| When we weren't playing in the woods,we played games in the street.We never had to worry about cars,because there weren't any,well perhaps one or two. We played "Kick a Tin" where one of us placed a tin in the middle of the street. We then had to try and touch someone,then run and kick the tin before the person you touched could,the problem was that whilst you chased someone to touch, someone else would kick the tin halfway down the street and you had to start all over again. Another game was "Longidella" why it was so called I haven't a clue,but it was pretty rough. This game needed lots of kids,so we invited kids from other streets to join us.We then formed two teams,one team would form a line across the street,someone would shout Longidella, and the other team would try to cross the line without being grabbed. The survivors who got through were then counted,then it was the turn of the other team.Whichever team got the most through the line won the game.This could go on all evening, until the team numbers dwindled due to injury or ripped clothing. On dark nights with no moon we played "Dickie show the Light".One of us (Dickie) was given a torch and ran off into the dark alleyways (There were plenty on the Graig). We gave him a few minutes start and then set off to find him. If we shouted "Dickie show the light" then Dickie or Fred whatever his name was had to flash the torch for a few seconds to give us a clue as to where he was hiding, of course when we got there he had shot off somewhere else.The game finished when he got caught. Sometimes we never did catch him,poor kid could still be out there, so if you see an old man in the alleys of the Graig holding a torch and flashing,don't call the police it might be our old mate. Another game was "Mob" a bit like hide and seek.We choose a lampost in the street where one of us had to lean against, close his eyes and count to twenty.We then ran off to hide.After our friend had finished counting, he came looking for us. After he had touched someone there was a race back to touch the lampost before the person he touched could. He was then free to hide. Sometimes we played "Rat Tat Ginger" another odd name. All it involved was knocking on peoples doors and running away. We had a variation,what we did was to tie the end of a reel of thin cotton to someones door knocker, walk slowly across the street and hide behind a wall.We then pulled the cotton to knock the door, let the cotton go slack and waited. After a few moments Mrs Jones or whoever opened the door looked up and down the street, then close the door again.We gave her a few minutes,and pull the cotton again........ I played lots of games indoors, especially on wet evenings,one of favourite board games was Crown and Anchor but I can't remember how it was played now. Sometimes in the middle of the night my brother Creigh woke me up, and we would creep downstairs.Creigh showed me how to make "Tanks"out of a cotton reel, elastic band,candle wax, and a match stick.A notch was cut in one end of the reel, the other end coated with candle wax,then the elastic band was threaded through the cotton reel and around the matchsticks (see diagram). The longest match was turned about 20/30 times, put it on the table and off it went. I forgot to mention that the top half of the stairs creaked a lot, and getting down stairs without waking Mam or Dad was a challenge, but I got around that by squeezing through the gap in the bannisters on the landing, and drop quietly onto the bottom half of the stairs. The worst part was yet to come....... Most of the houses on the Graig was full of cockroaches, ( we called them " Black Pats") and after everyone had gone to bed and the house was in darkness, they came out from behind the skirting boards and fireplaces. So what we had to do was to reach out from the bottom stair, and switch the hall light on. That would send them scurrying back to their hiding places, then we could walk into the lounge without crushing them! Another bad experience I had on the staircase was when Dad hung me upside down over the stair well. It wasn't because he didn't love me anymore, and was trying to get rid of me, it was because one day he decided to decorate the the bedroom, and as I sat on the bed watching, I saw what I thought was a bottle of cool lemonade. I opened it, and took a nice long swig. It wasn't lemonade, and it wasn't cool either. it was either bleach or liniment! Dad grabbed me by the ankles and held me upside down over the stairs to drip dry, then sent some one to "Williams the shop" for some sweets and chocolate. It must have done the trick as I am still here. Dad always made me laugh when he was decorating. I remember him pasting a long strip of wallpaper, folding it, and then holding it at each corner, climb up the step ladder. He then let the heavily pasted paper unfold with such a "thump" he was left with pieces the size of postage stamps between his fingers and thumbs. Another time, on the top of the step ladder, he forgot which way he was facing and came down the side with no steps. I don't remember Dad ever scraping off the old wallpaper either, he just papered over the old one. The room seemed to get smaller and smaller... I liked helping Dad to decorate, even if it was just mixing the paste, which was made out of ordinary flour and water. But if things were not going right for Dad, like discovering the piece of paper he was hanging had been cut six inches too short, he would lose his temper, so I disappeared for a while. |
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| Street Games and Dark Evenings |
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