BEDS

[wini]

I emptied a tin of shoe polish this morning when cleaning my shoes and I put it down and started hopping and moving it with the outside of my foot as we used to do when we played "beds". or peever.
You drew squares on the road and knocked the tin from bed to bed up the
grid and back.
I didn't get far this morning and decided it was a weans game.
Did any one else stoat the ball off the wall and catch it. Usually 2 balls and there were rhymes that you sang while you did it.
like

Rabbie Burns was born in Ayr, now he's doon in Georges
Square,
If ye want to see him there, jump on the bus and pay yer fare.

Won't mention any of the religious type verses.

Funny we never seemed to be bored in these days, must have been easily pleased.

See how many of you can still do these things.

wini

[annie1]

Hi Wini,

I remember the ball game with rhymes, we called it doublers, you could also get an old stocking and put the ball into it and then wallop it side to side or up and down against the wall, I recall getting a right thump on the face a few times boy did it hurt!!
Our favourite rhyme was:

Over the garden wall
I let the baby fall
My mother came out
And gave me a clout
Over the garden wall

Another favourite game was skipping to the rhyme, which I still do, except I just caw the rope!

Kathy Kathy Katholeen
Washed her hair in Windolene
Windolene makes it Sheen
Kathy Kathy Katholeen!

We did have fun, and at no cost!!
Ann

[emanday]

Hi wini,

Gosh! Peever - I always used to lose my balance

Believe it or not, many school playgrounds have painted Peever areas, so it is still played.

Doublers - now I was pretty good at that. We used to go to Alexandra Park in Glasgow and look for tennis balls that had been lost over the tennis court fences (then run like blazes in case a player was coming out to retrieve them )

[joette]

Oh yes & the tenement walls would be festooned with balls & their stockings which were bounced too enthusiasticly. I am sure that if the buildings had been engulfed like Pompeii archaeologists would be puzzling at all those "stranded" objects at the end of the buildings .
I loved "peever" or beds & we had several varieties-aeroplane-that was 123 in a straight line then 4,5 adjacent then 6 then 7,8 adjacent & oh if you fell whilst turning or kicked the peever out .Then just plain beds which was the 1-6 variety & needed a delicate kick/push of the peever
Skipping songs
123 O'Leary,
I see Miss McCleary,
Sitting on her bumbeleery,
Eating chocolate biscuits.
I have heard tell of weans today being given an official warning from the Police for chalking beds on the pavement .

[Muriel]

Definitely Leerie Leerie & a variation on Ann's rhyme:

Queen Queen Caroline
Washed her hair in turpentine
Turpentine made it shine
Queen Queen Caroline!

Muriel

[emanday]

I have heard tell of weans today being given an official warning from the Police for chalking beds on the pavement .

Talk about being shortsighted! Better for them to be chalking beds on the pavement than robbing old ladies!

[Tracey]

This thread reminded me of the song Archie Ball we used to sing playing "Two Ball" (if thats what it was called ?) so i looked it up to find the words and came across this.....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/s ... ad17.shtml

[speleobat2]

Funny we never seemed to be bored in these days, must have been easily pleased.

Not easily pleased. How about inventive, imaginative, energetic! We lived in the country so we didn't have sidewalks or handy walls, but we spent hours rambling through the fields building "camps" or getting up sandlot baseball games that our parents even came out to watch. When our one and only television broke when I was eight, my parents were going through a thin patch and couldn't afford another for almost a year so they got us library cards and we learned to love reading. I still read 2-3 books a week, mysteries, not tomes, granted. We were never bored then either and I don't seem to have that problem now.

I know too many people who spend too much time talking about their aches and pains. When I end up in a nursing home, it better have whatever comes after WI-FI because I'll have whatever replaces my laptop with me. I promise you, you'll never catch me discussing my bowel movements--I'll be online instead!

Carol

[joette]

I really feel sorry for children today.The street & the surrounding fields,parks etc were our playgrounds.Too much traffic around nowadays to allow the same freedom.
We would just play our "wide games" behind the houses where we lived.The road led to the garages.We would play "kick the can" "American Times","Hide &Seek" etc.Cars entered at their peril & very SLOWLY!.
We would spend hours roaming around the fields attempting to ride the cows and horses.Never suceeded.We would also trap bumble bees in jars of clover????.Giggle to the phone operator to get off the line as there was a train on it & invent various games on the swings & roundabout-one was dropping a peever can under it & as you lay on your stomach on the roundabout the person who managed to retrieve it was the winner & the next dropper.Skint fingers were an ofttime hazard but I think it gave us a good sense of hazard perception. You quickly learnt to get out of the way of a moving swing.
As to the police giving warnings to children today I think this is the generation who want children to be never seen & never heard& never have a word said against them.
Having said that I was delighted to see my eight year nephew running around the back close with his friends & explaining to me which streets he was allowed to visit his friends on & which were too far away.He is now moving to a house with a garden so again that will all change for him as it did for me at a similiar age.The games stayed much the same though although the chants were slightly different.

[nancy]

My what wonderful memories of those long bygone days I took great delight a few yr ago teaching my grandkids to play with the ball in a stocking,and they thought it was great fun! Only problem was,most outside walls now are pebbledash,but yrs ago they were smooth sandstone.I overcame the problem by waiting till neighbours went out,and let them practice out in the hallway much to the horror of hubby
My favourite game was rounders,but I also remember my Whip and Peerie or top and whip I can remember spending loads of time deciding which colour chalk would make the best pattern on it!We would whip them up and down the pavement,and see who could make it go the farthest.Also someone would pick the best patterned one!
Now as for the Hula Hoop,my dad bought me one from the Mill when I was 11,and I still had it till a few yr ago,when one of the grandkids accidentally broke it You should have seen hubbies face the other day,when I came out of a shop carrying a HULA HOOP
This time its not for play though,its to try and lose weight
Thing is though the quality isnt there now.They're much lighter than they used to be, so i'm finding it quite a challenge
Yes the kids don't know what they're missing.It didn't cost our parents half as much,to keep us happy,and fit at the same time

Nancy