BEDS

[joette]

Children playing outside should not be viewed as anti-social but engaging in a "vitally important" activity, it has been claimed.


This is especially true for children from poorer backgrounds, a study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said.

They often have nowhere else to go and should be allowed to gather in groups on the streets, researchers suggested.

The report, A Child's Eye View of Social Difference, examined the experiences of a group of children from a private school and another group living on a poor estate.

One stark difference was how the children spent their free time.

"Private schoolchildren led more 'chaperoned' lives than the estate children," the study said.

"They were often driven to and from friends' houses, clubs and activities and so tended to be accompanied more often by adults."

But estate children spent their free time "socialising and playing games in the streets" without adult supervision.

The study added: "For children in households with few resources, limited opportunities to attend organised activities and often restricted space, open space which enabled children to interact socially was vitally important in their lives!
Thought you might like to read this report.Looks like we had sopmething going in all our outside play!

[emanday]

I've just had an email from the National Lottery titled "Play Again" with, guess what?

A picture of two young women playing peever (they call it hopscotch) in the office.

Whisper - Is TS being watched?

[AnneM]

I remember well all the playground games of peever, skipping and ball, largely because I was hopeless at all of them! The freedom we enjoyed 40 or so years ago was sweet and not often shared by youngsters now. Getting yelled at for being where you should not be was an occupational hazard of childhood.

I always tried to allow my young hooligans a bit of freedom when they were kids as there is nothing worse than kids who can go nowhere without Mum as an escort or Mum and her Escort or Fiesta or gas guzzling 4x4. Many a productive hour was spent looking for them in the parks of Aberdeen and demanding that they come home for bed/their tea or whatever. Kids need to be a bit streetwise and they always knew to keep away from certain areas.

Anne

[Helen G]

Hi Folks,

This does bring back a lot of memories from when I was younger,

Hi Wini,
My brother and his pals had a variation on "knock the door and run away"

We used to call this ring, bang skoosh, you would ring the door, bang the door and then skoosh as fast as yer legs could carry you cause if ye got caught, you knew fine well that if they knew it was you you were certain to have been kept in for bothering the neighbours and that was the worst punishment of them all.

I used to climb tree's with my brothers which was great fun as well, I would come home with my brother's after a big adventure where we used to walk up the resevoir through the forest although it was only an overgrown field our imaginations took over and we invented stories to make it more interesting.

Growing up with 11 brothers and sister money was a bit tight but the best times out used to be to the beach down to Lunderson Bay, you got up early morning and every one had their designated carrier bag with bits and pieces and we spent all day there and our bonus was a chippie on the way home.

Aw Memories
Helen

[wini]

And we all had great respect for the Polis.

I lived in a predominantly Protestant are with only 2 catholic families in the street, but when the priest, who walked with a stick and seemed to be very tall came along we all treated him with great respect.
When someone said "Here comes Father ???" the games became much more subdued and we all stood aside until he said Good Evening and each and every one of us returned the greeting politely

wini

[speleobat2]

Wini,

I noticed that you have Munro listed in your signature and that you are in Queensland, Australia. Are your Munros in Queensland too?

I ask because my great grandfather Malcolm Munro's nephew James Munro and his wife Ellen Walker accidently drowned while crossing the Brisbane River in 1911.

I can see from the map that Queensland is a very large area so you maybe miles away from the Brisbane River, but I'm curious!

Carol

[wini]

Hello Carol

I am the first of my Munro's to come to Australia in 1963
I am a long way from the Brisbane River but wouldn't mind doing some research for you.

Most of my Munro family are from Glasgow although oddly I have a great, great grandmother Peggy/Margaret Munro from Skye. Not related to the others. I have one James although not in a direct line, mine all being Hughs, Davids mostly
If you want to PM me with any relevant information I will see if I can follow iit up from here. I do get to Brisbane now and again

wini

[wini]

Helen,
The Chippie you used to have on the way home we used to call it the Chittery bite, it was so good when you couldn't stop shivering from the cold water.
Must have been mad, I can't for the life of me imagine getting into such cold water nowadays.
I don't think any of us had much spare cash let alone a car.
Only Toffs had cars and during the war they didn't have any petrol to run them
I was going to say the coal man, the fishman and the baker must have been exempt but now I think about it they used horses and carts, there was alwys a rush to see who go the dung for the garden.


wini

[Anne H]

Hi Wini,

I was going to say the coal man, the fishman and the baker must have been exempt but now I think about it they used horses and carts, there was alwys a rush to see who go the dung for the garden.

I remember my Dad running out for the dung many a time...good fertilizer, he'd say Around our way, every so often a cow would manage to get out of the fence from the field next to the lochs..if I recall, they left some fertilizer too What a laugh though to see the farmer and his men, the police and everybody else all trying to catch the cow

Regards,
Anne H

[StewL]

When we were were young in Scotland (Faifley) we used to play peevers and horror skipping ropes, when the lassies in the next close made us Honest truth We were often up in what we called the moors, the big hill and other places of adventure, including the ancient Druid stone (true it is there).
But as AnnM mentioned earlier, although we were out until dragged home for our tea or bed, we also knew where we couldnt go, and were cautious not to let our adventurous spirits direct us astray. When I think of the distances we would travel in a day it was good to be young, ok as poor as church mice, but we were fed and kept clean. When we came to Oz when I was eleven, oh my goodness, the adventures in the bush near home