Memory Lane Games

Hiding frae yer Mammy at night when playing....cause if yi answered her ye wur kept in...." yiv got school ra morra! "
Making a "bogie" out of old pram wheels or skates and planks of wood, orange boxes from the fruit shop
Skating in streets which were 'dead smooth', with yer laced skating shoes, my favourite was Dunn St. The lucky ones with two skates would sometime use only the one, and give the other skate to there pal.
Make holes in two Tin cans, put string though them....instant stilts! Great fun walking on the tin cans as stilts using the string to keep our balance
Remember the wee lassies walking about wi' there mammies high heels on!!! What a racket they made.
Playing with your torches (flashlight) round the dark backcourts at night....shining beams to the sky. (.... we referred to a good torch which could reach up to the sky as a "skyscraper" and when meeting someone playing with their torch the most significant question would be "Is it a skyscraper?...".)
Coconuts & Roses (running back & forth across street trying not to get caught by whoever was het)
Going tae the parks tae play.....remember the sonny ponn
Closes where the stairs had banisters you would straddle the banister and slide doon to the next landing. My Granny's close had these banisters and is was great fun but very dangerous! Anyway some bright Glasgow Corporation chap devised an idea to put studs along the banisters...that stopped the sliding!
Making "ice slides" in the winter and see who could slide the farthest
Making snowmen and Snaw ba' fights.
We had high narrow walls round our back, remember balancing, walking along them without falling off...
Greenhead baths, open air swimming in the rain no swimming cap and you didn't get in
Whitevale swimming baths in Dennistoun
Fitba in the street, jumpers for goalposts
	Playing fitba on the spare bit o'ground, 10 goals half time, 21 the game!
Fitba'.... aye the tenements might have been getting pulled doon but we still played fitba
Moshie, 3 holes in the backcourt each a yard apart, money lobbed into the holes & skite yer penny aff yer opponents
Coaxies ( piggybacks) Yeh brilliant Coaxie races and Coaxie fights !
Handstands against the wall Cards...snap, rummy, trumps Statues, Do this...Do that Hula hoops / Yo-Yo's Chases, Tig, Bike races round the block
	Three-wheeled bikes, remember the ones that had 'breadbin' box at the back.
Skipping and Ropes	Kick-the-can
A hudgie/ niggie on a wee oily	Playing dominoes wi' yer uncles 'round the kitchen table
Playing in the puddles.....clabber!	Kiss catch torture
Chap-doors an' run away	Hide and seek
Tumbling into the 'middens' around the back	Bools (marbles) rolling them onto the holes in 'stanks'
Cops & Robbers	Cowboys & Indians
Dabbities	Five stones! A great wee game throwing and catching pebbles.
Whip & peerie Crayoning the top of the peerie & watch the colours. Hopscotch, leap-frog A- leavie - O Rounders Books of scraps..remember the angels? And the lassies swapping their doublers!

Making chalk beds and playing Peever. Remember using a cherry blossom tin filled with dirt.
Penny Gandy....'roon the block on a horse & cart for a penny!
Comics.....Beano, Dandy, Topper, Beezer, Hotspur, Victor, The Eagle, Dan Dare, Bunty, Judy, Jackie, Ladybird, Robin, Knockout, Radio fun, 'Oor Wullie' annuals, The Broons
Dreeping aff dykes Balancing...as ye precariously 'walked' along the high wall Tummle yer wilkies
HET (i.e. in chases the person 'het' is the chaser ) various rhymes were used to decide who was 'het' before playing some games. Most of these rhymes have been lost in time but here are a few of them..........Standing in a straight line someone would utter.....
Eeny meeny miney mo sat the baby on the po when its done wipe its bum eeny meeny miney mo .	Eeny meeny mak-a-raka don your stuka-raka een skeen boax o' lean jerix
Clenched fists One potato, two potato three potato four five potato, six potato seven potato more!	Zeenty, teenty, figurr-oh-fell Ell dell do man ell Inky pinky tawry rope Ooot scoots toozy Jock .
	The spelling might not be correct but this is exactly the way it was told to me over 40 years ago, Wendy(Canada) A zeenty teenty heathery beathery bambleery over dover zing zell zaminelle zan tan toosh, a oner a twoer a tickery seven, hlibicrackit ten eleven, pin pan muskeedan, toodle um, toodle um twenty-one .

If the game was over or you wanted to change something remember all shouting at the top of yer voice ! Come oot! Come oot! wherever ye are! The gemmes a bogie, the man's in the loaby eatin' choc'lat biscuits !
Playing Balls & Ropes in the street .................... mostly played by the girls Balls....a game where two tennis-size balls are stoated against a wall. The balls are directed under legs, behind backs and bounced via the pavement. the balls must always be caught and all this whilst singing various choruses.
Ropes.....a large length of rope held at either end and swung round in a large arc ( called 'cawing') whilst others would jump in and skip up and down, with the rope flying between their feet and heads all the while singing various choruses.
Niggies / Hudgies .................... a particular dangerous pastime we used to 'play' It consisted of chasing after a bus or lorry (especially the midgie-bin lorries) and jumping on the back, clinging on for dear life to get a free 'hurl', as we called it, then at a suitable point in the 'journey' you would jump off. One day I remember myself and some pals were doing this in Old Dalmarnock Rd, in those days buses with the opening at the back, single pole etc (remember?) came out of some sort of depot at the rear of the gas works. Anyway, we would jump on the buses back platform and when the bus had built up some speed you would jump off......obviously the longer you stayed on the faster the bus was traveling and the more dangerous jumping-off became! This day I waited too long, jumped off the bus banged my head off the road and was knocked unconscious! I awoke to find the local priest from Sacred Heart chapel covering me with a blanket before being whisked off by ambulance to the Royal Infirmary, where I spent 10 days with concussion. I never played that game again!
Extract from messageboard, 3rd March, Jain McIntyre, Glasgow (email tba ) The kids are also planning a 'play in the street week' during the easter holidays. A lot of them don't know how to play games anymore. I've been teaching them skipping songs (cheers for some more on your site) and we'll paint beds and markers for rounders out in the street. Can you believe that the girl I work wi doesnae even know how to play beds! I also e:mailed Scotland Street museum for a loana their old games kit. we're hoping to get awe the Mas n Das oot for a wee game and even the grannies as well!
Extract from messageboard, 3rd March, Ronnie McPhee, London Well Jain that a smashin wee story.......I think that its excellent that your teaching children history which is directly relevant tae them. In a previous life I used to be a playleader and would ask children, where do your parents/grandparents come from? (A widnae say frae cos it wis London) anyway the usual reply was that they did not know. I therefore would say to them 'you go and ask your parents where they and their parents came from as Ronnie McPhee wants to know' Anyway the children would come back with long tales aboot how daddy was from Newcastle and how he met mum on a Beano tae Brighton, and how thir first house was above the chip shop in The Old Kent Road which went up on fire etc etc etc. This was it seems the first time that many of these children had learned of their own family history which is more important in my opinion that the dates when kings and queens died. Another game which always went down a treat at our Adventure Playground (called 'The Dumps' and still in existence) was 'Kick the Can' the sheer speed of the game was quite exhilarating for the children and they loved it, having no previous knowledge of street games. Another thing I would do is make sure every child visitor to the playground was asked for a photograph of themselves (which the were always glad to produce) and this was placed on the wall behind perspex glass, until over the years we had hundreds, It seemed to give the children a sense of belonging to know their picture was on the wall (and looked after). I wish Jain that I had a stack of photos to let you have, but the fact is that I don't, however yer wee project does sound very successful and I'm sure that wae your enthusiasm and determination it will go on to further great success.
We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing

Remember the choruses?......... Glesca street songs!
Any more? Send me an e-mail
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