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.
I remember playing a lot of hop-scotch.
ReplyDeleteWe played creep mouse often, on person counts the others creep forward, when the counter turns around you have to stay still, if not you are out.
ReplyDeleteI was hopeless at two-ball [my Mum was brilliant though] We also did French Skipping aka "elastics" where two people stood opposite one another, and a loop of elastic round their ankles. The third person did various jumping and twisting activities [a bit like Cat's Cradle on your fingers only more energetic!] And I loved the singing game "The big ship sailed on the Alley Alley O" where you held hands in a line, and the first two people made an arch. You all danced through and then repeated with the next arch and so on. Finally everybody had hands crossed [like Auld Lang Syne] and you joined up the circle and danced and sang. We did that a lot at my first primary school. I moved when I was 7 to Co Durham - and nobody in my new school knew the game. I was extremely disappointed! Thank you for the reminiscences .
ReplyDeleteI loved skipping and two balls with my classmates. The other thing we did was swapping scraps which were inside an old book for safekeeping. Thanks for stirring my memories. Catriona
ReplyDelete