Just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this............... Close your eyes and go back in time... Before the Internet... Before semi-automatics, joyriders and crack.... Before Playstations, x-box or Super Nintendo... Way back...... I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park. The corner shop. Hopscotch. Butterscotch. Skipping. Handstands. Football with an old can. Fingerbobs. Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the menace. Roly Poly. Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams. The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass. Bazooka Joe bubble gum. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps a screwball. Wait...... Watching Saturday morning cartoons, short commercials or the flicks. Children's Film Foundation, The Double Deckers, Red Hand Gang, The Tomorrow People, Tiswas or Swapshop?, and 'Why Don't You'? - or staying up for Doctor Who. When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere. Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings. White dog sh*t. Sticky fingers. Playing Marbles. Ball bearings. Big 'uns and Little 'uns. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro. Climbing trees. Building igloos out of snow banks. Walking to school, no matter what the weather. Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles. Being tired from playing....remember that? The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Water balloons were the ultimate weapon. Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Choppers and Grifters. Twist grip 3 speed gears Everyone had Police sirens on their bikes. Small narrow skateboards and adjustable rollerskates Eating raw jelly. Orange squash ice pops. Remember when... There were two types of trainers - girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E. You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents. It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends. You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas eve. When nobody owned a pure-bred dog. When 25p was decent pocket money Curly Wurlys. Space Dust. Toffo's. Top Trumps. When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! (and some of us are still afraid of them.) Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that! Remember when.... Decisions were made by going " Ip Dip Dog Sh*t " "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly". The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one. t was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event. Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a catapult. Nobody was prettier than Mum. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin. Ice cream was considered a basic food group. Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true. Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors. If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED. Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life... I DOUBLE-DARE YOU
Aye, Excellent.... But there has to be room for:- Bunny wooding Mischeivous neet Nipsy Apple raiding Cubs and Scouts Boys Club at the top of Pinfold Steps Rocket Man at the Setdi morning flicks Zoom Lollies Gobstoppers Cough Candy Cheese and Jam sandwiches Doing a 'little man' on an long icy patch Rainy Sunday afternoon board games round at Sandy Barracloughs, (Monopoly, Wembley, Mine a Million, Totopoly, Buccaneer) Pie Crust Kick Can Getting bored with the 6 week summer holidays 'Being' Ted Dexter, Ken Barrington or Fred Truman Claiming to have seen Jimmy Greenhough (sp?) break the net with a shot at Oakwell Having a day out down at Tinkers Pond Fishing on the Fleets and in the Canal Swimming in the "Bomb 'oil" on the Dearne Pushing a scout trek cart up Dodworth Road Trying to stop the barstud from running away down to Doderth bottom Being a kid.
Still got a Wembley game Got it out the other week and played it right through, just out of curiousity, by myself. I think York won the cup - realistic, obviously! Wasn't it Jimmy and Brian GREENHOFF? Can't be bothered looking it up PS you missed Basher Richards' blows to the back of the head. Eeee, ther dunt know ther born these days....
Indeed! Sadist of the first degree. Even in the 1960s it's hard to credit that he got away with what he did. Failed my O level Maths - HIS fault!
RE: Still got a Wembley game Yes we were playing it the other week too. Couldn't find the Man Utd card at all, discovered it stuck to the back of Bolton Wanderers. Great game, if a bit dated now.
RE: Basher Richards ? Richards was a right f*ckin cretin besides being a poor excuse for a Maths teacher. The twot knocked me clean over Dave Buttle's desk once for a small breach of the homework code. Mind you he was only slightly worse that the Scottish idiot, whose name I forget. Terrums indeed!
i remember richards coming into the physics room and grabbing some poor sod by his lapels and pinning him up against the wall, he really let him have it then.............kid was in tears for days and hiding going along the corridors!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nothing wrong with a bit of teacher/pupil terrorism, but... ...he took it to the nth degree, and beyond. I never had more than a sharp slap on the back of the head (like most got, including the girls I think) but I know some got much much worse
Wish I'd kept all my old board games Remember the horse racing one? Totopoly I think? I found Wembley in a charity shop a few years ago for 50p and bought it for nostalgia. Ahhh
Vague memory of Mrs Green but vivid one of.... Mrs Williams. Everty schoolboy's fantasy figure of a woman, early twenties probably. French teacher I think?
RE: Vague memory of Mrs Green but vivid one of.... Thought that was Ma Driver? She hitched up with Mr Dry. Ma Shep - now she was a caution.
no, she wasnt much younger than him, it wasnt her (mrs williams), this one lived down stairfoot and went to CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!
I had a fantastic football game... Wooden surround with the pitch maybe two feet by 18 inches wide. Solid wooden goals and tiny at that. Hard undulating surface with little cast iron men on springs in each little dip. Ball bearing or small marble for a ball, maybe 6 a side plus keeper, fat lot of good HE was! Pass the ball from man to man by bending the man in possession with a finger tip on his head and the inside left always scored. Simple pleasures and that would be worth a fortune now I bet.