When thinking about the history of our lives, I suppose that the fondest memories we have are about our childhood and the things we did in those far off days. There's no doubt that we all remember the many games we played the memories of which always seem so clear in our minds. Of course things have changed drastically down the years and the children today enjoy far different things than we did. With all the technological games that are available to present day kids, most of the games we enjoyed in the past have almost been forgotten by the younger generation. It does seem a pity that that this is the case because I sincerely believe that the youngsters of today would enjoy them just as much as we did then.

I'm sure that children now are very interested to know how their parents and grandparents spent their time when they were young, in fact I have found that to be the case when I have had occasion of speaking to classes of young people in school. When we weren't getting into some mischief or the other, there were of course many games that we played which required nothing more than perhaps a tennis ball, bits of some kind of stone like marble, or maybe an old pram or bike wheel. I wonder how many people remember sitting on the kerb with five pieces of marble or pebbles playing "Five Stones" a very popular game at the time; we would sit there for hours playing the game, which had several parts to be achieved, each gradually becoming more difficult as the game progressed and the one that achieved the most stages was the winner. Some of us got quite skillful at it and although the requirements to play it were very basic, it brought many hours of fun. There were of course many other games that were popular, for instance "Allees" or marbles, as they are now known. Many kids would go around with pockets full of these glass "allees", always being ready for a game. I believe a few kids still play the game today, but very few and far between I'm sure.

Everyday items could and would be adapted as something to play with, an old pram wheel with a piece of wood stuck in the centre so that it could be steered along with a stick. A bike tyre or wheel that would be steered along with a short piece of wood was a very simple pleasure that kept some youngsters occupied for varying periods of time. There was of course the "Whip and Top" which you don't see much of today, but older people will remember that in years gone by this was very popular with youngsters. In the days before modern technology took over, there were a lot of enjoyable things that were done to pass the time that were simple and either cost nothing, or at least very little to do. They had to be cheap because the families that lived on the estates had very little money and found it hard to live, let alone afford to buy too many toys, so they either made them or games were invented that cost nothing.

Because there wasn't much traffic on the roads a lot of games were played in the street with relative safety, "allees" for instance was often played in the road along the kerb. There seemed to be an endless number of games to have a go at, games like "Release" which was played by two teams where if a member of one team was captured he or she could only be "released" if another member of his or her team touched the releasing post, usually a lamppost. Other games included "Tin Can Wobbler" which as the name suggests was played with a tin can and was something like "Release", "Queenie" or "Hot Rice" both played with a tennis ball as well as many other games. The many other pastimes, as older people will remember included making our own things to have fun with, for instance, making "Four - Wheelers" to race around the estates on or making sledges both in the winter when the snow was on the ground or in the summer with candle wax on the runners when the grass was bone dry.

A great time was had by all and I'm sure that kids could still enjoy a lot of those old pastimes, always remembering of course that we could play safely on the roads in those days. It would be interesting to hear other people's recollections of the games they played as kids, locally or otherwise.

Written by Fred Netley.