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Kids Games

Remember after supper (do they still call it tea time in England) there was always a question...Can we go out to play.. You dont hear that much any more. The answer was usually yes but your in at eight.
 
That is so sad that happened in Haleowen Sylvia. Maybe the adult concerned was never allowed to be a child while they were growing up. ::)

Our children went to the local school yard with their friends outside of school hours and played basket ball and hopscotch there. The hopscotch had been painted on the surface of the school yard, so there was no problem with chalk all over the place. They were safe and knew they must never leave anyone on their own.
During the summer all the local children would gather in our garden and do crafts when they were not at swimming lessons or baseball. O0
 
I remember all of those games, cannon & LONDON. We also used to have 'seasons', like the conker season and the marble season. Another favourite was 'Tracking' through Aston Park, we used to leave arrows on the ground with chalk (stolen from school) and one team would have to 'track' the other. Bonfire night was always a favourite, I remember dressing one of my mates up as a 'Guy' 'cause we didn't have anything else to use. He sat in the pushchair and off we went "Penny for the Guy". An Irish man came out of the pub and said "Oi tink that deres sumbody insoid dere, oil just stick me knoif in to see". Well, you never saw a 'Guy' run so fast :2funny: The irish man was in hysterics. He gave us half a crown and said it was worth it. Sticking bangers in Old man Coleman's letter box was always good fun, November was 'payback' time for all his moaning about us kids playing in the street. But it was all good fun and I'm sure that every banger that went off, he used to sit and chuckle to himself 'Aagh those little scamps" :D January was sled time. Anything that would slide was dragged up to Aston Park so that we could slide down the hill facing the Villa ground. We used to go home blue. Summer holidays we would go and round up bottles to take back so we could get the train fare to Sutton Park. That was REAL excitement. it was like a day out in the country but without parents. The highlight was being brought home by the Sutton Police after someone stole all of our clothes when we were swimming in Powell's Pool. Mom and Dad thought it was hilarious (and I've still got the scars to prove it......ouch).
I honestly can't remember ever being bored as a kid, there was always something to do, and someone to play with in our street.

Happy days......
 
The things we did as kids we would have social services after us now if we had young children doing the same thing.
I remember like Frantic doing Penny for the Guy outside the pub or stores and no one thought of it as begging, it was just a tradition like Carol Singing.
We used to go from Handsworth to Perry Hall playing fields on our bikes and on the way home we would go scrumping in someones garden. We would only take a couple of apples each to eat on the way, innocent times. :smitten:
 
You are so right Fran, we were never bored, there was never enough time in the holidays to do all we wanted. We would decide each morning what we'd play. Sometimes it would be a girlie day and we'd get the dolls out and put them in the one pram we had between us all, and take it in turns to push. One year we decided to put on a concert, we begged and borrowed dressing up gear, I finished up with a chinese coolie hat singing 'April Showers' :-[  We hung a curtain across the yard and charged a penny entrance. There's not a computer game in the world to beat any of it.
 
Definitely bags - I remember that - I bags this or that!   Spin the bottle - well, when I was a teenager it was pretty thrilling - parents out, lights out, torchlight, boys and girls.  I remember a birthday party of mine (around 15 yo) parents lurking somewhere in the background.  My teen friends all sitting in the dark and the bottle span and we went in to our sunroom to kiss the lucky boy which was pretty cool - depending on who you got to kiss of course :) 
But younger school days - Skipping with a great heavy rope held between two girls and you jumped in the centre to the chanting - heavens - can I remember the chants?
"My mother said I should not
Play with the gypsies in the wood
If I did she would say
naughty girl and run away"
If you tripped on the rope you were out and the next girl was waiting in the wings to jump in as the rope started up again.  Maybe starting another chant.
There are plenty of other skipping chants I'm sure stuck away in the dim dark recesses of my mind, but that's the only one that comes to mind.  I'll ask some of my friends what they can remember.
We girls played hopscotch for hours - drawn with chalk on the concrete in our driveways. Rain soon washed away the chalk and our parents didn't complain.
My daughter played a skipping sort of game with elastic - she called it "Elastics" (original!) and we were always having to buy heaps of it (elastic that is :))
Good topic - plenty to expand on here.
 
I saw a little girl blowing bubbles the other day, first time I had seen that in ages, when we were kids we had a little white clay pipe, and made the bubbles from soap or soap powder. When my son was little I used to buy a small container with the liquid in, which came with a piece of wire with a shaped ring at one end which you dipped in the can and then blew the bubbles. We used to compete to see who could blow the biggest bubble before it burst.
 
Postie, I don't know what it was called but I think you had two sticks with a string or line between and rolled it along and tossed it and caught it.

Some folks are very good with at it and I have seen a version of it used in recent years. :)
 
Looking at posties photo of old toys brought to mind the YoYo. :) I spent hours bouncing a bit of wood on a string. ::)
 
:angel: I use Yo-Yo's and Bubbles as distraction toys in 'The Children's ward treatment rooms at the hospital.‚.. (Part of a Play Specialist's standard equipment).
We make little bottles of 'Bubble-mix' up and we can wear them on a ribbon around your neck, or like the Yo-Yo's they fit nicely in to our pockets.
 
Yeah Rupert - One potato ... two potato .. three potato... Five potato six potato seven potato - raw! Someone hit you on your knuckles and you were IT!

Then I remembered something about Peter and Paul. Fly away Peter/Paul. Peter or Paul jumped into the skipping arena and by the chant left or skipped back in. Wish I could remember it.
 
Two little dicky birds sitting on the wall
one named Peter one named Paul
fly away Peter, fly away Paul
come back Peter, come back Paul.
 
Why's Paul a flavour of the month Postie I'll tell Oisin about you :eek:
 
SAKURA. You are right, never had one myself but had seen it done.          POSTIE.   looking at the Toy Pictures l can see the top of " The whip and top"also the "Marbles" also the bat and (cat ? ) of the game " Tip Cat"  Then there are the two on the top right that puzzle me?  Was l mistaken and this was another " Tip Cat"? the centre one l can only guess as played with marbles or marlies as we called them.
Has anyone got the answers to those and SAKURA'S object?
 
Right, the toys in the picture are
2 tip-cat bats and cats
1 wooden spinning top
1 marble Donkey with marbles
1 Diablo spinning toy.
And some kids who may have played with them Camden Grove, Camden St Hockley c 1904
 
Well done Postie.

I checked the Internet but couldn't find anything on these toys. My husband just came up with the idea that the bottom one was a bat of some sort. Rather like the one we played Rounders with. Strange to think some of us probably played with some toys like these. O0
 
Thanks to both of you, it helps to paint a picture ( as they say) of life years ago and yesterdays children.
 
"Virtual Victorians Themes Gallery" will take anyone  to websites about the Victorians, worth a look.
It will need typing in then choosing a website.
Hope it stimulates the mind and also memories of the past to get your stories onto this website.
 
Ernie, I think most kids in those days spent thier time like these instead of playing.( notice the fireplace )
 
WHEN WE MOVED TO LIVE WITH MY GRAN IN  TOWER RD ASTON IN 1947 SHE STILL HAD A FIRE GRATE LIKE THAT & ONLY COLD WATER, LEAD PIPES,  GAS LIGHTS AND ALL.
MY DAD HAD TO PUT IN THE ELECTRICS & AN UP TO DATE FIRE PLACE ALONG WITH HOT WATER BOILER, MY FIRST BATH AT 173 TOWER RD WAS IN THE COPPER BOILER IN THE KITCHEN (MOM HAD TO LIGHT A FIRE UNDER IT TO HEAT THE WATER FIRST),IN THE SUMMER I REMEMBER HAVING MY BATH OUT SIDE IN A LONG TIN BATH FILLED BY A NUMBER OF BUCKETS OF HOT WATER FROM THAT BOILER.
ASTON
 
Those poor little children, tyng up bundles of firewood by the look of it. No time for much else, but at least they woud have been warm in that room.
 
My cousin in his first car at My Mom & Dads first House in Myrtle? Grove,of Pugh RD ASTON.
Its Dad in the doorway My Aunt Hilda watching her son in the car.
I post the original & My tinted version
 
Children nowadays don't seem to have seasons for games. There were so many games we used to play at different times of the year, now they don't seem to bother, or perhaps its because nowadays the roads are too busy, or because its no longer safe for them to play in the street. Sad really. :'( :'(
 
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