OneGuyFromBarlick

At my Mum's house near Leeds today we were distracted by a double decker bus which reversed down the narrow street and parked up outside one of the houses opposite. It was a children's play bus - available to hire for parties- and soon the cars started to arrive bringing quite small children to the party. On the drive home I was thinking about all the parties we used to have or go to when we were young and the games we played. I cant imagine how much it would cost to hire a bus for your kiddies to play on for a couple of hours, but I do remember the fun we had back in the 50's playing games that wouldn't have cost more than a few pence.

My favourite involved a flour "cake" on a board with a matchstick stuck in the middle. We all took a slice off the pile of flour with a knife and the one who eventually caused the matchstick to fall was the loser.
Making a matchstick tower on top of a milk bottle till someone caused it to topple was another favourite.
The race to pick up dried peas with a drinking straw and convey them to the dish at the end of the course.
Musical chairs, Pass the parcel and Statues. Blind Man's Bluff. Hide & Seek and another similar game where one person hid and everyone else went looking and then hid with the the first one....did we call that Fish??
Then there were the calming down games with pencil & paper...
The one where you had to remember all the items on a tray which was shown for a minute or two then removed.
Consequences.
Something like "My Aunty went on holiday and in her case she packed...." and you had to remember every item and add one to the list.

Loads of fun and a jelly in one of those frilly waxed cardboard dishes!

"..remember all the items on a tray which was shown for a minute or two then removed."

This is Kim's Game from the book Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

I didn't know that Elise, thanks.

My pleasure. It is/was played in the cub scouts, early cub scouting based on Kipling's Jungle Book.

I liked playing mummies and daddies and doctors and nurses with my girlfriends. Say no more !!!

Our favourite game was one we invented ourselves and played in the church grounds in the dark on choir practice night. We called it Gestapo and it was hide and seek in the dark using torches. Good to tell we were aware of the war! Funny thing is that during all the shortages and rationing there was never any problem getting torch batteries.

I was thinking more about organised party games....do children still have parties like we used to do, or is everything organised around a theme or a visit?

I remember playing Jacks, Elastics and Hopscotch. I also remember a game where we would write things on a piece of paper (just a few words) then fold up the paper in a certain way so that it would fit onto both thumbs and forefingers, I think we counted then stopped and peeled back a piece from the middle... ?? Can't think what it was called.

I can't remember either Cathy, but we used it for telling fortunes. There would be a different coloured spot on each fold with a "fortune" written underneath. I loved playing Jacks.

We used to do a chant as we moved the peaks of paper, it involved words and numbers .
Something like ( and I am not saying these are the exact words but they may spark a clearer memory than mine)
" Mickey Mouse had a house, what colour was it" ...this revealed the colour one chose from those on display.
We chanted again!
Then that gave a number?
Then we counted and worked our fingers again.
Pulled the triangular flap up and revealed the message.

I can still fold the paper. I can get it working.
Can't quite recall the chants we said ( was "eeny" "meeny" " miney" " mo" involved?
( eeny meeny miney mo...catch a n@&&/r by the toe .If he hollers.... No. Maybe not. Have got all sorts of chants going round in my head now! ! ! )

Would todays children play the old games, I remember pass the parcel, musical chairs, apple bobbing, postmans knock,stilt walking on syrup tins with string held down by the lids.pin the tail on the donkey. Small prize for the winner.

I think kids today play much of the same games , maybe with some new variations. Every time I walk past the CofE school in Barnoldswick there seems to be plenty of noise and running around the playground , either at break or in outdoor games time on the timetable.


Marilyn , I cannot remember the rhymes either , one of the (then) young girls at church just a few years back showed the one she had made and did another rhyme to it ( I didn't have the heart to tell her we had such things 30 years previously ). The ones at school we must have been a bit less politically correct , with things like What disease you would die from being just one of the milder versions. I was no good at paper folding so never made one - some of the girls made one up with the names of the boys they were going to marry - of course the names they referred to we the 6 lads in the class none of them ever wanted to be associated with , such was an idol moment in Friday afternoon double maths.

Don't think I should mention 6th form - Poker / Brag / Black Jack / Stop The Bus / (Dont think we mastered Bridge ) in the common room, Chess in the library, Mah-Jong in the headmaster's study.

I remember big groups of us playing " Creepy Up" on the front lawn of the kids home. You have to stand like a statue when whoever is "it" is looking at you but when they turn away, you have to run like a bat out of hell.
I was never very good at team sports when I was younger and generally wasn't picked...totally uncoordinated and never understood the rules. But I enjoyed things like running and swimming and orienteering. Anything I could do on my own merit generally suited me.

Children's party games.

'Dree, dry, dro, drop it, I've got a pigeon in my pocket.....I don't know where to drop it, drop it, drop it, drop it, drop it etc etc etc....'

Children sat in a circle, one standing has the 'pigeon' in their 'pocket'. They run round the circle as the seated chant the above, and whenever they want, they 'drop it' behind someone. The seated person has to spot this, and get up and try to catch the 'dropper', before they take their place. If they don't they continue and the cycle repeats. Descends into chaos and a dropper gets caught eventually.

Well that's one we played anyway.

I see these days a panyatta is the thing. Fits with the times I guess. The big kids with the biggest elbows smash the heck out of the thing and hoover up all the goodies.

Richard Broughton

"I see these days a panyatta is the thing"

You had me baffled there Richard, but I've googled, and am now up to speed. I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it as my grandchildren are demon party goers, and go to one, or more, nearly every weekend. Wouldn't it be great if they didn't know what one was - and I did.

We played two ball up against the school wall to various rhymes, one of them being about Nebuchadnezzar the king of the jews.....

Makes me think of the Oldham Tinkers, but I can't find it there. Perhaps Tom will know?

However I've found this......

Nebuchadnezzar the King of the Jews
bought his wife a pair of shoes
When the shoes began to wear
Nebuchadnezzar began to swear
When the swearing began to stop
Nebuchadnezzar bought a shop
When the shop began to sell
Nebuchadnezzar bought a bell
When the bell began to ring
Nebuchadnezzar began to sing
Do ray me fa so la ti do...

What always struck me was how crazes arose. One week we all playing whip and top (and colouring the tops so they made patterns when they spun), and next thing everyone had skipping ropes.

I remember "What time is it Mr Wolf" which we seemed to play a lot. There was another similar game where the person stood at the front gave you tasks which included taking "fairy steps", "giant steps" and .....I think...."umberellas" where you jumped and spun round at the same time. Was this Statues?
Hunt the thimble....another classic party game.

The game with fairy steps & giant steps etc was called "May I". I had to google it I'm afraid.

Marbles , on the drain covers. Advantages in growing up in blocks of low rise flats around mazes of walkways.

Scrap heaps at engineering works were a good source of ball-bearings..... They made good substitutes for glass alleys.