Childhood Fun

A quick questions and answers session for forum members
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Selby White
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Childhood Fun

Post by Selby White »

Growing up in an era before computer games, iphones, social media was life really boring, I think not so following a discussion on another thread with Rigger and KK White about how we played in Subbuteo leagues with other kids from the neighbourhood thought would be good to ask our older members what they remember about growing up.

A few of mine :-

Would imagine most would be the same or similar we actually played out until dark, usually football in the winter and cricket (using a lamp post for stumps) in the summer.

Indoor games I remember one year a few of our gang were into Scalextric and spent many happy hours having our own grand prix series.

Another game I always enjoyed was Kerplunk anyone remember that.

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On the bad boy notes was always fun going romping, that's raiding apple trees in peoples gardens and allotments.

So what can you all remember ?
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by Deleted User 728 »

My mum was a child-minder in the 70s, as were a couple of her friends, including our "aunty" Eileen.
We'd always go to someone's house after school for an hour or two and play games and most of the time we ended up at Eileen's.

Her hubbie was a milkman called Ron and he'd be done by about 2pm so he was always around for the kids.
He was a diamond bloke and had a massive collection of board games, so I definitely got my love for them from him.
I posted before about Waddingtons inviting him and his son to the factory in Leeds and it was for good reason : he basically kept them in business :D

By far my favourite was Escape From Colditz which is amazing fun with a full compliment of six players.

I was never really into train sets but also like Scalextric although I didn't own a set till I was in my 20s :lol:

The number one for me, though, was model aircraft.
I got so into it I started visiting air shows and the local airport, even though I mainly focused on military planes.

I also got into Dungeons And Dragons when I was about 10 when TSR first started exporting the games to the UK.
This continued into secondary school and looking back it was an interesting barrier-breaker in that I played with kids I wouldn't normally mix with. The school equivalent of a smoking shed, I suppose :think:
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by Davycc »

Outside was football, on the schools footie pitch (used to get chased of by the police but they soon got bored coming back every 10 minutes) played until it got dark. In the winter "hunts" or "kick the tin" can still see us playing it on cold drizzly foggy/coal smoke filled nights. I'm sure they're called something different in other parts of the country (another thread maybe) but hunts was just like team hide and seek. Kick the tin was when a tin can was placed in an open area and all but one hid, the "chaser" had to find everyone to end the game but if a still in play player managed to "kick the tin" then everyone was back in the game and hid again. Some poor sods were chasing all night.

Never really did board games but has Scalextric, got it one year for Christmas and couldn't believe my luck when walking to school on my first day back after the Christmas holidays I past an old tea chest full of track which had been left out for the binman. At the bottom there were two fantastic trigger style controllers I only had the old plunger type. I got a whack for being late to school after dragging the chest all the way back home. I had in my head this fantastic track I was going to make all round the house when I got home and I spent hours setting it up only to find not being able to see the cars in the next room made it pointless.
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kk white
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by kk white »

A (long) letter read out on Irish Radio, 30th May 2003 which to this day puts a genuine lump in my throat. I emailed it to myself because it brought back so may wonderful memories. Pardon the spelling and grammar, I didn't write it.
See how much you recognise, assuming that each thing is called something different wherever you're from (as Davy mentioned above):

"Growing up in Ireland - as read on The Gerry Ryan Show 30th May 2003
I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park, the shop down the road. Hopscotch, Donkey, skipping, handstands, Kick the can, red rover, rounders, stuck in the mud, football with an old can, Skipping, Ball,GPO (with an old shoe polish tin!), Dandy, Beano, Mandy, Twinkle and Roly Poly.

Hula Hoops, Jumping the stream, building a swing from a tyre and a piece of rope tied to a tree (If you live in Dublin the lampost), building tree-houses, climbing up onto roofs. Tennis on the street, the smell of the sun and fresh cut grass..

Hubba Bubba bubble gum and 2p Flogs, toffee logs, macaroon bars and woppas, 3p Refreshers and wham bars, superhero chewing gum, golf ball chewing gums and liquorice whips, desperate dan and roy of the rovers, sherbet dips and Mr. freezes, marathon bars and everlasting gobstoppers.
An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe neopolitan!

Wait ... Watching Saturday Morning cartoons ... short commercials, Battle of the Planets, Road Runner, He-Man, Swapshop, and Why Don't You?, Transformers, How do you do? Bosco, Forty-coats, the Littlest Hobo and Lassie, The Muppet Show, MacGyver, Scarecrow and Mrs King, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven, or staying up for Knight Rider and Magnum PI.

When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere. A million midget bites, sticky fingers and mud all over you, knee-pads on your jeans, Cops and Robbers, Rounders, tip the Can, Queenie-I-O, climbing trees, spin the bottle, building igloos out of snow banks, walking to school, no matter what the weather, running till you were out of breath. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.

Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights, Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles, Being tired from playing... Remember that?
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Water balloons & eggs were the ultimate weapon, reflectors in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. And don't forget the rich tea sandwiches we'd make by buttering a couple of rich tea biscuits and stickin' them together. And that quare oul mixture made in a tall glass with HB ice cream and Taylor Keith Red Lemonade.

I'm not finished just yet...
Eating raw jelly, orange squash ice pops ........Remember when ... There were two types of sneakers - girls and boys and the only time you wore them at school,was for "P.E.". Gola football boots.

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends, when nobody owned a pure bred dog, when 25p was decent pocket money, when you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny, when nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there, when it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.

When any parent could discipline any kid or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of muggings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! and some of us are still afraid of them!!!

Remember when.... Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo." Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly", the game of life and connect 4. Atari 2600's and commadore 64's. The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. It was unbelievable that Red rover wasn't an Olympic event...

Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a biro barrel pea shooter or an elastic band. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better, Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable vitamins, Ice cream was considered a basic food group. Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.. Abilities were discovered because of a "double dare".

Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!!
Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life...
I TRIPLE DARE YA!!!"
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by Davycc »

kk_white wrote: If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!!
Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life...
I TRIPLE DARE YA!!!"
Ha, I think I may have lived a little then, all of that brings back memories.

PS just to add, a clothes peg and piece of card attached to the fork of a bike so as the card hit the spokes was a definite motor cycle maker.
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Selby White
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by Selby White »

Some great reads on here, really enjoying the trip down memory lane.
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
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johnh
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by johnh »

During the war, you had to make your own fun as not many could afford 'material' things. A bike was definitely out of the question and the highlight of the year was a new pair of 'pumps'. This was obligatory footwear for summer months. Played football (and cricket) with an old tennis ball that had worn away to shiny rubber. Collecting shrapnel and playing 'war games' in bombed out houses kept us occupied. We once went into an area where the Army trained at Formby. We found about a dozen rounds of live .303 rifle bullets and when we got back to Liverpool we hacksawed them open and got the gunpowder out. We then tried to make a bomb, fortunately unsuccessfully. Just a day in the life of a 10 year old (1946)! :D
I once played against Don Revie.
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by Deleted User 728 »

Blimey :wtf:

The closest to that I ever got was when I'd often go to the copse up behind the pig farm near my step-dad's workplace. It was a great spot to find clay pigeons that had been missed by the local shoot, if you could stand the stench of rotting pork that would waft over from the occasional ditched (presumably diseased thinking about it now) carcass ...


On a lighter note, I was thinking about "Uncle Ron" the milkman and the kind of local rules people adopt for Monopoly.
I think the old one about putting fines in the middle of the board and whoever lands on Free Parking collecting them is so beloved they might as well include it in the official rules these days, but we had a cast iron on of our own that we always had to obey though you'll only get it if you're a certain age ...

There was no Vine Street :

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We had to call it Unigate Street instead :D
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johnh
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by johnh »

Remember knocking on doors and running away? Knock down ginger it used to be called. Known as Parcel Force now.
I once played against Don Revie.
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Re: Childhood Fun

Post by Deleted User 728 »

Have you heard of the variant where something's launched over your garden fence before the person runs away ?

My Hermes, it's called ...


We used to call the original Thunder and Lightning or Knock And Run :)
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