What did you do for fun outside when you were a child?

Did anyone else play kiss chase in the Playground at Primary School? I remember there were some little boys I used to ran away from as fast as I could, and others I used to let catch me.

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Boys in my primary school pulled their jackets up over their heads so it caught the wind and ballooned inside out, then ran around pretended they were aeroplanes :roll_eyes:

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Yes, but could you do wheelies? (I’m sure you could) :smiley:

You must have been advanced. I was playing football and basketball with the boys. No kissing involved.

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Climbing the tree in the back garden - my brother made a seat there from a plank and I and best friend would love to sit up there and survey the neighbours. Swing on my swing. We would cycle around the neighbourhood on our bikes or rollerskate. Go to friends’ houses and play in the street with their friends. Gymnastics in the back garden on a blanket on the lawn (mainly a fixation during the olympics). We also used to make little pretend camps in the back of the garden. Sometimes we would pretend it was a ship and we were living on it. There were lots of pretend stories and adventures. Or we would go play tennis in the park. Or just go to the park and the playground. You didn’t need an adult to take you in those days. Rollerskating was the best though. I still have a scar on my hand from falling over while skating.

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Once we got out bkes for out Birthdays my Sister and I went all over, Lloyds Park will always stick in my mind as it had a huge huge crater type area and we daredevil down these step slopes and now I can only relate that to scrambling motor bikes… how we did not get punctures I will never know…Next thing we got ice skates…never gave it a 2nd thought at the time but all these gifts were brought from the 2nd hand shop at the Leslie Arms as it was referred to…with my late Dad’s renovating skills he made them so perfect for us.
Streatham Ice Rink also became a great music venue, which was not that far away from being a mere child.

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Most of the above but one of my faves was British Bulldogs.

Motor Bikes
Bikes
Fishing
Boating
Skiing
Shooting
Football (American)
Golf
Basketball (very little)
Baseball
Tennis

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wow you were ahead of your years as a child!

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@AnnieS Motor bikes since always
Water skiing by the time I was 8
Shooting since I was ten
Golf not until 12

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Don’t think I tried those. I had to consentrate & steer with my body movements up the road. :grinning:

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We need a “wow” button on here Danny!

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Like this :103:

or maybe this :038:

or maybe this :096:

I think those activities are pretty common here though.

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I loitered quite a bit and dreamt of seeing the world and all the exciting things I’d do. I eventually succeeded in doing them, by the way, traversing the globe overland “on my own steam”… :man_white_haired:

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I was always outside…had lots of pals and we got up to all sorts but it was all quite innocent…we had a gang but not like todays gangs ours was more about just having fun and looking out for each other…no drugs then of course and I never even smoked or tried a cigarette until I was about 15…it made me feel a bit sick so never smoked.

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Much like Summer above - always outside.
Never had ‘things’, but always had fun.
My dog always was part of it. Happy days.

Except when I finally had a ciggie, I kept it up. Until I was in my 50s.
Gotta be honest, would still love to have one! :slight_smile:

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I had forgotten two ball s
We used to play them or skipping to rhymes .

One two three Alaira
I saw me auntie Clara
Sitting on the bumbaleira ?
Eating chocolate biscuits

Otherwise climbing tree making dens and riding ponies

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Snail Races, on the road at the front of the house.

It was such a quiet little town that some of the snails got all the way across.

:snail: :snail: :snail: :snail:

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Skipping - if there were lots of us we’d have two long ropes turning together in opposite directions. Playing cats cradle on our fingers with a bit of string! Jacks and five stones - I loved these! Little pastel coloured cubes which we played rather like jacks with a ball.
Games we played outside in the road, because there was little or no traffic, were hopscotch, Please Mr Crocodile (May we cross your golden water?), Queenie Queenie who’s got the ball?
Then there was two balls played up against any convenient wall, or doing handstands against the same wall - we would do this in school breaktime, spending sometimes the entire morning break upside down and chatting to each other (with our dresses tucked in our knickers!)
Weekends and summer holidays, lots of cycling, fishing for tiddlers in the nearby ‘wash’ - a stream that ran across the road. And boy did we have fun cycling down the gentle incline towards the wash, then lifting our legs up high to splash through the water! Lots of tree climbing, making dens. Roller skating, with metal adjustable skates. There was an estate near us which had some very long, straight gentle hills and we’d spend hours skating down those hills. Must have driven the people who lived there nuts!

My childhood was such fun, simple pleasures and endless days

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That’s Texans for you AnnieS…

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I think we used to sing it as
One two three O’Leary,

also remember
Poor Jenny is a weeping

The famers in his den

and my Grandmother used to tell me about

My mother and your mother were washing some clothes
my mother gave your mother a bump on the nose
did she like it yes or no

I may not have that exactly right.

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