I’m admiring the conkers on my neighbour’s magnificent acorn tree, and it occurs to me that the local kids probably wouldn’t even know how to have a conker fight. Without a doubt, those of us who grew up before the 1980s were more connected to nature.
I realise technology and safety issues have changed life for the ‘modern child,’ but I’d wager that a day spent riding around the neighbourhood on your bicycle (a Dragstar if you were lucky), exploring the local creek, climbing forbidden trees, etc. gave us much more joy than a day spent playing Wii, or hanging at the mall. Certainly it kept us fitter.
You could get a physical and social workout by attending your local Youth Club. And almost every boy dabbled in scouting at some stage ... sadly, that’s no longer the case. Girls were Brownies, Guides, or in Girl's Brigade.
With family and/or friends, board games were lots of fun too. Apart from the age-old Monopoly and Scrabble, the most popular ones I recall were Hands Down, Mouse Trap, Tip It, Ker-plunk, Operation, Battleship and Cluedo..
There are several youtubes of “Mouse Trap” ads. This one was ‘before my time’ but gives the clearest demonstration of how it worked. WHEN it worked!
Variations on some of these games are now available online of course, and I guess the upside is that you can always find someone to play them with. Does that make them more fun? I’m not sure, but it certainly makes them easier to put away.
I imagine many kids now would “LOL” if I challenged them to a game of knucklebones or marbles. They were simple amusements, but I often wonder how quickly the new generations’ brains can evolve, to cope with the instant availability and rapid-fire action of online and video gaming ... Perhaps we’ll have the last laugh.
We were just talking about this the other night. Comparing our childhood and the fun we would get up to, which now would never be considered "allowed". My favourite memories of riding my bicycle to my friend's house, going to the local shopping centre carpark and roller skating the afternoon away. Watching the sun as we had to be home at dark for dinner. With no protection like helmuts etc.. we would laugh joyfully when we fell off our bikes, racing home, leaving nice big green grass stains on our clothes. I lived in a cul-de-sac, so the weekends belonged to the kids of the street, whether riding, skating or general chasing each other with a hose, we certainly didn't sit around playing video games. I do remember my Atari but it never got the attention that video games are getting now. Space Invaders was enough for me anyway. Board games were a delight, as were card games, which my Mum taught me from a young age. How times have changed in such a short span of time. N xx
ReplyDeleteSpace Invaders, Pac Man ... how exciting those were when they first appeared!!
ReplyDeleteLoving your memories there. Our roller skate/skateboard 'rink' was the local service station (gas station) which back then, closed from midday Saturday until Monday morning. We definitely owned the streets (and footpaths/pavements/sidewalks) with our bikes, and I have to confess, it was a whole lot more fun doing all of those things without spending time putting on helmets, kneepads, etc. It wasn't 'sissy' to have a bike basket either, btw.
And as you say, if you fell over - you just got up!
Marianne, I had a Malvern Star, got it for my birthday, but because we didn't all get what we wanted back then, I had to lend it to my sister to ride to school!! I think I was had! ;-)
ReplyDeleteYes we had knuckle bones too...actually real ones saved from the Sunday roast and washed and put in the sun to harden up...we were poor! I noticed a set in a toy shop just recently...plastic of course!Janet
They STILL SELL THEM? That's heartening!! They had plastic ones when I was young too. Mum showed me how they used to save the 'real' ones .... I compared the size of real vs plastic (the latter were half as big and much prettier!) and decided I had a better chance of winning with the fakes :-)
ReplyDeleteThe large ones were good to start with, but when you got to the stage of having to catch 4 or 5 of them on the back of your hand ... not so much!
Thanks for visiting Janet :0)
I don't know all of the games you mentioned, we had different ones. I loved board games and so do my boys. We played a lot of different ones with them when they were growing up. Of course, this was before every child had their own pc and mobile phone.
ReplyDeleteI still love to see kids with a deck of cards or a simple board game. Often, when friends come to visit and bring their kids, they love to rummage through our game cupboard and then play some of those games they don't know because their parents don't have them (or any).
I played outside until sundown.I still have my plastic knuckles tucked away in a little bawble purse somewhere in my closet. Did you also play 'elastics'? An oversized elastic band, one person at each end, starting at ankles, then next level was knees with legs apart slightly & the 'player had to jump over. Also I wish I could remember all the little rhyme songs we sang with the skipping rope & with synchronised hand clapping. "under the brown bush, under the tree, boom boom boom, true love forever.. true love for me, boom boom boom" (something like that)we developed hand eye co-ordination playing those games & improved our memory by singing rhymes. I had a brown Malvern Star Dragster with a glitter banana seat.I cant remember the title of the 'u' shaped bar at the back of the seat (it was a seat not a saddle).I inherited the bike from a male cousin who had outgrown it. Before it was given to me, my parents replaced my cousins short 'cow horn' handlebars with standard dragstar issue ones! One needed a bike to ride up to the red telephone booth to make prank calls ;p
ReplyDeleteI still HAVE an "Elastix" - how's that?! Saw them at a discount store a few years ago and had to buy for nostalgia's sake but had no luck convincing my kids how much fun it was. (even resorted to using two chairs back-to-back to hold the elastix in place to demonstrate, something I did as a child to 'practise' at night between daytime matches :-)
ReplyDeleteI remember Under the Brown Bush, as well as High Low Jolly Pepper and Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?
"Prank calls" hahaha and "telephone boxes" is almost a nostalgia piece now?!
Thanks so much for sharing those memories, C, love it!
Ker Plunk, I got a few early grey hairs from that, when it was down to the last stick that wouldnt disturb the marbles.
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