The games children played
Balls bouncing everywhere! Two balls, three balls, rounders and just plain old bat & ball. Kids would be everywhere playing ball. Often playing bat & ball in the road – and I’m talking about roads in London! You would stand one side of the road with the bat and across the road would be someone throwing the ball. Never any worry about cars, there were so few on the roads then. If one did come along it would stop for you to retrieve the ball, once the car had passed, the game would recommence. Cars didn’t own the roads in those days, kids did, and the odd horse and cart.
Skipping, Hoola Hoop, conkers, marbles and cigarette cards. They were really cigarette packets, of which you discarded the innards and flattened the outside. They were flicked against the wall to see who could get closest to the wall. Whoever did, won all the cards from that game.
I found this picture on the web and couldn’t resist posting it. Probably the most smoked cigarette back then and I collected many of these packets. This one is flattened ready for the game ;O)
Kids who made their own go-carts from old bits of wood and went whizzing down the road on them, with no brakes! Every railing had kids swinging from them, hanging upside down by their knees and doing somersaults. Dozens of fun games and dozens of kids out playing them. Out in the fresh air and interacting with each other. Not a Game Boy or PS2 (or is it 3) in sight!
Scrumping was another great outdoor event. Climbing over garden walls, sneaking around the gardens and pinching apples that had fallen from trees. Somebody might shout from within the house to scare you off but It was all part of the fun. Nobody really minded, after all we were just kids and there was always more than enough apples on a tree anyway. We were no threat to them and they knew it.
We went out ‘Conkering’ every year with our mum and dad. We’d collect as many conkers as we could, the bigger the better. Enough to last all year long. We’d get the biggest, shiniest one we could find, pierce a hole through it and thread our lace or string with a big knot to stop it falling off and we were ready to smash other kids conkers to pieces. Depending on how many conkers yours smashed, it became a one-er or a two-er etc. We were really proud if our conker made a three-er or even a four-er.
Gangs of kids playing on the streets were no threat to anybody! Violence on the streets hadn’t been invented yet, except for the odd scrap between kids!
I miss the innocence of childhood and kids being able to be kids for as long as they should be.
The game of Conkers has been played for centuries and I was gutted to find out that it has now been banned in schools across the UK as a dangerous game. Well … we wouldn’t want a child to get a knock on their knuckle from a vicious conker now, would we?
Stumble it!
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Swubird | 19 March 2008 at 5:23
Beetle:
Reading your post sent me back in time to my own childhood. We played baseball, stick ball and other games in the streets. Nobody cared. We built soap box cars and raced them up and down the streets. Once we even attached a car battery to an electric motor, fixed it to the soap box, and raced it high speed down the street. Nobody cared. We climbed the neighbors fence and ate peaches, apples, berries and grapes from their trees and vines. They just told us to go home. No crime. You’re right. It was pre-gang banger days, and life was simple and wonderful.
Great post.
Have a nice day.
weechuff | 19 March 2008 at 9:52
What a lovely post Babs:0) You are bringing back so many memories for me. It makes me sad to think what todays children are missing, while they stick glued to their computers or TV:0(
granny grimble | 19 March 2008 at 17:35
That was lovely Babs. I go back even further! Whips and tops, Hoops, Scooters and roller skates. It’s heartbreaking that all the innocence and honesty has gone from our children’s lives. How exciting it was to go carol singing and collecting pennies for the guy. No one was scared about knocking on a front door, and parents were just as excited when the children tipped out all the pennies that they had collected, as the little ones themselves. Nowadays, they aren’t children, but young entrepreneurs, and a penny would be throw back at you. Will we ever get those halcon days?
Jeanette Spain | 19 March 2008 at 19:15
Nice blog Babs, we played all those games, but only after all homework was done.
The whip and tops were a favorite with the girls, we used to chalk paterns on the top then whatch the colours as the top spun round as it was whipped.
Jeanette Spain
Beetle | 19 March 2008 at 21:49
swubird – Yes, I wish we could bring those times back. This generation of children just raise their eyebrows in disbelief when we tell them how great a time it was. The thought of living without all this technology horrifies them.
Beetle | 19 March 2008 at 21:51
weechuff, Granny grimble & jeanette: Yes I was only thinking yesterday that we must have been much fitter and healthier than kids of today!
Spider | 20 March 2008 at 1:32
Oh I love reading your blog Babs, and am so proud to have been one of your siblings (Just a little older than you :O)
Do you remember hopscotch, five stones, tag. lol such great memories.
Beetle | 20 March 2008 at 1:57
And all the two ball and skipping games :O)
Bumpkin Bears | 21 March 2008 at 16:05
lovely post, I loved playing all sorts of games, we loved playing croquet at my Gran’s, often over the mole hills
Glad I found your blog, Catherine x
Kathy | 23 March 2008 at 0:12
Neat post! How fun to remember the days when we hadn’t a care in the world. In addition to the ones already mentioned, we played “Kick the Can.” I won’t do it justice trying to explain it, so here’s something I pulled from the web:
Place coffee can in a large open area to be home base. It counts to 50 while the other kids hide. When It SEES a child, he calls her name. They both race to the can, and try to kick it first. If It kicks the can, the hider is caught and placed in “prison” on the porch. If the hider kicks the can, she and all players in prison are free, and It must count again.
We all managed to have fun with such simple games. Ah, the good ‘ol days.
Beetle | 23 March 2008 at 1:11
They certainly were!
Sindie | 26 March 2008 at 15:01
Sigh, even I remember all those games and I was a child in the
70’s. Too many electronic babysitters these days!