A 1950s Childhood (6 page)

Children’s books, magazines and games kept children occupied on cold winter evenings in the 1950s.

Boatman Boatman, Farmer Farmer (the younger kids’ version of British Bulldogs): One person was chosen to be ‘it’ and became the boatman. The boatman stood in the middle of a pre-agreed play area and all the other players stood on a line at one edge. The players then chanted, ‘Boatman,
Boatman, can we cross the river?’ The boatman replied, ‘You can only cross the river if you are wearing (name of a colour).’ Any player wearing something of that colour then crossed freely to the other side of the play area. The players that were not wearing the required colour had to run to the other side without being caught by the boatman. Any players that were caught then joined the boatman as catchers, and the game was repeated until there was only one uncaught player left and he or she was the winner.

British Bulldogs, Bulldog, Bullies, Red Rover, Runno: Any number of boys and girls would join in to play this, but it was not for the faint-hearted; this game would usually result in a few injuries, particularly when played on a hard surface or if played by mixed age groups. The favoured places to play this were in fields and on bomb ruin sites. To start with, one or two players were selected to be bulldogs and they were made to stand in the middle of the field. There were two safe areas on opposite side edges of the field. All of the non-bulldogs gathered in one of these safe areas. The main objective of the game was for the non-bulldogs to run across the field from one safe area to the other without being caught by the bulldogs. The game started with one of the bulldogs naming a player that was to be the first to attempt the run from one side to the other, and the bulldogs would then attempt to catch the runner. If he or she was caught by a bulldog then the bulldog had to hold onto the failed runner and shout ‘British Bulldog; one, two, three!’ The caught runner then became a bulldog. If he or she did reach the other side without being caught then they were deemed to be in the safe area and could not be caught. Once the runner had either been caught or reached the safe
area then all the other non-bulldogs had to immediately attempt to cross the playing area themselves (this was called the ‘rush’ or ‘bullrush’), with the bulldogs trying to catch as many as possible using the same rules as before. Once all the surviving non-bulldogs had reached the ‘safe’ area on the other side of the field, the rush began again to get across the field in the opposite direction, avoiding the bulldogs. The game continued until all the players had become bulldogs, and the winner was the last person to be caught. It was quite difficult to catch someone and hold onto them for enough time to shout ‘British Bulldog; one, two, three!’ It usually needed some tough rugby tackling, which resulted in grubby and torn clothes, and countless bruises, cuts and grazes. As with other games, various versions were played around the country with other local names being used to describe it.

Bumps: Not so much a game as an endurance test or punishment on your birthday. It could be quite dangerous and so it was usually only performed on boys. Girls sometimes did their own gentle version. It entailed the birthday boy or girl being held spread-eagle by their arms and legs, and lifted up and down in the air whilst their mates counted the number of birthday years, hitting or bumping their bum against the floor, once for each year.

Cartwheels: This activity was mostly done by girls, but boys enjoyed it too. It involved the girl first standing upright and throwing herself sideways onto one outstretched arm; then the other until her whole body had turned a full 360 degrees and she was back on her feet again. In motion, the arms and legs took the shape of a cartwheel’s spokes. Any opportunity to show the boys those navy blue knickers!

Children would sometimes build up collections of favourite comics and books.

Cat’s Cradle: A game for two people, usually girls, to create a series of patterns, including the ‘cat’s cradle’, out of a loop of string wrapped around the fingers and wrists. Individual girls, sometimes with the use of their teeth, fashioned simpler creations, like a ‘cup and saucer’.

Conkers: The game was played by two children, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string or an old shoelace. One player would let the conker dangle on the full length of the string while the other player swung their conker to hit it. The players took turns to strike each other’s
conker until one broke. Sometimes it was the attacking conker that broke. The conkers were given names to identify their worth; a new conker was called a ‘none-er’, and when a ‘none-er’ broke another ‘none-er’ it became a ‘one-er’, then a ‘two-er’, ‘three-er’, and so on. The winning conker inherited the previous score of the losing conker as well as gaining the score from that particular game. So if a ‘two-er’ beat a ‘three-er’ then the winning conker became a ‘six-er’. The hardest conkers usually won but there was a lot of cheating, with players using various methods to aid the hardening of their conkers, including soaking them in vinegar overnight, baking them in the oven for a short time, and seasoning them by keeping them for a year before use.

Egg, Egga, Bad Egg (played with a tennis ball): The person who was ‘it’ would give the players a subject like colours or football teams to choose a name from. The players would huddle together to whisper and choose names. One of the players would then call out loud all of the names chosen by the players. The person who was ‘it’ would then throw the ball high into the air or against a wall and shout out one of the names (i.e. blue or Arsenal), and the player that had chosen that name would have to catch or retrieve the ball while the others ran away. Once the person had retrieved the ball, he or she would shout ‘Stop!’ or ‘Egg!’, or something similar, and the players would have to stand still. The person with the ball could then take up to three giant steps towards any of the scattered players, and throw the ball at that person. If the ball hit the target then he or she would become ‘it’ and a new game would begin. If the thrower missed then he would be ‘it’.

Five Stones (known to me as ‘Gobs’): This game was often played on doorsteps and involved five evenly sized small stones and one larger stone, with the player using just one hand. One person would play at a time by placing one of the small stones on the back of his or her hand and throwing it into the air, picking up the larger stone and catching the thrown stone on its way down. This was repeated, adding one small stone to the back of the hand at each throw until all five small stones had been thrown into the air and caught at the same time as picking up the large stone. Your turn ended if you dropped any of the stones or failed to pick up the large stone before the small stones were caught in the palm of your hand. In an alternative version, you would throw the five small stones onto the ground and place the large stone on the back of your hand. You would then throw the large stone in the air and pick up one small stone from the ground before catching the large stone on its way down. You would continue to pick up one stone at a time until you had all five small stones and the one large stone in the palm of your hand. This was called ‘onsies’. If you were successful then you would start again with five small stones on the ground, but this time pick up to two small stones at a time (called ‘twosies’). If you continued to be successful then you would then progress to ‘threesies’, ‘foursies’ and ‘fifesies’. You were allowed to throw the large stone up from the back of your hand and sweep the small stones on the ground together with your fingers, but if you used this tactic then you had to catch the large stone on the back of your hand in between each sweep.

French Skipping (also known as Elastics): This was a girl’s game, played using a very long piece of knicker elastic
tied into a loop. Two or more girls would stand inside the loop of elastic, a few feet apart, with the elastic stretched around the outside of their ankles. The first player would then perform a series of skipping movements on, under, and over the elastic. Both feet under the elastic, both feet on top of the elastic, one on top and one under, one on top and one under and then swap feet. The player would then move around one girl to the next section of elastic and repeat the skipping movement. The skips or jumps were often done in time to a skipping rhyme. If the player successfully completed a round of jumps without tripping over or making a mistake, then the elastic would be moved up to knee level (called ‘knee-sies’), then thigh level (‘thigh-sies’), and then waist level (‘waist-sies’). The player would be out if she failed to do the correct jump, and then one of the others would come out from the elastic to have a go.

Frisbees: Throwing disc-shaped objects was always a popular outdoor sport, but when the Wham-O toy company in America launched this special flying disc in 1957, it became a proper throwing and catching game for kids. The Frisbee was also thrown for dogs to run, jump and catch in mid-air.

Handstands: This was an activity done by both boys and girls. Starting from an upright position with arms outstretched above the head, the person would bend forward and sort of tumble themselves forward onto the palms of their hands so that balancing on their hands supported their upturned body. The handstand would be complete when their body was held straight with arms and legs fully extended. Sometimes handstands would be done freestanding and sometimes up against a wall, finishing with the
soles of the feet resting against the wall. Girls would tuck the hem of their skirt into the elasticated leg of their navy blue knickers to maintain their modesty while performing handstands.

He, It, Tag, Tig, Tip: Known by various names, this was the simplest and most basic game of chase for a group of kids to play. The person chosen to be ‘it’ ran around trying to touch or ‘tag’ one of the others. When touched or tagged then that person became ‘it’ until he or she touched another player. You could avoid being ‘tagged’ by lifting your feet off the ground temporarily by pulling yourself up onto a wall or a bar so that your feet dangled just above the ground. There were loads of optional rules for this game.

He Ball: Similar game to He, It, Tag, Tig and Tip except with ‘He Ball’ the person that was ‘it’ chased the other players with a ball. If ‘it’ managed to throw the ball and hit a player then that player would become ‘it’.

Hopscotch: Usually played in the street. A set of eight or ten equally sized joined-up squares was chalked onto the pavement in a hopscotch pattern and each square was then numbered. The first player would stand behind the starting line and toss a stone into square number ‘one’ and then hop over square ‘one’ and land in square ‘two’ on one leg, then continue hopping through the hopscotch, landing on one leg in single squares and two legs in double squares. At the end you would turn around and make your way back down through the hopscotch until you reached the square number ‘two’. You would then bend down and pick up the stone from square number ‘one’, hop into square ‘one’ and back to the start again. You then threw the stone into square number ‘two’ and repeated the hopping process as before
only this time hopping over square number ‘two’ as you made your way through the hopscotch. You repeated this through all the numbered squares, always hopping over the square with the stone in it. A player was deemed to be out if the stone failed to land within the lines of the correct square, he or she stepped into the square where the stone was, put two feet down in a single box, stepped on any of the chalked lines, or lost his or her balance while bending over to pick up the stone. If you managed to complete the whole hopscotch successfully then you hopped through the
whole hopscotch again without a stone in any box, and out the top of the hopscotch to finish.

Girls and boys each had their own preferred ‘must-read’ comics and annuals.