Naughty things we did in childhood

At our school we were allowed to choose what we did for PE. Hockey, cross country running, and something else, which I can't remember.

My friend and I chose cross country running. We were left to do our own thing, as we were the only two who opted for cross country - for a reason . The school's cross country course took us out of the school premises, but instead of following the course, we used to go to my friend's house (walking - neither of us were runners!), have a cup of tea and a peanut butter sandwich, and get back to school just in time to get changed at the end of the lesson.

The very thought of two schoolgirls being allowed out of the school premises, unsupervised, is quite astonishing now.

When I was staying with my grandmother, think Grandfather may have been in hospital then, I went to the toilet in the middle of the night. I then heard a noise in the alleyway and climbed on top of a laundry basket, which had a glass top on it. I fell off the basket and scraped my leg from knee down to ankle on the glass top. My grandmother shouted to me to ask what the bang had been and I denied all knowledge of a bang and went back to my bedroom. I then found that my leg was bleeding; went back to my grandmother to tell her but she was fast asleep! Had to wait until the next morning to show her my leg which was now bruised from knee to ankle. All she was worried about was "you could broken the pot (the toilet itself)" and had no pity for me at all" Don't think I ever did that again, but there would multiple other things I did at that age.

Hi Redhead where did you move to? Was it Naylorsfield from Edgehill?

HurdyGurdy. I did something very similar on my cross country runs. My friend lived on a farm very close to school and his Mum would give us scones and jam with a cup of milk. The route back looped past the farm and we would put mud on our legs and jog the short distance back to school. But not before his Mum gave us a gentle clip around the ears and waved us off with a smile.
My other misdemeanor was to collect disgarded Corona pop bottles from roadsides and return them to get the money for the empty pretending they were from home and trying to explain why they were muddy.?

Chanel No 5 again. I have no memory of the incident but when I was 3 I apparently used her expensive perfume to water a plant in the garden.

Aged 5, I stole a large bar of Cadbury’s fruit and nut chocolate from Lewis Taylor’s in Tolworth (a very early supermarket) which I proceeded to eat under our dining room table. I was caught by my mother and she took me and the chocolate back to the supermarket where I was soundly told off. I’ve never stolen anything again. However, my younger siblings were prolific childhood shoplifters.

Granny had an old-fashioned range which she polished with black lead. I don't remember covering myself with the stuff, but my mother used to tell me that story. I must have been 3 or 4 and it's a wonder I didn't get lead poisoning!

When my brother and I were ill with measles, we were in the back room, with the curtains closed against the light. My brother was still in a cot, so must have been less that 2.
Mum came in to bring us something, and nearly had a fit, as we were both bright red. She immediately thought scarlet fever, but it was just lipstick.
The piano was between my bed and his cot, with mum's handbag on top. Being us, we rifled it and decorated ourselves with the contents.

When I was 4 or 5 we were very poor and my parents would send me up the street to take a pint of milk from a neighbouring house, this was normal to them and once I remember going to an allotment and picking Brussels and other vegetables. When the owner came to our front door to tell our parents they had seen my sister and I my parents gave us a hiding!! They were like Fagan?.

As a child I often joined up with a gang of others on a Saturday to play in the fields, ponds and the claypits. I was turned out bathed, dressed in nice clothes, hair ribbons - you get the picture. My younger brother accompanied us. On our return in the evening I would be filthy, hair ribbons gone, white socks just black. Little brother was pristine! I just had to gather hands full of mud and give him a good going over. He is still the same, never a hair out of place. Mum said that I "washed clean and dried dirty"

When I was about 10 I had a friend who lived behind our house. We could chat or send notes through the hedge and sometimes made up little mystery notes in a detective game. One day I wrote what was probably a blackmail note asking for a shilling ransom or there would be trouble. Instead of sending it to my friend I sent it to a girl who lived down the street, telling her to leave the money in the jar in my hedge.
She took it seriously and her dad came up and complained to my mother so I was in the bad books.

When I was a teenager my dad worked in an office that had a large walk in safe. As I was waiting for him one afternoon I decided to play in the safe and when I came out I pulled the door shut. Of course it locked and no one could open it . They couldn't leave the office until head office were informed and sent a code to unlock it.

As a young teenager my mother made me wear awful fitted suits for church. Also I had a large green straw hat which was scratchy. One afternoon I decided to wash it in hot water and of course ruined it. To try and fix it I put it in a hot oven and made such a mess I hid it.Luckily she never found out as I had several other hats.

We used to nick holly , ivy and mistletoe from the park for Christmas , one of us would keep a lookout for ‘ the Parky’ ( Park keeper) !!!{

I copied a poem out of one of my books and told my parents that I had written it. I think that I was just looking for a bit of love and attention. Something that I got little of from them.
Imagine my horror when they sent it to the Childrens’ Page of the Liverpool Echo. It was printed, and they sent me a postal order prize.
I was terrified that someone would read it, and denounce me as a cheat, or my brother would spot it in the book and ‘tell on me”. I had very few books, and didn’t dare to tear out the page or throw away the book. It would have been noticed.
I went through agonies of dread for months. I don’t recall being given the money to spend, or being told what an excellent poet I was, which would have just made things worse anyway.
70+ years later I can still remember every word of that blasted poem!

I was a very timid child. Mum asked me to show a friend's mother a photograph, I was about 4. to get there I had to crawl under a hedge. The mother assumed she was to keep the photo and I said nothing, but told my mum it had probably fallen under the hedge on the way back!!
I was usually covered in eczema. One day i decided my sister's teddy had eczema and covered it in my coalTar ointment. It didn't wash off and my sister never forgave me!!

My class were taken on a visit to the County show, myself, my best friend and another classmate went to use the toilets, on the table was a tip dish for the caretaker full of coppers and a few shiny 5p's. Later our classmate asked to go back to the toilets, she didn't want to use the closest ones it had to be the first one we had used. She stole a 5p and told us we had to steal one too or she would tell the lady we had taken money, my friend and i each took a 2p. I felt so guilty i rushed back in and put the money back. Still feel guilty, so much so that when i lived in Holland where the still had toilet attendant's, i used to put a lot of money in to their dish.