loads of children’s books, annuals and comics to read; favourite books included anything by Enid Blyton or Beatrix Potter, and other books like Heidi , Black Beauty , Treasure Island , Winnie-the-Pooh and The Chronicles of Narnia . Boys were keen readers of Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School , Just William , and the Biggles series of books. Everyone equally enjoyed reading Enid Blyton’s adventures of The Famous Five .
The most popular comics and annuals included The Beano , The Dandy , Topper , Eagle , Wizard , Beezer , Tiger (including ‘Roy of The Rovers’), Hotspur , Lion , Girl and Bunty . Some of the favourite comic strips included ‘The Bash Street Kids’, ‘Lord Snooty’, ‘Keyhole Kate’ and ‘Dan Dare’. There were so many comics around that you would normally only buy one or two and then swap with your mates so that you could keep up with all your comic strip heroes. Many of the comics produced a large annual each year, and one or two of these would usually find their way onto your Christmas wish list. While everyone enjoyed the Rupert Bear annuals, essential reading for the girls was the School Friend Annual and the Girls’ Crystal Annual .
Whole families would often wile away the evening playing card games like Snap, Old Maid, Fish, Rummy and Pontoon (sometimes called Twenty-one). Board games were also very popular, with favourites like Monopoly, Cluedo, Snakes and Ladders, Scrabble and Lotto (sometimes called Housey Housey), which was similar to Bingo. Dominoes and Crib (Cribbage) were also regularly played, as were games that enabled you to pit your wits against one other person, like Noughts and Crosses, Battleships, Draughts and Chess. These were all well-liked and encouraged by mum and dad because they kept you quiet – that is, until someone cheated!
When you got bored with all this mental activity, you could always suggest that mum and dad join you in agame of hide and seek. Do you remember carefully hiding yourself in the back of that cupboard for what seemed like ages, and then that awful feeling when you realised they had forgotten you? You eventually came out to find mum and dad dozing in front of the fire, and they hadn’t been looking for you at all!
In good weather, you would often play board games outside, either on a patch of grass or on one another’s doorsteps. You steadily progressed from Tiddlywinks to Monopoly, which was always a firm favourite with kids. Card games like Brag, Cheat, Cribbage, Pontoon, Rummy, Snap and Whist were also regularly played on doorsteps or in passageways. Football and cricket were forever being played in the street, in open spaces or bomb ruins, but there were loads of other cost-free street games and activities to keep you occupied. Many of these were group games, and before you could start playing, you had to choose someone to be ‘it’!
In street games, ‘it’ was the term used to describe the person who was designated to seek out, find, chase or catch the other kids in the game. If someone suggested playing a hide-and-seek or chase game then he or she would own that one game for its duration. A lot of these games required someone to be ‘it’. To pick who would be ‘it’, the person that suggested the game would recite the words of a rhyme while ‘dipping’ (pointing at each person in turn). The long version of this would eliminate people one by one until there was only one person left, and that person would then be ‘it’. In the short version it would simply be the person pointed to on the last word of the rhyme that would be ‘it’. There were loads of different rhymes, with lots of rudeand politically incorrect versions. Here are a couple of the innocent ones:
Ip-dip sky-blue who’s-it? Not you!
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo!
Catch a tiger by the toe!
If he hollers let him go!
Eeny, Meeny. Miny, Mo!
You’re It!
There were hundreds of street games with all sorts of variations being played in different parts of the
The most popular comics and annuals included The Beano , The Dandy , Topper , Eagle , Wizard , Beezer , Tiger (including ‘Roy of The Rovers’), Hotspur , Lion , Girl and Bunty . Some of the favourite comic strips included ‘The Bash Street Kids’, ‘Lord Snooty’, ‘Keyhole Kate’ and ‘Dan Dare’. There were so many comics around that you would normally only buy one or two and then swap with your mates so that you could keep up with all your comic strip heroes. Many of the comics produced a large annual each year, and one or two of these would usually find their way onto your Christmas wish list. While everyone enjoyed the Rupert Bear annuals, essential reading for the girls was the School Friend Annual and the Girls’ Crystal Annual .
Whole families would often wile away the evening playing card games like Snap, Old Maid, Fish, Rummy and Pontoon (sometimes called Twenty-one). Board games were also very popular, with favourites like Monopoly, Cluedo, Snakes and Ladders, Scrabble and Lotto (sometimes called Housey Housey), which was similar to Bingo. Dominoes and Crib (Cribbage) were also regularly played, as were games that enabled you to pit your wits against one other person, like Noughts and Crosses, Battleships, Draughts and Chess. These were all well-liked and encouraged by mum and dad because they kept you quiet – that is, until someone cheated!
When you got bored with all this mental activity, you could always suggest that mum and dad join you in agame of hide and seek. Do you remember carefully hiding yourself in the back of that cupboard for what seemed like ages, and then that awful feeling when you realised they had forgotten you? You eventually came out to find mum and dad dozing in front of the fire, and they hadn’t been looking for you at all!
In good weather, you would often play board games outside, either on a patch of grass or on one another’s doorsteps. You steadily progressed from Tiddlywinks to Monopoly, which was always a firm favourite with kids. Card games like Brag, Cheat, Cribbage, Pontoon, Rummy, Snap and Whist were also regularly played on doorsteps or in passageways. Football and cricket were forever being played in the street, in open spaces or bomb ruins, but there were loads of other cost-free street games and activities to keep you occupied. Many of these were group games, and before you could start playing, you had to choose someone to be ‘it’!
In street games, ‘it’ was the term used to describe the person who was designated to seek out, find, chase or catch the other kids in the game. If someone suggested playing a hide-and-seek or chase game then he or she would own that one game for its duration. A lot of these games required someone to be ‘it’. To pick who would be ‘it’, the person that suggested the game would recite the words of a rhyme while ‘dipping’ (pointing at each person in turn). The long version of this would eliminate people one by one until there was only one person left, and that person would then be ‘it’. In the short version it would simply be the person pointed to on the last word of the rhyme that would be ‘it’. There were loads of different rhymes, with lots of rudeand politically incorrect versions. Here are a couple of the innocent ones:
Ip-dip sky-blue who’s-it? Not you!
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo!
Catch a tiger by the toe!
If he hollers let him go!
Eeny, Meeny. Miny, Mo!
You’re It!
There were hundreds of street games with all sorts of variations being played in different parts of the
Similar Books
