If you are a parent, do you look back on your childhood and try to explain to your kids what life was like without MSN Messenger, Blackberry Messenger or Facebook? These were the times when you had to go and knock on your friend’s door and ask them if they wanted to come out for a game of football (if you are male) or skipping (for the girls).
As a parent, I have tried and failed on several occasions to explain to my kids the games that I played as a young lad: all I received from them was a look of shock and disbelief before they went back to their IPAD’s.
I decided to explain to them the games that they could play with their friends and set about explaining how some of these games were played…
‘Rounders’
An excellent game that could be played by boys and girls – this game was a great way to keep fit; I explained to my children that you had to get two teams together and set out a square that you would run around to score runs; I explained that there were two variations of the game: either a tennis racket or a baseball bat could be used.
‘British Bull Dog’
This game was more for the rowdy lads growing up; again you would start off with one or two kids in the middle of a playing field with the rest of your mates at the edge of the area; the object of the game was to get to the other side without getting tagged by your mates in the middle; the winner of the game was the last person to be tagged.
‘Football’
Although it is more common to see girls playing football thanks to Arsenal, Chelsea and Hibernian to name but a few, back in the 80s it was not a common site; back then, it seemed that you could not walk past a playing field without seeing kids playing football!; Sometimes, all that you needed to have to enjoy a good game of football was a couple of mates and your ball; before you knew it there were enough players to replay a famous football match from the past! For example, a replay of the 1979 – 80 FA Cup final between then second division West Ham United against the might of Arsenal (this ended up with the spoils going to West Ham United in reality).
‘Kerby’
A game that only required two friends and either an old football or basketball, the aim of the game was to score an agreed amount of points; to win points, you threw the ball from the pavement to the other pavement at the opposite side of the road, (obviously this had to be a quiet road and not a busy main road); if you threw the ball and it hit the curb of the pavement you won a point – some kids would play that rule; if the ball bounced back towards you, the result was to receive a ‘free throw’ from the middle of the road.
Cheryl Ramsay is an author of children’s books and likes nothing more than writing about his experiences as a child, he likes to take his children to the local Indoor Play Equipment center and the Adventure Playgrounds that are a short drive from where he lives.
