on account of the money spent on us because there was so little to spare. I feel sorry for today's kids and it's no wonder so many of them grow up psychologically flawed; my cleaning lady of a few years back treated her daughter to hair extensions and fancy fingernails for her ELEVENTH birthday! I was speechless. Designer labels from the cradle are now the norm and I know at least two young couples who are in serious debt but their kids get hundreds spent on them for Birthdays and Christmas "So they won't feel different from the other kids". These poor sprogs are over-indulged, over-protected and never allowed to encounter life as it really is until they're thrown out into the real world - and by that time it's too late too learn coping strategies for disappointment or failure. The good old days had a lot of drawbacks for the parents who raised us - just trying to get by was the main concern so we were free as air to develop as children should.
The memories you have ignited vashti are many. My sister and I used to play hopscotch, skipping, riding our bikes, roller skating, playing ball in the street and cats cradle. We would do puzzles indoors and various other games but nowadays it is all gadgets and gizmos and of course t.v. Our grandson is 3 in June and he still likes to play with his numerous toys and make up some fun games too. I like to save plastic pots (yoghurt ones etc.) and he has lots of fun with them, stacking them up and knocking them down. A typical boy. The one toy he really loves, but mum and dad dislike, is a £1.99 plastic sword I bought him a little while ago. He becomes a Knight out to rid the world of monsters!
Great post as usual vashti and how times change. xxxx
My children used to sit on the kitchen floor...or under the table...banging pots and pans with wooden spoons...gave me a headache but they were happy...lol
I was told that a visiting Aunt bought me a drum !!! But once she had gone home the drum was put on a shelf down the cellar,my Mum said she could not stand it a moment longer,I must have been very young as I don't remember it at all. ( perhaps because I didn't have it long enough,lol )
Ah! Such precious memories Loved my skipping rope, either solitary or with two friends holding either end.
If there was only two of us we'd tie one end to a lampost in the street! We sang little songs as the one in the middle skipped and then a different one for when the skipping was twirled extra fast - for some reason this was called 'bumps'.
Roller skates were almost glued to my feet - enjoyed the challenge of skating and developed quite a few moves!
Other favourites were hopscotch (of course), trainspotting (cos we lived close to the railway lines...and I was a tomboy!) and another fave was leapfrog. A few weeks ago I wondered if I could still do this - seriously! - but would probably end up in a crumpled heap so wouldn't dare try
Happy days xxx
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You be careful Lovelight...you'd do yourself a mischief playing leap-frog!
We had a big wood at the end of our road we made swings with rope hung over the trees, we went scrumpping and we had a swimming pool until the council sold to the witnesses for a church.
We then went swimming in a local lake and ice skating on it in winter we had a black bin bag for a sledge and in summer we would take a packet of biscuits and a bottle of pop and spend all day at the lake.
That brought back some great memories. Kids nowadays will never know these joys xx
Have you ever tried telling late teens about life with out mobiles? My niece wanted to know what we did if the person you wanted wasn't at home to phone them, she couldn't understand that if they weren't home that it, you couldn't contact them.
That generation at least still had toys, playing guess the name of the my little pony was tedious but at least involved conversation. The under tens now don't know to use imagination
I do admit I love the internet for one thing, when you see someone on tv and you can't remember why you recognise them. I can't enjoy the programme until i know!
What a wonderful story you have told Vasht. I have sat reading that while reminising my own childhood days at the same time, could even have been involved in building that wonderful contraption with you, as all the things you have gone through I have done also, must have been the parallel univrse we both live in.
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