In this photo of the Good Old Days you can just see my mum at the right, me and the smallest child is Lorraine Gray whose grandma lived next door. She and her parents moved to Blackpool and we stayed in their flats for three weeks each year – which is where we caught the Blackpool bug!
What shall I write about today I asked Jane, to be met with a blank stare and the question passed to Kevin. He beat a hasty retreat along with Derek and where Jane went to I don’t know. OK I thought that’s all the inspiration I need, not, so I suppose I will have to talk my usual twaddle, that is after ironing and a very busy morning.
Thinking about Jane and some of the things she said recently when we were having a conversation about the fact that such a lot of children don’t play out and stay indoors, usually in front of a computer or TV, set me off. When I was young that’s what everyone did just about and as we lived on a cul de sac with hardly any cars about compared to today, we were comparatively safe.
Endless Sunshine in The Good Old Days
Summer holidays were endless days of hot days and sunshine beating down on you with weeks that seemed to last forever. As a young child in infant school I used to be very upset at the thought of moving up into a new class in September so my mum used to bribe me with a trip to a different park about 20 minutes away on a bus which had a large reservoir, sand pit and swings, plus a park café – much more than there was in our local park.
My mum would pack a picnic up with tomato sandwiches that soaked into the bread leaving them all soggy but to me it was a lovely taste, some pop to swill it all down and anything else she could get her hands on. We used to take my cousin with us on our adventures, who was like the sister I never had, and so off we went to the sandpit for a paddle on the edge of the reservoir, followed by swings, see-saws and the rest.
When we were tired out we would tuck into our sandwiches which always tasted better outdoors before carrying on with playing. The day after would be new class day and I behaved, as promised, after my treat. My mum did very little with me when I was young as she hadn’t the time for looking after my grandma who had alzheimer’s, so to me a whole day with my mum was a real treat.
Playing Out
I used to love playing out with my friends who lived on our road. We played many games in our youth and used our imagination to create things to do, we were never ‘bored’ as today’s children keep saying. We just invented things to do and were very happy to do so. We would get our mums to save syrup tins when they were empty and then to get someone to put a hole on either side through which some string could go. Then we would put one foot on one can and one on the other while holding the looped string and would set off walking all over the road. There we were, a few of us clunking along with our tin can walks, which I must say I used to love to do.
Another of my favourites was a whip and top which you don’t see now. I would sit on our front step with a packet of chalks colouring the top of the top in different coloured circles which when you curled the whip round and then pulled it would shoot off on the road spinning like a whirling dervish with all the lovely colours spinning round crazily. When the top started to slow down you had to whip the top again and again to keep it spinning, so once again there we were busily whipping our tops like busy bees, as happy as anything.
Under the Gas Light
Winter didn’t stop us and when it got dark we would play under the gas lamps, of which there were very few in those days and well spaced out they were too. A neighbour had the job of going round with his hooked stick to pull on the chains at first light in the morning to turn the gas off and then the same in the evening, off he would go turning the gas lamps back on. I’ve never forgotten him, Mr Movill was his name, a name I’ve never heard since, but he certainly fascinated me as I watched him let the gas go in to the gas mantles which gave an eerie yellow glow. In winter we would have a jam jar, once more with string round the neck to make a handle, with a candle inside. I really loved this as we walked along the road swinging our lights and going into the dark parts of the road where the gas light didn’t go, it made us all somehow seem very important with our lights, goodness knows why but we did.
I could carry on with stories of things that we used to do, it was all good clean fun while using the only tool that you had, your imagination.
We encouraged Jane to play outside with her friends doing similar things but I can’t help but think how sad it is that a lot of children prefer computers which must be isolating as well as not being as healthy. She was never happier than when she was making mud pies and ‘baking’ them in a pretend oven made out of a few bricks, with of course one of my spare tins to store the ‘buns’ in and then play at shop with them. Jane loved being dirty and being on the go, put it this way, I never had trouble with her going to sleep at night!
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