Do you remember calling for your friends to come out to play? What did you do??

We played out everyday all the games mentioned by other posters mum used to have a problem getting us in ?

Oldwoman70

I grew up in a deprived area and when calling for a friend I would have to knock on the door and "sing" her name. The reason was her parents wouldn't answer the door in case it was a debt collector!

We played hop scotch and skipping in the street and marbles in the gutter, would walk to nearby open countryside and spend the day there, fishing for "tiddlers" in the stream, building "forts" with any bit of wood we could find, hide and seek etc. I don't know if it was safer then but no-one worried as long as we were home in time for tea!

I came from a deprived area too. When I was 6 we moved to a house in a nicer area. The lady next door told me off for my strong Sheffield accent. She told me it was ‘road’ (pronounced rode) and not ‘roard’ as I said it. Always hated her after that. Miserable woman.

We moved from inner city to farm land which was in the process of becoming an estate. It was like being in the wilderness unbelievable to us children. In the summer we would be out all day with jam butties and water. Climbing trees and playing amongst haystacks picking berries from the hedgerows.
When all the houses were built and the road was laid we played marbles skipping hopscotch and ball games. We were never bored our dad worked nights we were not allowed in the house until teatime.

hulahoop

We played out everyday all the games mentioned by other posters mum used to have a problem getting us in ?

When choosing my kids names I deliberately chose ones I wouldn’t feel daft shouting when I wanted them to come in from playing. ?

We used to play in the road, as cars were a rarity then. Main games were Hopscotch, French Skipping, hide and seek and 'kerbie' (where you each stood each side on the road, threw a ball aiming for the kerb so it bouced back to you). Also a game called Queenie Eye, where one child had their back to the others and threw the ball behind them. One child caught the ball and hid it behind their back, then we all took one step forward. Then the one who had thrown the ball had to guess who had it, if they guessed incorrectly she had to do it again.

The Farmers in his Den! I had forgotten about that.

Also used to get Mums clothes horse and build a tent!

Innocent times.

henetha

I lived near a small park with a path running through it.
We used to play a game called "Please Sir may I cross the river". One person would stand in the middle of the path and try to stop us crossing to the other side. The shrubs and bushes which surrounded the park were ideal for hide-and-seek, or tag.
And we used to play hopsctoch, and do a lot of skipping with long ropes. We used to chant "Salt Vinegar Mustard and Pepper" for some reason which escapes me.

I could never get the hang of skipping ?. And that game with long elastic bands round two peoples ankles where you jumped in and out and over and round and chanted. I was also rubbish at handstands against the wall and two balls.

Building on our road had started before the war, our house being one of the few. When building started again I was about 7 and we had great fun playing in the foundations of new houses, making castles with the builders's sand. It wouldn't happen this century! The road was quiet - hardly anyone had a car - and we played ball games, peevers (kind of hopscotch) and skipping - I was known to pinch mum's clothes line but she put an end to that. Out the back we had access to a big field, from which we could get into an uncultivated part of granny's garden, scope for hide and seek, cowboys and Indians, tree climbing and messing about in the air raid shelter. Oh and there was the beach! With all these opportunities for outdoor play, I was nevertheless a keen reader, never without a book on the go.

NannyJan53

We used to play in the road, as cars were a rarity then. Main games were Hopscotch, French Skipping, hide and seek and 'kerbie' (where you each stood each side on the road, threw a ball aiming for the kerb so it bouced back to you). Also a game called Queenie Eye, where one child had their back to the others and threw the ball behind them. One child caught the ball and hid it behind their back, then we all took one step forward. Then the one who had thrown the ball had to guess who had it, if they guessed incorrectly she had to do it again.

The Farmers in his Den! I had forgotten about that.

Also used to get Mums clothes horse and build a tent!

Innocent times.

My heart melted recently when my 4 yr old granddaughter appeared in my heels. It just took me straight back to my childhood. She was so thrilled.

Salt,vinegar etc was used in skipping?

We used to call for each other. If the first person you called for wasn't allowed out to play, you'd knock on the next door until you found someone who was. Me and the girl next door invented a "knock on wall code" between our semi detached houses. One for "yes", two for "no", three for "are you coming out to play?" Etc.

We used to have scooter races, played hopscotch, skipping and French skipping. We had yoyos and whips and tops. The boys had conkers. We'd disappear for hours on the old railway lines next to what is now a country park. I'd freeze when I heard my name called sharply as it meant my dad was looking for me as I was home late and I'd be in trouble. Building sites were adventure playgrounds. We'd go to the shop with a penny and see how many chews it bought us.

Good memories.

we played rounders in our road . it was a narrow road and no cars. If the ball went into 'mrs lawrence's garden it was game over. She wouldn't give it back.

as a small child I got 'run over' twice, by bikes.
played hopscotch, skipping, whats the time mr wolf.

lots on you tube . documented clips of children playing on bomb sites london , liverpool etc.

I wasn't a particularly naughty child, but I do remember at some point playing Knock down ginger in the local flats.

Also we used to to do penny for the guy. A group from our street would make up a guy from old clothes etc, borrow a pram and and sit near the station hopefully.

A fabulous childhood with a garden that went on forever. The same as next door as our two houses were built together.
Just a hop into the next garden was the furthest any of us went apart from when we were all together then were allowed to go down a country lane to a pond and spend a day fishing. Friend and I were left to cut up worms

At home the brothers made stilts and we all mastered them very well and couldn't wait to go on them, balanced against the wall. Friend and I used to push her dad's rabbits around in our doll's prams, poor things. Then we made a house from the thick bracken/ ferns at the top of the garden, playing mummies and cooking all kinds of things picked from the garden. We had a sort of a camping stove and boiled freshly picked potatoes and mint. Bit on the hard side.

Then we all played tag, using a piece of rope that was thrown and if it hit you you were then the chaser. Never once were any of us ever bored and every day was different. I don't remember it raining all through the long summers we had---but it must have done. Winters were fun too if it had been snowing, which it invariably did in the 50's. Idyllic indeed.

Friend and I would dress up and put on a concert and her dad, who grew flowers for sale, used to treat us if we sold a bunch of flowers each---they were 1/6 a bunch and in buckets at the front of their house at the bottom of the drive so an easy sell and we got to keep the profits of the first two bunches---1/6 each which was a heck of a lot. Mum bought a loaf out of it for 7 pence halfpenny and the rest between brother and I for sweets for the week.

An old neighbour gave us a load of beads and stuff for dressing up. It was our old headmaster's sister and her house always filled us with fascination with all the nik-naks she had. It was like an Aladdin's cave and smelled of must and mothballs and friend and I used to giggle.

How lovely to look back on a happy childhood and the neighbour and I have remained friends for 75 years and still going. She sent me the biggest bunch of roses last year for my Birthday and I get a Christmas card every year from her brother and sister also. I'd attended both funerals of her mum and dad in the past too and they mine. Lovely neighbours.

I feel so sorry for todays children without a past to speak of really. Innocent fun and freedom and make-do and mend playthings when we all used our imagination. So happy.

I grew up in a Welsh mining village, went to same school as friends and cousins - large extended family, lived in same street as the school.

We chalked hopscotch on the road, walked up the coal tip and made dens in the fern.

And with shame I admit we played - shoe the white horse -
knocking the door and running away , and also scrumping for
apples and rhubarb which we ate with cocoa powder and sugar in our dens on the tip, and I loved beating the boys at marbles and conkers.

Shoe the White Horse - interesting that our area of London name for the same game was Knock Down Ginger. There are probably many variations all over the UK.

I lived in Bridlington as a child and remember cycling with friends to Flamborough and Danes Dyke, areas not commercialised at all then. We took a picnic and were out all day. I think we spent most of our time on and around the beach even in winter.

Reading this thread has brought back many happy childhood memories. I would play out in the street or over the park with friends from after breakfast till teatime. One of my favourite games was Jacks. We would spend hours playing. Also loved playing marbles and two balls against the wall.
I had many a grazed knee from roller skating down hills in the park.
Happy days.

My dgs 11 and 8 have never gone out to play without parents /us being present.
It’s rather sad because we learned so much and had a lot if fun when out playing with our friends. I played our from 5 and we used to be our fir quite a while, often up in the woods, well out of sight of any adults.

This is a wonderful thread I remember playing orange and lemons too. I also used to make 'perfume' with my Mother's rose petals. My Mother was obviously not too precious about her roses as I learnt later when I picked the neighbours roses and got into huge trouble!

Witzend

I remember it well, but whether they still do I don’t know. Gdcs still too young for such things.

One such ‘calling round’ went down in the annals in our house - my father would still laugh about it years later.

He opened the door one day to a boy of maybe 8 or 9, who asked whether my younger brother could come and play.

Since my father didn’t recognise him, he asked his name.

‘I’m BristleBonce’s bruvver.’ ?
My DF didn’t know BristleBonce either! But since DB clearly knew them both, he went to play with him anyway.

Was BristleBonce and his brother from Bristol then Witzend?
Or was the nickname because of his hair cut???

French skipping, 2 Ball against the wall of the house. Hide and seek, jacks with a bouncy ball; clapping games in pairs and then more and more

I introduced some in the playground at school when teaching which the children loved

Yes, WW010 they do still do this.
They may be a bit older before they are given permission to call on friends but my older grandchildren do this a lot it seems.
The younger ones make plenty of dens with sheets etc but mostly in their own gardens now.

Oh yes the rose petal perfume in a jam jar mixed with a stick.

The singing one where we formed a circle and sung The farmer’s in the Den, where the farmer chose a wife a child a nurse and a dog which were called into the circle one by one, finishing with everyone patting the dog.

We played elastics WW010. It was a favourite with the girls, once we had managed to get 1s 11d out of one of our mums to buy a yard of elastic from the village shop.
If the boys were out with us they would want to play bows and arrows and we’d make them out of branches of trees that grew in a field behind our houses.

I had an idyllic childhood in a Wiltshire village. After Tea we would go out into the village street and play with whoever was around, boys and girls together. Our activities were seasonal, sliding on the pond in winter, blackberrying and nutting in autumn, rose petal perfume and snail racing in summer and - collecting birds eggs in spring. ?