Changing faces in the park

I guess I must be lucky in that all of the parks I played in as a child are actually still parks, and, apart from softer surfaces under swings, slides, etc, are pretty much unchanged. We have lived in our current house for 28 years and behind the house there is another patk which is also pretty much the same as it's always been, and is very well used, particularly in the summer, but all year round by the many dog walkers and the sports teams who play there.

i remember when my gramps took me to his local park with my new bike (the first time without staberlisers) it was fantastic with grass either side if i fell (and yes i did). There were always children playing on swings or the witches hat and laughing, but how things change. It is so small now with gangs of kids hanging around smoking and cans of cider and rubbish everywhere. Sad when you remeber how it used to be, a happy place

We had a safe street to play in - peevers (Scottish form of hopscotch), French cricket, tennis (without a net), skipping games and, in winter, sledging from the top of the avenue to the bottom. At the back there was a great big field and my granny's garden backed onto it. There was a tall sycamore for climbing and, beneath it, a stand of brambles which one might be unlucky enough to fall into, but which supplied large, sweet blackberries. The field was another great sledging place, as there was a steep slope to get you going really fast.This field has long since disappeared under bricks and mortar. Where do the kids go now?

We had a big park five minute's walk from where I lived as a child. It had a playground with swings and roundabouts and was always full of children and with the sound of laughter. There were large expanses of grass for football and other games and the bowling greens and tennis courts were a delight. I think my favourite place in the park was the day nursery, what a lovely place to put it, I could stand for ages and watch the babies in their prams and the toddlers playing on the trikes. Alas that was 1950 and today the park is merely a football pitch with a slide and a few swings in one corner. Do people not play tennis and bowls anymore ?

I was a park girl too. It was behind our house in South London and I either roller skated or cycled round there, or pushed my doll's pram and played with friends until my Mum rang a bell and called me home for tea. My children played in the local park or in the woods in the next street and made camps all summer long, when they weren't on the beach where I and another mum joined them for barbeques until the sun went down and it was home time. My grandchildren in Oz play in the street or on the 'nature' strip', climbing trees and playing footie or on their bikes (nervous Granny ) and they get taken to the beach most afternoons, often with a late afternoon picnic - history repeating itself. My grandchildren in the UK are too young yet to play alone, but hopefully they will be allowed the freedom to do so when the time comes.

It's a very sad blog.

We had lovely fields and woods but unfortunately being on my own a lot after my Mum died and I came back from staying in Wales with relations for a year, from age 7-11 I encountered many perverts in these same woods and fields! This affected me quite badly and gave me a distorted view of all men and youths.

my park was the street I lived in! skips in the alley, rope round the lamppost to make a swing, twozy ball up against the wall until we were told off for being a nuisance. the park was a long way from our house and mam didn't have the time or energy to take us.Children sadly are unable to play outside as freely as we did.

I notice most how people change when I haven't seen them for a while. Not just physically but mentally too. How people cope with the ageing process itself and their level of optimism or their take on life in general and how they have met/coped with adversity and the different challenges life has hurled at them. I still have friends I went to school with and we were all from different walks of life so it is interesting to see how they view the world now and I wonder how they view me!

Hi I am wondering how many other people have a web site and use it (among other things) for some nostalgia. I would love to see any one else's site so please feel free to visit mine here: www.woodses.co.uk and send me you URL.

The nostalgia pages are in progress but start here: www.woodses.co.uk/life-on-the-ladder.html

There was a bluebell wood just up the road, close to our uncle and aunt's house. When we were really small, we went with an adult to pick bluebells but as we grew older, we went there on our own. It was a wonderful place to play. Every year, in May, the guides and brownies had a church parade and it became a kind of tradition to go to the wood after that and gather bluebells. Of course, the trees have been felled now and houses have been built on the land.

Just like Nanathenana we had a field opposite our houses that was a wonderful play area. It too was built on a few years later - but whilst the houses were being built we had great fun 'playing house' in the empty shells. None of those 10 foot high fences and danger signs in those days.....a building site was seen as a perfectly acceptable place to play. We somehow knew not to go up the scaffolding or try to get too high......we grew up learning our limitations.

My "park" was the field at the bottom of our garden. It was undulating with long grass and just right for making dens. On the far side of this large field was a ditch and then another small field in which there are ruins of a Napolionic magazine. It was a wonderful adventure land for me and my friend next door. Our mum's would stand by the garden fence and shout to us at meal times.
The large field now contains 10 houses.

Sometimes things change for the better. I never flew in a plane until after I was married,I had never been to another country. When we had children we managed about three holidays abroad and my children loved being in another country,seeing how other people lived.
Nowadays, babies are going on holiday abroad,by the time children go to school some have had a foreign holiday every year of their lives. Of course there are still families who can't afford holidays abroad but on the whole the world has become an easier place to visit and learn about other cultures. I wish I had had that chance when I was a child.

During summer when I was a child aged around 12 or so I would spend most of my time in my local park, about a 10 minute walk from home. There were never any worries about letting me go off for hours on end. I also had to travel to school by bus and coming home I would be on my own and after getting off I had a busy road to cross. I was only 7 when I did this. I had a strong sense of independence and could get myself by public transport all over my home city. Unfortunately we can hardly allow children to go to a nearby friend's house now without supervision. We are far less trusting of one another these days. Isn't it sad!

Literally in the park. When I grew up we used to play in Priory park, in the sandpit, paddle in the pool, ride the paddle boats on the pond. Now the same Priory park has changed very little except none of those things are now available. Instead there is a well fenced off children's play area with soft landing and far more things to climb on. We used to have very high slides which must have worried the parents but now such things have gone. H & S is important but I do miss theese things.

Some things don't change (thank goodness) next to the park we still have a super small theatre.

As a child we had beautiful fields and woods where we spent most of our holidays; lovely fields full of wild flowers.
The pain that most people of my age suffer is that the government allow the EU to force immigration into this small country.
With not enough Hospitals, Houses, Doctors, Nurses, Schools, or the money.
I believe this government has no conception of the working class (the so called poor)
As was said; we are not all in it together with the rich getting richer ad the poor getting poorer.
I feel we are falling into the abyss.
All we have to view is concrete and tarmac
How we need a leader who understands the people.