• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Growing Up In Brum - Roy Blakey Inspired.

Tip Cat was played in Small Heath, I think there was a stipulation that if anyone broke a window we had a 'whip round' to pay for it.

Nick
 
Never played it or seen it played Roy but my Mom used to talk of her brothers playing it.
 
Was Tip Cat with a top and whip Brummie Nick? I remember my Mom saying she used to play it as a small girl in the 1920s.
 
Tip Cat it was in the Gravelly Hill, Minstead Road area.
We also played what we called DUCKERS, played the same as green bowls, but with great big stones, (Or rocks as we called 'em)
 
Roy l remember tip cat....my brother used a cricket bat and us kids played with it to....we lived in a cul-de-sac so we never had any fear of through traffic....l never l mean never was able to hit the cat and my aim is just about the same now....also played whip and top....our side of the street had cellars and l would put the top in the grate hole pull the string and l was away...also loved to colour the top with chalk and h as it spun showed how pretty l had made it.....happy days.....Brenda
 
Austin K2 said:
Tip Cat it was in the Gravelly Hill, Minstead Road area.
We also played what we called DUCKERS, played the same as green bowls, but with great big stones, (Or rocks as we called 'em)
Click to expand...

We had Tip Cat in B14 too but it never caught on, I recall it was a difficult sort of game.
"Duckers" was the name we gave to any large rock, (not to be confused with sweets), but we only used them to make a huge splash when slinging them into water.
There was a craze we had where you got a piece of cane, split one end to take cardboard flights to make a dart and grooved about 3/4 of the way along its length. A knotted piece of string was wrapped around the cane and gripped with the fingers. The dart was then thrown, with the string acting like a throwing stick, or woomerra and making it go further.
Of course, I had to put the head of a dart on mine, a parental ban soon followed.
 
Mom grew up in Grove Lane Smethwick (on the border of Birmingham) and she played Tip Cat, so did my husband from Dudley Rd./Heath St.
I think I mentioned on another thread about pea-shooters, our neighbour couldn't understand those plants that grew!
We had a "moke" too, pushchair wheels and seats as well.
rosie.
 
Born in 1933, this thread got me thinking of my childhood years, and activities. Much as already been mentioned in this thread. I remember French cricket, marbles, hopscotch, skipping, rounder's, jack stones, soapbox racing (Usually built with old pram wheels), chasing a hoop, or a tyre, Beano, Dandy, Film Fun, Rover, Wizard, Champion, Adventure, Hotspur, Ludo, Snakes & Ladders, Target for Tonight, Boys Brigade, Cubs & Scouts, and the game of throwing the ball behind you and guessing who caught it (cannot remember the name of the game). Never really cost much to have fun. My grandchildren, who are now into their twenties, look upon me as something from the Stone Age, but they still ask me about those days, I am sure that I have missed out many other activities. Eddie
 
Yes I remember playing Tip Cat(I always thought it was TIP KAT) in the 1940s in Perry Common, also Kick the Can but cannot remember
all the details. another popular pastime was Fire Cans, old tins with holes around the sides filled with glowing embers. On the end of 3 or 4 feet of wire and swung around our heads to make it glow hot, strictly an autumn and winter activity.
 
Hopscotch, a game played many times.
I now live in Lincolnshire, and on occasions spend a day in the MUSEUM OF LINCOLNSHIRE LIFE, in the City OF Lincoln.
In one of the large display areas they have, someone has chalked a hopscotch game on the floor.
If you stand back and watch, you would be surprised at how many folk, mainly the more elderly, show a look of glee on their face, and then proceed to play the game.
I usually have a chat with them, and their memories just flood out.
 
rosie said:
Mom grew up in Grove Lane Smethwick (on the border of Birmingham) and she played Tip Cat, so did my husband from Dudley Rd./Heath St.
I think I mentioned on another thread about pea-shooters, our neighbour couldn't understand those plants that grew!
We had a "moke" too, pushchair wheels and seats as well.
rosie.
Click to expand...

Due to the fact that there were no scrapyards in our area, pram wheels were as rare as hen's teeth. When we did manage to make one it wasn't called a Moke, in our part of Brum it was called a "Cronk".
(I came off mine in Maypole lane but managed to arrest my progress by sliding in gravel on my hands and knees).
 
My brother taught me to make lovely paper planes (#166). My grandsons had a shock when mine flew better than theirs!!
I could never manage a handstand but a friend of ours could cartwheel down the road without being giddy....or getting run over!
Leapfrog was a challenge also, somehow I was always the one being leaped on, or when skipping, the one turning the rope.
rosie.
 
Those paper Aeroplanes.
Strange looking back at the ' general shapes ' of those ' little paper fliers ' that we made as kids and then compare them with the ' shapes ' of to-days modern Supersonic weapon aircraft.
Looks like we had got it ' cracked ' way back then and hadn't realised it.
 
In our area Stockland Green we played many of the games mentioned in the above threads. I remember playing L-O-N-D-O-N, Release, Hide and Seek, Hopscotch, marbles
and rounders. We had different rhymes for picking the person to go first, etc.
 
Growing up ( Another Stage ).
I reckon this might have been a fair old ' notch ' on the growing up scale. I'm thinking of that time maybe when your Dad might have taken you down to the Pub for your ' official ' first pint with him and his mates. I don't mean that one were you were left out on the side of the Bowling Green with a packet of Crisps and a Lollipop.
For the young ladies I guess a growing up marker might have been when Mom and Dad stopped continually reminding
the rules for ' evening stop out times' and maybe handed over ' your own front door key '.
 
Roy, for starters l was never handed the door key and my curfew was 10:30pm except on special occasions, even the night before l got married dad whistled me as it was past 10:30pm....l always thought why are the rules different for my brother.....l guess l was to chicken not to bend the rules....how times have changed the young people start going out the time l had to be in....my father was old fashioned and the x'mas l was 16 he gave me 2 ponds lipsticks from Woolworths that was his way of giving me permission to wear makeup, little did he know l would put pancake on at a friends when we went out but of course had to rub it all off before l went home...thinking back we all seemed to live a sheltered life but l would'nt change it....Brenda
 
Even when 17 my sisters had to be home by 10pm, like Brenda they would put make up and sometimes clothes at a friends, before going out, my first beer with my dad came on my first leave, he took me to the "Raven", for a beer, he had a bottle of Mackinson, as he did't drink I was amazed...paul
 
image.jpgA Growing up ' Fashion ' .
" Short back and sides " with a squirt of Brylcream was the order of the day ( at the Barbers ) for most men up until around 1950.
The ' DA ' then came into vogue and young men of the period started to take special attention to their hair. It was a big thing this, I reckon the young chaps at this time spent just as much time on getting that ' back parting ' perfect as did the
girls getting their ' waves and curlies ' right before going out.
The ' style ' was said to have been copied from the way the feathers are formed at the back end of a Duck.
Tue , honestly .
Some people began calling it " The Tony Curtis cut " , he was a big film star at this time, after he adopted this hairstyle himself in his films.
 
Hi Roy, You mentioning Brylcream brought to mind going to Nechells baths with the school, one of the lads noticed that the Brylcream machine would continue "giving" if the plunger was gently pressed backwards and forwards instead of one plunge! Result? all the lads had a load of cream on their D A and the dispenser was nigh empty!
 
Roy Blakey said:
View attachment 92560A Growing up ' Fashion ' .
" Short back and sides " with a squirt of Brylcream was the order of the day ( at the Barbers ) for most men up until around 1950.
The ' DA ' then came into vogue and young men of the period started to take special attention to their hair. It was a big thing this, I reckon the young chaps at this time spent just as much time on getting that ' back parting ' perfect as did the
girls getting their ' waves and curlies ' right before going out.
The ' style ' was said to have been copied from the way the feathers are formed at the back end of a Duck.
Tue , honestly .
Some people began calling it " The Tony Curtis cut " , he was a big film star at this time, after he adopted this hairstyle himself in his films.
Click to expand...

I used to have the "Tony Curtis" look. Still have but without the da. Sometimes to get it to stay in style, i used to wet my hands and rub some soap on my hands & run it thru my hair. It had the same sort of effect as hairspray, but no self respecting teddy boy would use hairspray. Couldn`t pass a shop window without checking the hair was ok.
 
Hi All,

I know that I am old. Every time I go into Costa for a cup of coffee they offer to carry my tray to the table

Old Boy
 
View attachment 92560
Some people began calling it " The Tony Curtis cut " , he was a big film star at this time, after he adopted this hairstyle himself in his films.[/QUOTE]

Tony Curtis was practically bald, he wore a wig, as did John Wayne, Ted Danson & probably many more, but i still enjoyed their films.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top