What games did you used to play after school?

I had a whip and top ,too. We used to colour the tops with chalk or crayons to make them more interesting when spinning,You had to have the right sort of pavement, slabs with cracks in between to stand the top before whipping. I had roller skates and was allowed to go to the park with them.. Oh, the freedom!

Nutmeg, we didn`t need to stand our tops in a crack, we wound the string from the whip around the top, placed it on the ground, and very quickly pulled the string off, and the top would start spinning straightaway, oh happy days!

Whip and top - we coloured in the top of the 'top' itself with chalks, and started off the top with the lash of the whip tightly wrapped around it and our knee pressing on the top before whipping it away! Skipping - even on the dark nights with the rope tied to a lamp-post, if there weren't enough of us to take each end of the rope! Another game that I played when I came up to Scotland as a child was 'paldies'. This was a type of hopscotch, and the best thing to use for this was a piece of tile or even an empty shoe-polish tin filled with stones, as long as it was flat. Two-ball, handstands against the wall further and further out, so that you ended up more like a crab by the time you'd finished! Oh the joys! All gone now, I suppose, because unless attitudes change quickly and quite drastically, these pastimes will be lost forever.

I can beat you there Greenmossgiel, I managed 3 balls!

nutmeg and numberplease We used to put a knee on the top until the string had been pulled.

Knock knock ginger,five stones,jacks, dutch skipping and my first two wheeler bike with gears Happy Days .

Sadly, I was never allowed a 2 wheel bike, everybody say Ahhhhhh!

numberplease - my story's even worse than yours! I was only allowed to use one roller -skate at a time in case I fell over...! That's true!

I never had them either, but only because I didn`t want any, tried my friend`s and hurt myself, it put me off.

Elastics, and "high up tig"

crab football anyone?

What the heck is crab football?

Bowling a wooden hoop and later hoola hoop with a plastic one.
Playing horses with my dad's walking stick and also using the banister as a horse with a cushion for a saddle. Yet I've never riden [ridden?] a real horse in my life!!!
Sliding down the stairs on our tummies and if we were very brave, head first!

I used to have a lovely red Tri-ang ( who remembers Tri-ang) scooter I remember one day almost running into our neighbour as I was comming around a bend on it. She was not amused at all and went straight to complain to my parents about it.
After a few wise words from them to me , dad made sure it didnt happen again..... he got a horn and put it on the handles of the scotter with instructions to use it when coming around corners. No more complaints !

Annika, was it a Pifco bicycle horn, I had one on my bicycle and it was one of my favorite things. I loved jacks, and my scrap book, I remember lots of brightly coloured scraps you bought in pages, lots of angels and fairies! You stuck them on with glue, I suppose they were the forerunner of stickers.

I remember the hula hoop craze,we could keep it going for ages. It wasn't unheard of for kids who had been overdoing it to be carted off to hospital with suspected appendicitis as they had strained their tummy muscles!
The hospital called it 'hula hoopitis'!
Did you see Grace Jones strutting her stuff at the Jubilee celebration? Have to say I was impressed with the way she kept the hoops going. The last time I tried it again I was hopeless. Completely lost the knack!!

During the summer weeks when the nights were light, my best friend and I would muck out and clean tack at the local riding stables. Anything to get a free ride at the weekend.

The big ship sailed through the alley alley oo?
Has anybody read the 'lore and language of schoolchildren' written by the Opies?

After school I was too busy laying and lighting the fire, doing my homework and getting the evening meal ready for when my mum got home from work!
[virtuous smirk emoticon]