Playing outside

[Marine Boy]

"Go out and play..." was a familiar phrase spoken by parents in the 70s and 80s. I was lucky to have a green area opposite the house with a lake where we found frogs and newts. In a nearby woodland we made 'camps', and half a mile away, there was a council playground with a huge slide.

Where did you go and what did you do when you were told to "go out and play"?

[Trickyvee]

I lived on an estate pretty much devoid of green spaces so we were always out in the street. There was a playing field nearby but we hardly ever went there much to people's annoyance. After hitting yet another window with a ball we'd get "What are you doing playing that here? There's a field just down the road!" But the field was just boring really. It used to have a small park with a roundabout and swings etc when I was really young but by the time I was about 5 it had gone.

[branny]

We had our school playground at the back of our first house so that was our main football area and also used to play in the many streets of terraced houses. We moved to a housing estate when I was 12 so just used to hang about around the corner from our house.

[darren]

where i live we where lucky.

we had acres and acres of fields to play on.
footie pitches they where.

many a night me and and the mates played footie to nine or later most nights.
we would come in mucked up to the eyballs.

great fun.
the parents did not like the mucky feet though.
there was also a stream which we would try and jump across.
if we managed it all the other mats give that person a sweet each.

most of the fields are still there.

[Emettman]

Until I was twelve, I lived only a few yards away from "The Rec" which was large enough for two cricket grounds. Another recreation ground, also with swings, see-saws and slides was within walking distance. Semi-rural Surrey.
We then moved more rurally, and cycle tracks through the woods were more the thing, but still with plenty of open spaces.
Pretty lucky in that respect (but family had been in that area for generations).

[Megawitch]

I lived in the centre of town when I was a kid but fortunately it was a semi rural area and the town is surrounded by green hills. there are also a few parks and lots of playgrounds.
In the summer holidays I was out from morning till tea time, took a few sandwiches ,a packet of crisps and a bottle of pop in aduffle bag and had a whale of a time.
When my kids came along in the 70s we lived on an estate with a school which had a huge playing field. Our house was one that backed onto the field so the kids could go out of our gate straight onto the field and play all day. They were in full view of all the houses surrounding the field and had no roads to cross to get there or back home.

[darren]

hi megawitch.
grewat memories there.
tell me do you stilllive there now where you grew up.
and did your kids enjoy these same playing areas as you did.

i can sure identify with staying out all day bring a few sarnies with me and a drink.

there are not as much fields grassy areas forkids to play in now.
we where so very lucky.

[Jacqueline]

There was a park at the top of the road where I lived and during the summer holidays we used to spend all day up there with sandwiches and a bottle of made up squash.

After school we used to play out in the street for an hour. Usually we shared pairs of roller skates and scooted about on the smooth surface outside a row of garages at the end of the road. The rest of the pavement was cobbled which didn't work well for scooting. We played tick and hide and seek, marbles, skipping, those plastic hoops with a ball attached that you spun round your ankle, L O N D O N, football, cricket, all the playground style games. There was very little traffic around and there were usually at least half a dozen kids 'playing out' at any one time.

[Marine Boy]

...those plastic hoops with a ball attached that you spun round your ankle...

Oh! You just released a childhood memory! I'd completely forgotten about those!

[Trickyvee]

After school we used to play out in the street for an hour. Usually we shared pairs of roller skates and scooted about on the smooth surface outside a row of garages at the end of the road. The rest of the pavement was cobbled which didn't work well for scooting.

I can relate to this. Most of the pavement stones on our estate were 'bumpy' stone with the occasional smooth one somewhere so rubbish for skating. We'd go to the ends of the earth to find a nice bit of tarmac.

[Jacqueline]

Oh! You just released a childhood memory! I'd completely forgotten about those!

Can anyone remember what they were called?

[Heather74]

skip-it
see here skip it (http://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory.php?memID=3561)

[Marine Boy]

Thanks huggie! I'll have to re-introduce it to the kids at school!

[Megawitch]

hi megawitch.
grewat memories there.
tell me do you stilllive there now where you grew up.
and did your kids enjoy these same playing areas as you did.

i can sure identify with staying out all day bring a few sarnies with me and a drink.

there are not as much fields grassy areas forkids to play in now.
we where so very lucky.

I do live in the same town now but I returned here to retire after 25 years elswhere. My kids started off here and then we moved in their pre -teens. But now my grandchildren come to stay with me and there are green fields and a playground just behind our houses.

[Fatboy]

Many a time I was told to go out and play if I was hanging about in the house. We used to have a stretch of waste ground just around the corner, which used to have trees, bushes. We used to have camp, and many a happy hour was spent finding things that we needed to make camps, such as tin sheeting, plastic sheeting, carpet, wood. After the camp was built, we would spend what was left of the day down there and into the evening too, which was when we would have our small camp fire. We could spend the best part of the day down there and it definitely kept us out of trouble. Absolutely magic.

I feel kids today are missing out, by just sitting in front of a computer or games console.

[darren]

Many a time I was told to go out and play if I was hanging about in the house. We used to have a stretch of waste ground just around the corner, which used to have trees, bushes. We used to have camp, and many a happy hour was spent finding things that we needed to make camps, such as tin sheeting, plastic sheeting, carpet, wood. After the camp was built, we would spend what was left of the day down there and into the evening too, which was when we would have our small camp fire. We could spend the best part of the day down there and it definitely kept us out of trouble. Absolutely magic.

I feel kids today are missing out, by just sitting in front of a computer or games console.

cannot disagree with that mate.

like i said before me and the mates used to play till around nine at night every night.

it was pure magic.
we had acres and acres of fields most are still there now.

playing footie trying to jump the local stream,where the fields are,climing and making tree huts the days flew in but they where the best days of my life.

i still think of them regular.

i would come in at night mucked up to the kness.
but it was great fun.

they truly where golden times,and om sure you agree mate.

[shilton dipper]

as a child my family lived in 'married quarters'.........we were lucky to have lots of swing parks and small greens to play on..........bulldog and marbles were favourite games on the green and when i was bored with that i would ride my bike to the village next door and have a paddle in the pond and try to catch fish with my hands..........very happy days.

[shilton dipper]

skip-it
see here skip it (http://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory.php?memID=3561)

we have these at our school for the kids to play with and countless other toys...........having lots of things to do has stpped a lot of the playground problems we had in the past.

[victorbrunswick]

There was a vacant lot nearby that later became the neighborhood park. In addition to the dirt piles there were two abandoned trailers: one a semi trailer and the other a caravan which we used to play in. The vacant lot was actually more fun than the park!

[sweep]

Anyone remember playing kick the can a sort of combination between tag and hide and seek. after finding and taging a kid it was a race back to the can. rarley got through a game without someone drawing blood in that final dive for the can. speaking of drawing blood did anyone else stage organised stone fights with kids from neighbouring streets. seems unbelivable now and we were very lucky no one got badly hurt.

[Fatboy]

speaking of drawing blood did anyone else stage organised stone fights with kids from neighbouring streets. seems unbelivable now and we were very lucky no one got badly hurt.

Yeah I done exactly the same. It was normally when me and my friends had fallen out over something. We would go and collect a load of stones and quite some large ones (probably just less than tennis ball size some of them). We had a back lane at the rear of our house and we would then start throwing stones up the lane at each other. I was lucky and never got hit, I used to always be able to dodge them, however I can remember hitting my friends on the leg, arm. Looking back it was absolute lunacy, we could have easily fractured someones skull or worse:eek:

I think what put the idea of stone throwing into out heads was that there was a lot of rioting shown on the TV in the early 80s and that had given us the idea of stone throwing.

Still on the subject of drawing blood. I can remember we had found some bottles that had been discarded from a nearby pub, there was a big whisky bottle (the size you collect your 1 & 2p in) Me and my friend had both spotted it at the same time, but he got there just before me and wouldnt give me it. There was a smaller bottle nearby, so because he wouldnt give me it, I hit him over the head with the bottle, it smashed and cut his head, thankfully not very much. I expect that I had watched a cowboy film and had seen someone getting hit over the head and thought it was fine to do it:eek:

[darren]

Anyone remember playing kick the can a sort of combination between tag and hide and seek. after finding and taging a kid it was a race back to the can. rarley got through a game without someone drawing blood in that final dive for the can. speaking of drawing blood did anyone else stage organised stone fights with kids from neighbouring streets. seems unbelivable now and we were very lucky no one got badly hurt.

not something we did over here where iam that stone throwing.
health and safety would go bonkers if this still happened now.
im o shocked none of u got very serious injuries.

kick the can was we did regular as kids though.

[darren]

as a child my family lived in 'married quarters'.........we were lucky to have lots of swing parks and small greens to play on..........bulldog and marbles were favourite games on the green and when i was bored with that i would ride my bike to the village next door and have a paddle in the pond and try to catch fish with my hands..........very happy days.

do u still live in the same area shilton.
are the parks and swings and greens still there.

it just sounds wonderful in the long summer days.

[havasack]

I was spoiled. Brought up on one of the supposedly rougher estates on the west end of Newcastle sounded bad, in truth I lived 11 houses away from a farm, that was 3 or 4 fields from the airport, we had woods,streams,meadows within a 5 min walk, I could cycle for 10mins and be in the middle of the countryside. We had the school field a street away that had the football pitches and communal play type areas away from the streets.....the streets, the kids ruled them as there were so few cars (really talking 73-83). We really did used to arrange to come out to play in the winter when the lights were coming on for football in park,fox and hounds or kickie the can.

[darren]

I was spoiled. Brought up on one of the supposedly rougher estates on the west end of Newcastle sounded bad, in truth I lived 11 houses away from a farm, that was 3 or 4 fields from the airport, we had woods,streams,meadows within a 5 min walk, I could cycle for 10mins and be in the middle of the countryside. We had the school field a street away that had the football pitches and communal play type areas away from the streets.....the streets, the kids ruled them as there were so few cars (really talking 73-83). We really did used to arrange to come out to play in the winter when the lights were coming on for football in park,fox and hounds or kickie the can.

its sad as many fields are now disappearing mate.

are all or most of the fields wods still there mate.

most of mine are.
where iam the fields just go on and on.

i spent many hapy days playing footie toll very late.

yes we got soaked and all muddy that as part of the fun though.

there was an old tin shed where u could change f u wanted.

sometimes we would collect tadpoles in jamkars in the hot eighties summer days.

we had it lucky mate in so many ways.

[havasack]

its sad as many fields are now disappearing mate.

are all or most of the fields wods still there mate.

most of mine are.
where iam the fields just go on and on.

i spent many hapy days playing footie toll very late.

yes we got soaked and all muddy that as part of the fun though.

there was an old tin shed where u could change f u wanted.

sometimes we would collect tadpoles in jamkars in the hot eighties summer days.

we had it lucky mate in so many ways.Where I'm talking about is still there, I still go most everyday with the mut........maybe not for long though as much of it is proposed land for building even though it's greenbelt.

[darren]

Where I'm talking about is still there, I still go most everyday with the mut........maybe not for long though as much of it is proposed land for building even though it's greenbelt.


sad to hear.
even though its green belt it is supoposed to be protected.but when houses are needed the green land is not important.