Playground games

 I think I have just about finished this series of posts about childhood in the 1950's but I can't go without talking about playground games.  They were so important!

The commonest game for girls was skipping, either alone or in a group with two people turning a long rope.  Ropes were most often cut from a washing line which had been repaired just too often.  My Mother favoured plastic covered washing lines which gave a very satisfactory sound when they hit the tarmac of the playground.  There were skipping rhymes too, handed down among generations of girls (boys didn't join in, they just played endless football).  

At certain times of the year "two ball" was the preferred game.  One of my aunts was a keen tennis played and she often gave me old tennis balls.  There were so many ways to play two ball: underarm, overarm, with or without a bounce against a wall, up into the air, alternating different throws.

In the autumn conkers came to the fore and that was popular with both boys and girls.  It could get quite vicious in ways which I suspect wouldn't be allowed these days.  Collecting conkers was a popular pastime in itself.