As far back as I can recall my childhood, no matter what the weather, we always wanted to be "Playing Out". Being indoors felt like a punishment and even going up to your room didn't have that same sense of freedom because mum or dad could just walk it at any time and tell you it's time for bed or tell you to stop making a racket.
Playing out was something I couldn't wait to do when I was young. I would come home from school, throw my school bag on the floor, ,get changed and shout, "I'm playin out" as I ran out the door. I would completely ignore the fact that I had homework to do because I wanted to be outside with my friends because if everyone else was out and you weren't then you were missing all the fun.
This is probably where my habit of procrastination started, the homework would be left and then when it was 'bedtime' I'd frantically be in my room trying to do my homework with the small lamp on so it was done before morning. Quietly have my black and white portable on with the volume on low so I could watch "Over the Top" which was an adult version of the kid's show Tiswas and now and then there would be "rude bits" LOL. I think it had Chris Tarrant, Lenny Henry, Bob Carolfgees, and few others in it I cant remember.
Once I was out of my school uniform and outside I would go and "call for" one of my friends (mostly female but I had some male friends too). to see if they were playing out. "Calling for" for something we would always say "Shall we call for (Insert name)?" Calling for someone meant going round to their house to invite them out. There was no mobile phone in those days and you were lucky to have a landline. Even then sometimes it was a Party line (I'll come to that another time).
If it was a weekday we didn't really venture far and tended to play on the streets mainly in front of our house. There were loads of games we could play outside such as Kerby, Elastics, Great British Bulldog, Stuck in the mud, and the list goes on. Now for those not familiar with some of these games, I will do a separate post explaining them at some point.
At weekends our parents would be glad to have us out of the hose the whole day and "from under their feet" so we could venture further afield. For us this meant the Park, or the sewers. Now I know what you are thinking, The Sewers? but it was just up the road from us and was basically an open sewer drain that fed into the main drainage system. There were concrete pips big enough for you to walk through, with just a trickle of water running through them. It could have just been the pipes from one of the old mills, I have no idea anyway it didn't particularly stink but we called it the sewers lol. There were trees there and we managed to build a rope that swung out over the open water. The swing was just a long piece of rope tied around one of the branches, and at the end of the rope, you would tie a small brand or piece of wood that you could sit on. Now, these swings weren't built to regulations or anything so getting on one was a bit of a risk in itself. You held the rope high up and then as you swung out you had to jump up and get both legs over the piece of wood so that you landed on it with the wood flat and could sit on the wood as a seat. Girls would get splinters cos they usually had skirts on and bare legs and everyone would get rope burns or blisters if they missed the jump and slid down the rope. Sometimes you would get one leg over the piece of wood which would tip it up so you couldn't get the other and would be kicking your legs about trying not to fall into the 'water'.
During the summer months you could play out much longer, we had the 6 weeks holidays so it was like a weekend day every day as there was no school, no homework. Oh okay on the subject of homework, when we broke up for half-term or the summer holidays we always got homework to do. My friend Jill Graham used to come home from school on the last day and while everything was still fresh in her mind, she would rattle off all the homework from the different classes so it was all done. She would never play out that night. Not me, straight in get changed, and be out till it went dark. Homework never even entered my head again until the night before we were due back in
school. It would be 8pm on a sunday night and I'd be grabbing dirty PE kit (that's gym kit if you are in the states) out of my bag that needed washing drying and ironing by morning (much to mums annoyance). I would suddenly find piles of books that should have been read, essays that needed writing and questions about the last lesson that needed answering. By this point, everything from the last day of school was just a distant memory and I had no way of completing any homework. I would be in my room crying and eventually have to come clean to mum and dad who would then see the amount of unfinished homework that needed to be done. Mum would start off strict telling me that "I better make a start then" but sometimes crumble and say, pass me your maths then and try to help some with some of it (if she could get to grips with algebra). Speaking of which I can honestly say I have never in 50 years needed to know how to work out X when Y = something or other. No use to me at all, it would have been more useful to show you how to manage a household budget when you live on your own. Anyway I digress...
You could play out in the summer pretty much until the street lights came one, cos that meant it was late as it was going dark and in Summer that was about 10pm or something. Usually, I would be shouted in around 9pm but if I didn't come straight in I could wangle a bit longer. The general rule was you had to be within yelling distance of your parents and from around 8pm onwards there ould be various parents shouting "Jill!!!" "Diane!!" "Neeilll" or whoever from their respective doorsteps. The first to be 'called in' (his mum didn't yell it was much more refined) was always Richard Lingard whose mum and dad were quite strict by our standards. His mum would beckon him in with the poshest voice on the street. She sounded like Mrs Bucket with a long "Rich-aarrrrdddd " and we all used to rib him for it and mimic her calls lol.
That's Richard on the right and his mate John Wood on the left. I think I used to fancy them both back in the day, Richard more so (sorry John lol).
Even if it was raining we would find somewhere to hang out. Sometimes we would be stood under the bus shelter when it rained cos it was still better than being indoors.
As we got older, playing out wasn't so cool and that's when we used to go round to each other's houses and straight up to whoever's bedroom and put music on. (That’s for another post).
Nowadays with the advances in technology, kids seem to be up in their rooms more than ever and sat on their smartphones or playing video games. Instead of meeting up they just chat in a WhatsApp group on a zoom call. The art of playing out is slowly dying a death and the only time kids are outdoors is when they are in a gang sitting outside the nearest corner shop making elderly people uneasy (god I sound old lol).
Anyway, that's just started me off reminiscing and so I will whip up some more Childhood memories post soon.
Love this! Brought back so many of my childhood memories too.
We played kerby and British Bulldog too. I also remember playing hide and seek and those hiding would swap coats, then announcing the game void as the 'seeker' identified the wrong person!
We'd 'call" for each other and then go to 'the offy' up the road (the Off Licence) for a 10p mix up, or a quarter of cola cubes!
Like your sewers, we had the 'Rezzers', an old dried out reservoir at the end of the street. We'd go through a mates garden to get to it and go collecting tadpoles, as there was still some water in a few areas.
Precious times and precious memories. 💖