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

Salt Vinegar Mustard and Pepper" we used to say when jumping "double time" in skipping. Children were much fitter then. They miss such a lot these days

Traffic, activity and social lives organised with military precision, fear of paedophiles, both parents working and children institutionalised until 6pm are all factors that have put paid to that for many children today.

School holidays were brill. Hide and seek, up to the river with your net to collect sticklebacks, hopscotch and skipping with a massive rope that 3 of you were jumping at the same time. Mum used to make jam sandwiches for us and we were away all day, up in the fields playing, no parents watching over us. I remember when I got roller skates, the falls I had and just running in to get a plaster on a cut knee and away out doing it again. Fab times.

We tended to meet up in a certain place - either in the park around the corner or in one of the fields pre foot and mouth.
The one time I can remember calling for a friend, I got bitten by their German Shepherd and spending the rest of the afternoon at the GP's surgery!

Sadly from what I can see they have 'playdates' nothing spontaneous

Children don't seem to be allowed to do anything in their lives without parental intervention, the more intervention the better their parenting apparently. My grandchildren are quite happy to play with jigsaws, lego etc but when their father arrives he has to take over to show what a good Dad he is. Sad really.

nananet01

I played lots of these old fashioned games and pastimes with my grandchildren who thought I was genius to 'think them up' and played for hours?

I recall my mother and her sister chalking a hop scotch grip on the drive and demonstrating the game to my astonished children, they'd never seen their grandma and auntie hop around.
Did anyone else take new babies out for a walk in their pram? Their mothers were grateful for a half hour of peace, we fought, metaphorically speaking, for the honour of taking the twins out, such a thrill to have a double Silver Cross to push. Looking at the other websites you're not allowed to even look at a new baby these days.

BigBertha1

We used to play on the 2 bomb sites in our road - ah happy days. NOT!!!

But you probably thought at the time these are happy days. Getting older and more 'sensible' can be a bit boring! We used to go off for the day, went 'miles away' but I now see that we were never more than 300 yards from home.

Played in the street, the woods with stream running through it, and the pit bing! The street had a bus, baker and butcher van and a very rare car travel on it. The most memorable is the ice cream man with his horse. The woods had sloping grassy areas used for running or rolling down aiming to stop before ending in the stream. The pit bing was like mountaineering up for the great slide down. Could never deny being on the bing as my rear end was covered in black dust. Now kids beside me have to have the school bus come along little windy streets to collect them as parents complained the treasures got wet walking 500 yds to the end of the estate to the official bus stop. Currently live on the edge of a woodland park, no children allowed to go on their own to play for fear of predators. Yes,they do call on one another to play- on their illegal electric scooters!

I played lots of these old fashioned games and pastimes with my grandchildren who thought I was genius to 'think them up' and played for hours?

Yes! In our street, all the kids would stand at the end of the path, or at the front gate, and just yell out the child's name who they wanted to come out to play. If nobody came out after a few minutes, they'd move up the street to another friend's house and do the same. It was exciting to be in your house and hear a friend calling your name, then ask your parents if you could go, and rush to put your shoes on!

Sadly from what I can see they have 'playdates' nothing spontaneous - it's all arranged between the parents whentheir children are going to play with each other at one of the houses. Everything else is a no no. Can you imagine todays children being allowed out to play during the war. What fun we had. If a bomb was going to get you there was no avoiding it.

I lived on a tough estate by the seaside and we seemed to spend most of the summer on the beach.We would take down old tires to play with in the sea and white sugar sandwiches. Don't know what my mum was thinking with food ! Out all day without a care and told to come home before the street lights came on. Often we would wade through the golf links looking for stray balls which you would be given sixpence for at the golf house. Also the place to find frogs and crested newts,think they are an endangered species now.
Funny how you look back and think it was so idyllic. But still remember the many accidents . I fell and broke my arm, my brothers had cracked heads and multiple cuts. The sadness of a child from the estate drowning at sea and the head of our primary school telling us not to eat the oysters as they were polluted. Funny how the town has now become famous for its oysters !

I lived in the country and me and my best friend and her lovely dog used to walk for miles and miles, this was when we were 13 or so, and talk and talk.

My daughter’s nine and she and her friends all play out. In the nicer weather they all troop off over the field behind us and play - we might not be able to always see them, but we can hear them as one of them is very loud!

Across the road from us is a new estate and the children play out there too.

We do organise play dates, but as we are rural my daughter’s friends come from many local villages and towns. For example, her best friend is from a town five miles away; another lives about three miles away deeper into the countryside and has no opportunity to play out as there house is quite remote.

I lived out in the country, so no, never called on friends to come out and play, as they all lived in the village too far away to walk to when I was young.
And back then, parents didn’t seem to exist as a taxi service for their offspring. Well, mine didn’t anyway.

Playing Cowboys and Indians in the Bluebell woods. Hopscot h, skipping and my favourite, my whip and top. Really enjoyed chalking designs on the top.

Happy days spent skipping, biking,exploring,you name it, didn’t come home until tea time,no one ever seemed to worry about me.

We used to spend summers at "Seaside Granny"'s house in a tiny fishing village in Devon. It had a small railway station and my brother and I, when about 8 or 9, would pack up our cozzies and a towel and a packed lunch and go on the train on our own to Exmouth where we would spend the day - swimming (yes - really!) in the pool and the sea; hanging off the edge of the pier with a piece of string and a fish hook; riding on the mini train, playing on the play park where you could ride trikes around "roads", and boating on the little boating lake. True freedom! Wonderful!

We used to go in a gang to the "rec" which had play equipment and wooded bits, and a stream - and a vicious alsation that used to appear and put me off dogs forever.

Fabulous thread We used to call for our friends by knocking on the door and shouting "Now"...followed by their name as in "Now Margaret" God knows where it came from. One of the things we loved doing was making a swing with a cushion and a washing line hanging from the cross bar of a gate post. Another memory is the craze for swapping beads - plastic poppits were practically worthless but if you had a big "ruby" or "sapphire" you could swap that for loads of little diamonds, all hoarded preciously in a special tin.

One roller skate each, with your best friend.
You could skate with your arms round eachother and go really fast.

A ball in a sock that you flung under your knee, and over your shoulders.

One of those hoops that fitted round one ankle, with a string and a ball attached.

We used to buy a packet of elastic bands Jin them all together and we played elastics moving our legs up and over singing rhymes! Had nit thought about this for years! Also two baller banging the balls of the coal house door drove my mum and dad mad!

Love this thread! Rope tied to lamp post and skipping with all the other kids. Two balls on the wall - saying Betty Grable is a star S T A R. Out all day with jam sandwiches. Collecting jam jars and taking them to jam factory for pennies.

Laughterlines

We used to go to the outdoor swimming pool and stay all day. It must have been freezing cold. We climbed trees and explored building sites and jumped off shed roofs. We built bonfires and struck matches. Our mums didn’t expect to see us all day. We used to take strangers babies in prams for walks.

We knew all the odd people in the neighbourhood and gave them a wide berth though we didn’t know why we should.

I used to take peoples babies for a walk too! Can you imagine that these days.