When I was ten….
We climbed over the fence to play football in the school grounds (it is only a rumour that we climbed on the roof) & could cross the fields to Elmers End Cricket Club and watch them play – and so long as I was back for tea no-one bothered
With Jeremy Lesuik I got the bus and tube to go to football – Highbury, Stamford Bridge, Upton Park – on our own and paid for from our pocket money. And in the Summer a trip to The Oval or Lords for cricket
Mr Sparks took us to the old golf course to play cricket – on occasion up to twenty or so playing an impromptu game. In bad weather he took us swimming. We walked the two miles there and back to South Norwood pool
There was the ‘Front Room Space Race’ – building the biggest Lego rocket – and the matchbox races: sprints, rallies and loop-the-loop
When the subbuteo men broke (and finally refused to be re-glued) we played the game with my sisters farm set – minutes to go and it’s Sheep 2, Cows 1…
And climbing the cherry trees and digging for Roman remains in the garden (which of course we found in abundance)
Playing cricket with a big plastic ball and the roses as fielders – and ducking my Mum’s sandals when we knocked a flower off
Back then bikes were old, slightly rusty and lacked brakes – but we still raced down The Glade (with my little brother in the old pushchair – and that didn’t even have steering)
…there wasn’t any “Attention Deficiency Disorder”; there were fewer social workers; no CRB checks; there were coppers who clipped you round the ear or, worse, took you home for Dad to thrash; we had no computers or TV and only partial central heating (told you we were posh) but….
… there were clippies on the buses; old men with allotments who didn’t mind you scrumping so long as you helped to pick the soft fruit; lino you could slide on down the hall; and ‘The Clitheroe Kid’ or ‘The Men from the Ministry’ on the radio signalling the approach of Sunday lunch
It may be old age and I’m sure my specs are rose-tinted but….
….can I be ten again, sir?
2 comments:
Wonderful memories. I used to go out, in the school holidays and at weekends, in the morning with my pals and come home when it was dark. We snaffled something to eat from whoever's house we were nearest to at meal times, a jam sandwich or whatever. My father had a newsagent, so, of course, sold sweets and fizzy drinks; Spangles, Fry's Five Boys, Midget Gems, Cherry Lips, no Coca Cola then, but cream soda, sarsparilla, dandelion and burdock. Smith's crisps, with a little blue paper twist of salt; Golden Wonder, the first flavoured crisps.
We played hopscotch, rounders with a bat shaped by a pal's father from a smooth piece of wood, tag, hide and seek. We watched children's programmes - Rag, Tag and Bobtail....Andy Pandy...The Woodentops....The Flowerpot Men; but TV was not a big thing, outside was where we wanted to be.
Radio on Sundays, driving along for a day out in my father's car; Sunday was the only time he had off, as a newsagent, and only then after the morning papers had gone. Paper rounds - I didn't have my own, but filled in for whoever didn't turn up...... and it happened nearly every day, as my father had 10 paperboys. "Paaam!" would come the cry and I'd be off with the paper bag, everyone knew me, they were customers at my father's shop. Of course, the downside was that I never get away with much, I knew they'd tell my father, I was always known as 'Ralph's eldest!
No-one ever worried when it got dark early in the winter - it was our neighbourhood, we were all safe. Happy, happy days.
Oh joy, what a great post! You do bring back memories. I have posted about my support of Man Utd and George Best and our many trips from Newry to the farms outside Ballymens to visit grandparents. Playing in the hay while no-one looked, 9,10 or 11 people travelling in a Ford Anglia and always being put in goals as I was for many years the only girl surrounded by many brothers....
I loved growing up as part of a big family, when you were told to go out and get fresh air until teatime. You weren't dependant on others to get your entertainment, you made it up as part of the group you were with. Huge games of 'Queenio, Queenio, who's got the ballio' and Statues and Traffic Lights. I loved them all, we were hale, hearty and innocent.
If only our children could have had childhoods like that.....
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