My Childhood Memories - Outdoor Games

As we have more and more advances in technology kids will end up spending less time playing traditional outdoor games. Instead, they will end up just burying their heads in either their phones or game consoles in their rooms. I thought I would reminisce about the various games I used to play when I was a kid so that years from now when a lot of these are no longer a thing, there is some memory of them.

Kerby

Firstly you needed a football so we needed to call for one of the 'boys' to play out as they usually had a football we could use. I know I was a boy but I was never the football type lol.

The game was for two players and usually, the winner stayed on. You would both stand on the opposite side of the road on the road, you would throw the ball and try to hit the other person's kerb. If you hit it and the balk came back to you then you got 1 point. If you hit it and it went up in the air and you managed to catch it then you got 2 points. Once the ball. came back to your side you would carry on taking a turn until you missed the kerb. I always remember my friend Diane Hague used to be a beast at this game and do a side-on-throw with loads of power behind it and end up having about 6 goes one after another. If she missed the kerb the ball was going that fast it usually ended up in one of the neighbours gardens and you were lucky if it didn't hit their wall or front door. Otherwise, you'd have to go pegging it up the street to get the ball.

Hide & Seek

The person who had to find everyone would turn their back and count to 10 or 20 depending where you were and how close by hiding places were. This was one of my favourite games if you found a good hiding place as you could just hide with a mate and sit chatting for ages while the seeker was trying to find you. Sometimes the person would give up if you had a really good hiding place. This was usually the best option rather than risk them finding you in one of your best spots. I remember one time my mum shouted me for my tea while we were playing and I forgot to tell anyone and I think the girl would still be looking for me now had one of my neighbours not told her I'd gone in for my tea.

On wet days you could play this indoors and the seeker would be in the lounge counting while everyone else hid all over the house. I remember my cousin Lyndsay was always easy to find wherever she was hiding cos she would be breathing like Darth Vadar from her hiding place lol.

Roller Skates

Much as I used to love roller skating I think my mum and dad knew that it was going to be one of those things I obsessed about for about 2 weeks max and then didn't mention again. For that reason, they didn't see the point in investing in swanky roller boots. Instead, I got the original OG rollerskates which were not only a death trap but also about as fast as walking. They didn't feel like they had any ballbearings in them and so the wheels stopped spinning as soon as you weren't pushing them.

The ones on the left were the kind I had and try as I may I could never get up any real speed in those contraptions. I think pensioners on mobility scooters would overtake me on their way to the shops. The ones on the right were the sort my friend Shirley Oconnell had. She was awesome on her roller boots and could overtake cars in them bad boys. She could skate backward, do spins, and everything, she was like Torvill and Dean on concrete.

She would be doing 40 miles an hour to the shops in hers and I'd be shuffling along on two bits of metal laced up on wheels. Shirley would have stoppers on the front so she could control her breaking, whereas I had to wait until I crashed into something before I could come to a hault.

Elastics

This was predominantly a girls game but as most of my mates were female I used to join in their games as I wasn't a fan of football. What do you mean it should have been obvious I was gay as a child? lol. For this game you either needed a really long piece of elastic (from the ironmongers) or you could join up lots or rubber bans to make your elastic. You needed 3 people minimum for this game, two people would stand 2-3 metres apart facing each other and the elastic would be a large joined-up piece that the two people would be in the middle of. There was a song you had to sing whilst jumping over the different sides of the elastic without standing on it. If I'm not mistaken it was "England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Indoors, outdoors, puppy dogs tails". I'm buggered if I know the logic behind the song but all the places you would jump from one side of the elastic to the other with your feet apart either side of the elastic, indoors was both feet in the middle, outdoors was both feet outside the two pieces, puppy dogs you had to be inside both elastic and then tails you jumped out to the side. Sounds complicated when you write it down lol.

Shirley O'Connell was the master of elastics and could do 'necksy' without breaking a sweat. She'd tuck her 'Ra Ra' skirt (if thats what they were called) in her knickers to make sure nothing got in the way, she was very competitive like that lol.

Kick the can and hop it

You would firstly draw a circle on the pavement with a stone and place an empty drink can in the circle. This was a bit like hide and seek but instead of the seeker counting, someone would kick empty drink can up the street. In the time it took the seeker to go and get the can and place it back into the spot it started, everyone had to hide. Each time someone was found they stood near where the can was until everyone was found. Whilst the seeker was looking for people if someone came out of hiding and kicked the can again, everyone who had already been 'caught' was then free to go hide again. Sometimes I wouldn't even try and find people and just wait for them to get bored and come out of hiding lol.

Bang the ball against the wall

I have no idea what this was called but the basic principle was you got a pair of your mums old tighs (or new we din't really mind much to mums annoyance). You cut one leg off and insert a tennis ball down to the foot. Then, holding on to the top of the leg you would stand against a wall and bounce the ball from the left of you to the right of you against the wall. I have no idea what the objective of this game was or how we knew when someone had won or when it was over but we had hours of fun with this game. Eventually, the foot of the tights would wear through and the ball would go flying off. Then it was on to leg two until it was game over. Mums around the country would be hunting high and low for their American Tan tights lol.

If you can relate to these you might like My Blog on Playing Out