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Hi History members, does any of you recall the street games of years gone by, like kickcan, relieveo.getting into an awful mess on very hot days playing with molten pitch from the cobbles in the road,the only thing to remove it in those days was lard applied by an angry mother, making a lyons roar, news paper stuffed uo fallpipes and set alight, all this before many had even a radio. Happy days some 80 years ago Cheers Skeets

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A variation on the drainpipe was a tin can with holes in the bottom and a long string handle, stuffed with paper and lit, then swung around. We used to call it a bull-roarer. Is that the same as your lions roar?

Rudimentary 'stilts' made from 2 tin cans with string handles. (You can now buy a plastic version!)

And playing in the molten pitch with old lollipop sticks. And in wet weather racing lollipop sticks down the gutters.

Mind, I'm only going back 60 years, we did have a wireless!

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A variation on the drainpipe was a tin can with holes in the bottom and a long string handle, stuffed with paper and lit, then swung around. We used to call it a bull-roarer. Is that the same as your lions roar?

Rudimentary 'stilts' made from 2 tin cans with string handles. (You can now buy a plastic version!)

And playing in the molten pitch with old lollipop sticks. And in wet weather racing lollipop sticks down the gutters.

Mind, I'm only going back 60 years, we did have a wireless!

Yes it was great and none of these games cost money , only imagination.

I loved playing in the pitch, a proper tom boy I was.

Living near the some of the steel works on Penistone road we used to tie a magnet to a piece of string then drag the magnet on the pavement

picking up all the iron filings, they were like little whiskers all stuck to the magnet.

We would see who could collect the most, after that we would pull them all off and put them onto a newspaper

with the magnet underneath and then make them dance. lol

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We used to tie up the handles of front doors [or tie two adjoining doors together, if you could] and knock loudly on the door [or doors] and then retreat to a safe distance, to watch the resultant antics and listen to the acompanying curses when the homeholders came to open the door and could not. lol

We played cricket in the street, we played togger in the street and we didn't really seem to get many objectors to the noise that we made, or the occasional excursions into peoples' gardens to recover the ball. :unsure:

We played in the woods [shirebrook, Shirtcliffe, Treeton, Flockton, etc] and we used to make a rope swing, secured to a tree and we used to taunt each other onto even greater and even more daring "acrobatics". We played hide and seek and we made crude sledges out of cardboard boxes, to skidaddle down steep banks and no one ever seemed to mind that we were out until after dusk, or as to whether we had fallen foul of some misfortune. :)

I think that that seems to be the biggest difference these days. That kids could play outside, alone and unaccompanied for hours on end and that no one ever had to worry as to whether we were safe or not. :wacko:

We had radio and I was still young when I remember our first ever TV turning up and being set up and tuned in by the Wiggies Man.

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Guest skeets

On Tree Root Walk in the thirties, opposite a small housing estate,there was a large orchard where the local kids did their scrumping l was once left up a tall pear tree when the owner opened the door and all the others ran to the wall opposite and over they went to safety. He didnt see me and l was left for 2 hours before he left, the next time l visited that land was 12 years later to have a tooth extracted, the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital had been built there, l had to have it removed without any gas or an injection,l had eaten dont know which was more painful the cramp in the tree or the tooth extraction Cheers Skeets

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Fine stuff, Thank you

On Tree Root Walk in the thirties, opposite a small housing estate,there was a large orchard where the local kids did their scrumping l was once left up a tall pear tree when the owner opened the door and all the others ran to the wall opposite and over they went to safety. He didnt see me and l was left for 2 hours before he left, the next time l visited that land was 12 years later to have a tooth extracted, the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital had been built there, l had to have it removed without any gas or an injection, l had eaten dont know which was more painful the cramp in the tree or the tooth extraction Cheers Skeets

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Hi History members, does any of you recall the street games of years gone by, like kickcan, relieveo.getting into an awful mess on very hot days playing with molten pitch from the cobbles in the road,the only thing to remove it in those days was lard applied by an angry mother, making a lyons roar, news paper stuffed uo fallpipes and set alight, all this before many had even a radio. Happy days some 80 years ago Cheers Skeets

We used to play the "Bull Roar" trick but we found that the new fangled toilet roll (as opposed to squares of newspaper on a nail) made the best sound.

Of course you had to search through many outside toilets before you found someone posh enough to use it.

In those days it was the stiff Izal stuff and was easily threaded up a drainpipe in large quantities.

The size of the flame coming out the top had to be seen to be believed and it's the biggest wonder we didn't set the privvy guttering or roof alight.

Another wintertime favourite was the hand warmer fashioned out of clay into a hollow small brick shape with an open top and a hole in each end fashioned with a little finger. We found the best source of clay was the puddled bottom of the Hillsborough Park Pond. Stretching out from the edge with a long garden cane it was possible to extract globs of clay until enough was obtained. When this had dried out it was stuffed with bits of old rag and lit. By running through the streets with one end facing the wind it served the dual purpose of keeping your hands warm and generating lots of sparks and foul smells, all of which appealed to small boys.

HD

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I'd forgotten the handwarmers! I never tried it myself but had a couple of cousins a few years older than me who made them. (They were also responsible for my introduction to bull roarers et al.)

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We used to play the "Bull Roar" trick but we found that the new fangled toilet roll (as opposed to squares of newspaper on a nail) made the best sound.

Of course you had to search through many outside toilets before you found someone posh enough to use it.

In those days it was the stiff Izal stuff and was easily threaded up a drainpipe in large quantities.

The size of the flame coming out the top had to be seen to be believed and it's the biggest wonder we didn't set the privvy guttering or roof alight.

HD

For any poor unfortunate who didn't make "Bull Roarers" in their youth, ( and don't try it nowadays with the use of PVC fall pipes :huh: ), the sound made was very loud and had a strange metallic rising pitch.

Some years ago I purchased a butane operated weeding gun. This consists of a normal gas blowtorch with a long vertical steel tube bent down to the ground.

The idea is you waft it at a weed and the expansion of sap is supposed to kill the weed. Unfortunately it doesn't kill the weed root.

When you turn off the gas after use the flame travels back up the tube with exactly the same noise (but at a reduced volume) as the "Bull Roar".

HD

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On 17/07/2012 at 18:46, Unitedite Returns said:

We used to tie up the handles of front doors [or tie two adjoining doors together, if you could] and knock loudly on the door [or doors] and then retreat to a safe distance, to watch the resultant antics and listen to the acompanying curses when the homeholders came to open the door and could not. lol

 

We played cricket in the street, we played togger in the street and we didn't really seem to get many objectors to the noise that we made, or the occasional excursions into peoples' gardens to recover the ball. :unsure:

 

We played in the woods [shirebrook, Shirtcliffe, Treeton, Flockton, etc] and we used to make a rope swing, secured to a tree and we used to taunt each other onto even greater and even more daring "acrobatics". We played hide and seek and we made crude sledges out of cardboard boxes, to skidaddle down steep banks and no one ever seemed to mind that we were out until after dusk, or as to whether we had fallen foul of some misfortune. :)

 

I think that that seems to be the biggest difference these days. That kids could play outside, alone and unaccompanied for hours on end and that no one ever had to worry as to whether we were safe or not. :wacko:

 

We had radio and I was still young when I remember our first ever TV turning up and being set up and tuned in by the Wiggies Man.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304630318349

s-l1600_Shirtcliffe Wood & Footbridge, Woodhouse, SHEFFIELD.jpg

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On 17/07/2012 at 16:14, Guest skeets said:

Hi History members, does any of you recall the street games of years gone by, like kickcan, relieveo.getting into an awful mess on very hot days playing with molten pitch from the cobbles in the road,the only thing to remove it in those days was lard applied by an angry mother, making a lyons roar, news paper stuffed uo fallpipes and set alight, all this before many had even a radio. Happy days some 80 years ago Cheers Skeets

I remember Delavio, as for the tar, we went up market and used margarine. but butter was even better, tiggy too was a favourite.

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