Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral Schools Past & Present A list of old kids games.

After reading Erainn's comment on playing British Bulldog on the roof of Cole st school. I wondered how many of the old games will or have been, lost over the years. It seems if it doesn't plug into a games console nowadays, kids aren't interested.
I propose a list of all the old games before they're lost forever.
Erainn started the ball rolling with British Bulldog, maybe a brief description with the name of the game if anyone is interested?

I'll add "Kick the Can" a game of hide and seek where a home base (usually a chalked square) was the place where you were imprisoned. I had an old can standing in it. Once captured by whoever was "IT" you had to remain there until one of your friends kicked the can over without getting caught themselves. Once the can was kicked, everyone in the square ran off. Not to be caught until the can was replaced. The object was to catch everyone and place them in the square.

Next?

Hopscotch

Black Jacks

Good old plain tic. One person has to run round after others and touch them and there out. Innocent play.

Anyone remember Off ground tic?

Ye wasn't that just what it says if you managed to get off ground the tic didn't count? These all sound terribly boring to the kids today yet we had so much fun that didn't cost anything plus excercised us, happy days....

Yeah, off-ground tic was an amazing variant on ordinary tic and was also combined with a kick-the-can type game which I can't remember the name although the words "base" and "square" were both involved in the most complex form of the game. Having the base and the square separate meant the person that was "on" had a dilemma as to which he guarded.

British Bulldog was good as well and much more equal chance than you'd guess - when ever I see the Matrix films I think of it as those were the manoeuvres you'd try and achieve (in your mind).

Simon Says?

we used to play alley o,not sure how you spell it only played it

Cats Cradle http://www.ifyoulovetoread.com/book/chten_cats1105.htm

A game which involved transferring string from one person's hands to another's by set methods which made patterns en route.

Wall or kerb, the alley alley o was played by hundreds of kids and you never got the chance to run away if you were on.

what's the time mr wolf & grandmother gray

British bull dog was good in primary school, secondary school pigeon toss for real money, we used a 2 pence piece and flick it against a wall, whoever got closest to the wall wins, fantastic until Mr Byrne caught us

I remember Queenie and stroke the bunny

I remember.. statues...pussy four corners...the allio....whats the time mr wolf...and many more, fond memories and good times

I attend classes for lung exercises, one of which involves throwing a ball against the wall, I suggested to the more mature ladies in our group, that they should tuck their skirts in their knickers and toss up against the wall, assuming I can satisfy my bail conditions, I should be out early next week.

Hahahah locomotive

'Stroke The Bunny' and 'Pussy Four Corners'?! I'm intrigued Please tell....

The Alphabet Game

The caller would have their backs to a row of kids and shout out letters of the alphabet. Kids would move forward a space if that letter was in their name, or several spaces if you were lucky.

First person to reach the caller would become the new one.

Does anyone remember doing a 'dip' to decide who'd go first, or who was 'on' in certain games?

The kid doing the dip would point to each participant in turn while chanting the dip rhyme. Whoever the finger pointed to when the last word of the rhyme was reached was the chosen one.

There were quite a few different dip rhymes. The best-known was: 'Dip-dip, my blue ship, sailing on the water, like a cup and saucer, dip-dip, my blue ship.'

nearly choked on my banana reading this.

Hide and Seek , Skipping games , oh when a bit older catch a girl ,kiss a girl ......

AH Catch a girl, Kiss a girl, or as used to be in my case, Catch a girl, get slapped.

pussy four corners was played by each of 4 kids occupying a corner of a drawn out square and one kid in the middle...the object was to swop corners by attracting one kid by whispering a sound pswwwww-pswwwww and hope the kid in the middle didn`t get to the corner first other wise you would have to occupy the centre

Yep..another eeny meany miny mo catch a negro by the toe if he hollers let him go eeny meany out you go.

Block 123 another game.

conker shells (you throw conken shlls at each other 1st to cry was the loser)

peanuts (bend the other persons hand back untill they say peanuts)

pile on (When everyone jumps on top of one unfortunate soul, they 'pile on')

That's one I was trying to remember.



That soon degenerated into to trying to bend the hand back quicker that they could say peanuts.

Was 'block 123' a separate game? I seem to remember it was part of the game of hide and seek, when you ran back to 'base' without being caught by the kid who was looking for everyone. Once you'd touched base and shouted 'block 123', you were home and dry and couldn't be touched. But memory may be deceiving me.

Yes, as soon as you were spotted you had to beat the person who was on back to base - or get to base before being spotted.

Its a variant of kick the can and an enhancement to hide and seek. Hide and seek would get pretty boring without the additional parts.

I well remember playing Block 123 on the Breck, with my brother and friends. Can't remember how it was decided where the 'base' actually was, though?

There was one where you drew a circle with chalk or a stone and put some pennies inside. One person was on one side and one on the other.
A tennis ball was thrown at the coins and whoever got them out kept them.

British bulldog

Top and whip

Granny is that the one were us boys asked the girls to whip their tops off ?

That reminds me of my first school yard girlfriend. Just when things were beginning to stir in our minds and the girls were just starting to develop. Puberty and curiosity seemed to coincide.

As kids i remember we played "war", made dens that tramps slept in,had rope swings over tree branches with a big knot or stick as seat. Mud sticks was another ...you found a suitably whippy stick and moulded a dollop of mud on the end and sent it flying.
Endless hot summers playing in the fields no fears of bogeymen or paedos. Your mam never worried just expected you home anytime before dark.4 hour footy matches until billy had to go home with his orange wembley trophy football then out would come the deflated casey. No touchlines..it was a throw in when the ball went in the long grass.
Funny how maturity doesnt stop men playing with deflated balls. I often turn my attention to my flies....fishing ones that is.

Nice memories Fish, but I'm horrified at the pair of you. 'Whip tops off '? 'Playing with deflated balls'? Do these come under 'Hand Games' or Ball Games ?

Yea Fish that's how it was when I was a kid too, went out in the morning if lucky we had a bottle of water and some jam butties not to be seen till much later and boy did we have fun. No money needed just as you say made our own fun. Shame for the kids today we dare not let them out of our sight.

Granny --I think its called Handball. Our games master was very good at it --did it for England--!

Aye Cools--probably still a few remote country hamlets where kids can still play free but then they have all the electronic gadgets that does the thinking for them and takes away a lot of there imagination. A bit dated but still enjoy watching 1974 swallows and amazons --when could you get away with calling a girl Titty without PC madness. Now shes become a potato.

BBC changes name of lead character in Swallows and Amazons from Titty to Tatty

Pluckiest of Walker children renamed by Corporation after it was decided a character called Titty would provoke too many sniggers

My children often say how much they enjoyed living in a tiny village in South Shropshire from 1966 to 1976. No street lights, so they got to learn the star formations, working on one of the farms at the weekend, learning to shoot a rifle: oh, and the cat used to follow them to school, across the churchyard, and sat in the classroom.
I go back occasionally and it hasn't changed much, just that the house we bought for £3,300 in 1966 recently sold for £450,000.

how about our childhood Chris. Playing on bomb sites, flat lanes blackberry picking, playing in the quarry at Storton woods to name but a few places

Good memories, Jim. We were too young to have played in the Storeton woods quarry; you must mean the one on the other side of Mount Rd. I remember the tunnel into it, under Mount Rd. was not completely blocked.
I remember playing on the allotments before they built the Mount Estate there.

Did anyone play brick "conkers" on the bomb sites? You took turns in putting your brick on the ground while your opponent tried to break it with his, bricks with mortar on them were favourites as they absorbed some of the force, but they weren't too good at smashing other bricks. Happy days.

And from another thread:

"that game of nearest the wall with the cardboard milk bottle tops, gave lots of us lads hours of fun on dry days. Kneeling on the edge of the kerbstone with toes in the gutter flicking the tops across the pavement. Happy days.
Snod may be getting mixed up regarding the tab, think it was on the early silver foil top bottle of milk. {gold top if full cream}"

Thanks, Jimbob.

Sounds similar
Was the coin version called pigeon toss or pitching toss?
The way we talked, it sounded like pigeon. That said, 'de do don't de doh' doesn't sound like 'they do though don't they though'

It was called "Pitch and Toss" the adult version was played outside Pubs on a Sunday afternoon with lookouts for the Police, you could get prosecuted with a hefty fine , I remember my "old feller" getting done, he wasn't very happy it was in all the local papers, this was in the late 40s early 50s. I know there was some serious money won and lost. Fortunately I was never a gambler, when I was serving my apprenticeship I used to get sent to the bookies to put bets on, I was never sent to collect the winnings because there wasn't any, in later years I was very friendly with a local bookie who impressed upon me that the bookie wins overall every time.