Remember traditional childhood games

R

Rose65

Well-known Member
Location
United Kingdom
I loved hopscotch, played with slates on the pavement, our version of 'cricket' in the street down our cul de sac. There were very few cars so we played lots in the quiet road. At school playtime I loved very energetic skipping, either ropes with handles on my own or group skipping - where two kids turned a longer rope and we all took turns jumping. It built coordination, rhythm, strength and stamina. Marbles was competitive and enjoyed in the garden. We were just never still.
 

Same here, when not at school we were outside all day...even at school break we played these games

Hopscotch ( peevers)... played ball against the wall.. Chinese ropes... Marbles.. Pic up Sticks.. Hoola Hoops... Skipping using our mother washing line.. 2 people turning the rope either end ( Cawing)... while a group of us would jump in and skip together.... didn't cost anything and we were never bored...

Today the kids have hundreds of £££'s of games including Ipads and Iphones, and yet we're always told they're Bored... they have no idea how to make games for themselves
 
We enjoyed many of the games mentioned above, but one big one we did all summer at night was 'Kick the Can'! We usually had a large group of 6-10 kids from the surrounding area. We would get an old can and put it in a large circle in the dirt. (many of our roads where I grew up were dirt roads) Then we would determine who is "it" using various routines to pick one person out. That person would hide their eyes and count. Then we all scattered and hid (hide and seek).

When you got caught (touched by the person who was it) you had to go stand in the circle. The game ended when everyone got caught. But what made it fun was, if someone, not yet caught could sneak over to the circle and touch anyone in the circle, everyone got to go free and they all had to be caught again. This was our preferred nighttime game in the summer.
 
Timewise 60+ said:
We enjoyed many of the games mentioned above, but one big one we did all summer at night was 'Kick the Can'! We usually had a large group of 6-10 kids from the surrounding area. We would get an old can and put it in a large circle in the dirt. (many of our roads where I grew up were dirt roads) Then we would determine who is "it" using various routines to pick one person out. That person would hide their eyes and count. Then we all scattered and hid (hide and seek).

When you got caught (touched by the person who was it) you had to go stand in the circle. The game ended when everyone got caught. But what made it fun was, if someone, not yet caught could sneak over to the circle and touch anyone in the circle, everyone got to go free and they all had to be caught again. This was our preferred nighttime game in the summer.
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Interesting. I'd heard of "Kick the Can" though it wasn't played in my neighborhood. But what was the role of the can?
 
hollydolly said:
Same here, when not at school we were outside all day...even at school break we played these games

Hopscotch ( peevers)... played ball against the wall.. Chinese ropes... Marbles.. Pic up Sticks.. Hoola Hoops... Skipping using our mother washing line.. 2 people turning the rope either end ( Cawing)... while a group of us would jump in and skip together.... didn't cost anything and we were never bored...

Today the kids have hundreds of £££'s of games including Ipads and Iphones, and yet we're always told they're Bored... they have no idea how to make games for themselves
Click to expand...
We were fit, strong and mostly a good weight. Ate well - whatever mum put in front of us - no picky eating, slept well, those were carefree times of well being. I loved it. Bed at the end of an active day meant cosy reading in bed - usually big books of fairy tales. Mental and physical stimulation. I loved school and learning, playing with friends. It was a fulfilling time.
 
JBR said:
Interesting. I'd heard of "Kick the Can" though it wasn't played in my neighborhood. But what was the role of the can?
Click to expand...
In the game if you got 'caught' you had to go stand in the large circle where the can is setting. Kicking the can out of the 'circle' by someone who was not yet caught, freed all the people to go run and hide again, who had been caught earlier in the game. Then the person that was 'it' had to start all over trying to find everyone.
 
Even tho this video is for the early part of the 20th century playgrounds.. most of these swings and chutes, and climbing frames were still very available to us in the 60's when I was child... and we played as often as we could on them.... tbh I am eternally grateful that they were there for us because got very few toys as children.. so without these play parks as we called them , we would have nothing whatsoever to play with...



 
Marbles was number one with me.
Most times it was for 'keepsies'.
Knowing your best shooter.
Going through your collection at night right before bedtime.

This game was an Ice breaker for me, having to fit in to all the schools
I went to.
I'd hang back, watch the games, then ask to jump in.

Also need to mention that my mom wasn't to happy with the game
and just decided to add iron-on patches to both knees of my jeans.

Love me some dirt with a circle.
 
Like many of you, I also did hopscotch, jumped rope, did the hoola hoop, played hide-and-seek,
rode my bike, and climbed trees. I also ran everywhere (I rarely walked!), and sledded down snowy hills
in the winter. For an elementary school class, I remember searching for fossils in the woods. I also caught lightning
bugs and butterflies in the summer. Lots of energy! Where did it all go?
 
Nothing much traditional about my childhood games. Sorry! Papa got me into all sorts of wonderful sports instead...

Ice skating from 18 months old with Papa who worked at the ice rink every Saturday mornings. Cycling from age 8 on 2 wheels no more tricycle (I've the developed tights thanks to them years).

Baton twirling and flag twirling (lots of walking involved, I still walk loads today). Archery from age 4, still pulling bow and arrows.

On the regular side, bolo paddle (flat paddle with stretchy string and wee ball), rope jumping, hula hoops, tennis against the school walls, badminton, ice hockey (I've the best slapshot into net from middle line, according to teams I played with thanks to Papa's work as arbitrator) and roller skating (just 2 years late 70s early 80s, then sadly the places closed up).

Swimming nearly year around. However, not drying up properly during winter ended up developing arthritis plus guilty love of milk, have calcium deposits that makes everything snap, crackle and pop...

Once at work, I got into Tai chi and yoga as I'd drive to work. So morning break instead of coffee (we were already 2 cups ahead anyway) got into stretching yoga type.

Due to lower back injury at 12, walking was best and cycling. The ballet-jazz movements we did during flag twirling session was great muscle relaxant. 🤣🤣🤣
 
Feelslikefar said:
Marbles was number one with me.
Most times it was for 'keepsies'.
Knowing your best shooter.
Going through your collection at night right before bedtime.

This game was an Ice breaker for me, having to fit in to all the schools
I went to.
I'd hang back, watch the games, then ask to jump in.

Also need to mention that my mom wasn't to happy with the game
and just decided to add iron-on patches to both knees of my jeans.

Love me some dirt with a circle.
Click to expand...
Good post! I grew up in a small mountain town in Colorado in the 50's. Our playground was all dirt, making it perfect for marbles. Circles, as you describe it was popular, but not as popular as Holes! In holes we made five holes with our hands in the same pattern as the number 5 on dice. In the center hole we put our marbles to play. You see the winner got to keep all the marbles in the center hole.

Usually, 2 to 4 guys would play, and the bet might be 2 to 4 marbles. We used what we called 'shooter' marbles for this game. They were not 'Rolly Polli', but they were a bit larger than regular marbles. If you were lucky, you had an 'agate' shooter! These marbles were treasured, being made from actual stone marble.

The object of this game was to shoot around the holes, starting from the center hole, for an agreed number of times. Once you got around all of those times you were then 'poison'! Once poison, anyone's shooter marble you hit was out of the game.

You start out by each person in turn shooting from the center hole to the first hole, if you went in the hole, you got to shoot again and try to go to the next hole. If they did not make it in the hole, the next shooter got to go, he could shoot for the hole or shoot for the first guys' marble. If he hit the marble of the first shooter, he got to knock his shooter away from the hole by shooting at it up close. He then got another shot from that spot to go in the first hole. This all got very competitive, and the last guy standing got the pot of marbles.

This was very competitive and as you say, all of us had patches on our knees.....I also recall my hands and knuckles were always dirty...
 
What memories we all share no matter where we live, we stayed out till dusk and mama would call us in a hundred times lol, we played tag, there was a game where you would run and if you were touched by someone you stayed in that position like a statue until you were touched again, we played dodge ball, volleyball and waited for the fog truck and ran through the fog laughing etc . All the neighborhood kids were over playing together.

Kids today don't know what playing outside really is and how much fun it was.
 
perplexed said:
What memories we all share no matter where we live, we stayed out till dusk and mama would call us in a hundred times lol, we played tag, there was a game where you would run and if you were touched by someone you stayed in that position like a statue until you were touched again, we played dodge ball, volleyball and waited for the fog truck and ran through the fog laughing etc . All the neighborhood kids were over playing together.

Kids today don't know what playing outside really is and how much fun it was.
Click to expand...
fortunately here where I live despite the fact that even the youngest kids have iphones and ipads..they do play out, on bikes, scooters, and they play in the playground... albeit the playground is now completely safety proof, even poured rubber on the ground under the swings which bounces when the kids fall... but still they're playing out, even if they're stuck playing games on Ipads when they go home..
 
hollydolly said:
fortunately here where I live despite the fact that even the youngest kids have iphones and ipads..they do play out, on bikes, scooters, and they play in the playground... albeit the playground is now completely safety proof, even poured rubber on the ground under the swings which bounces when the kids fall... but still they're playing out, even if they're stuck playing games on Ipads when they go home..
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Thank you, I am sure some here play outside too but nothing like we did when were kids.
 
perplexed said:
What memories we all share no matter where we live, we stayed out till dusk and mama would call us in a hundred times lol, we played tag, there was a game where you would run and if you were touched by someone you stayed in that position like a statue until you were touched again,
Click to expand...
We used to play this with my cousins and called it "freeze tag." It was one of my favorite games.
 
Supernatural said:
Nothing much traditional about my childhood games. Sorry! Papa got me into all sorts of wonderful sports instead...

Ice skating from 18 months old with Papa who worked at the ice rink every Saturday mornings. Cycling from age 8 on 2 wheels no more tricycle (I've the developed tights thanks to them years).

Baton twirling and flag twirling (lots of walking involved, I still walk loads today). Archery from age 4, still pulling bow and arrows.

On the regular side, bolo paddle (flat paddle with stretchy string and wee ball), rope jumping, hula hoops, tennis against the school walls, badminton, ice hockey (I've the best slapshot into net from middle line, according to teams I played with thanks to Papa's work as arbitrator) and roller skating (just 2 years late 70s early 80s, then sadly the places closed up).

Swimming nearly year around. However, not drying up properly during winter ended up developing arthritis plus guilty love of milk, have calcium deposits that makes everything snap, crackle and pop...

Once at work, I got into Tai chi and yoga as I'd drive to work. So morning break instead of coffee (we were already 2 cups ahead anyway) got into stretching yoga type.

Due to lower back injury at 12, walking was best and cycling. The ballet-jazz movements we did during flag twirling session was great muscle relaxant. 🤣🤣🤣
Click to expand...
You had an amazing childhood! I have always loved ice skating but never did it (too scared). The closest I got to ice skating was watching the ice skaters during the Olympics, lol. I remember roller skating, but fell down so many times, I never resumed it. Good that you are doing yoga and Tai chi!
 
In my time and area, kids played “Cops and Robbers” and “Cowboys and Indians” quite a lot. Cowboys were enormously popular at the time. We were quite politically incorrect then, and had lots of toy guns and cap pistols In ‘Merica. The play was a black-and-white psychodrama. The “bad guys” always lost, but the best part about playing a “bad guy” was that you got to die a prolonged, theatrical death that sometimes took several minutes… 😸

IMG_1874.jpeg
 
Fyrefox said:
In my time and area, kids played “Cops and Robbers” and “Cowboys and Indians” quite a lot. Cowboys were enormously popular at the time. We were quite politically incorrect then, and had lots of toy guns and cap pistols In ‘Merica. The play was a black-and-white psychodrama. The “bad guys” always lost, but the best part about playing a “bad guy” was that you got to die a prolonged, theatrical death that sometimes took several minutes… 😸

View attachment 302063
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I loved to play "Cowboys and Indians" when I was a little kid. Of course, today the politically correct police would never allow such a game. I guess it is against somebody's "Human Rights." Long Live the Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid!
 

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