Double header - Playground games which would not be allowed now and glittery reindeer paper

[BasiliskStare]

Just up wrapping some Christmas presents so they can be taken away tomorrow early doors & I just started smiling to myself about games I used to play at school which would not be allowed now ( well indeed they were banned in the playground even then )

1. Clackers - some broken fingers
2. That thing where you put a tennis ball in a stocking and then put your back to the wall and had to bash it all around yourself like those knife throwing circus things.
3. Cat's cradle - two people stood with elastic round their ankles to make a rectangle and then someone had to make the most complex thing out of it with their feet and then jump out. ( one sprained ankle to my definite recollection)

Not sure why I thought of this I just did. I need ( as I am wrapping ) a very good glittery reindeer thread to take my mind off it - I do note that my local Tesco has not even attempted glittery reindeer , nor indeed the less glittery snowflakes at all this year.

I think it is 3 clear years since the glittery reindeer wrapping paper and the first one since I cannot find the glitter anywhere on the floor . Having complained I find I quite miss the glitter .I have a sort of silvery snowflake thing , but I just don't feel that same "right everyone I'm going in " sort of feeling. I did do a couple of presents which I thought quite tastefully had some dried lavender within a bow. Now lavender heads do go everywhere - just less sparkly

Oh we played those as well. When I was in Primary school they used to make us walk around the school perimiter every Monday morning, rain, hail or shine, and we all used to play clackers to try and keep our hand warm.

One that my older children and their friends used to play a lot was Get down Mr President.

One kid would casually touch their ear and the last left not doing it would become the president and they would all run and pile on top of them while screaming 'Get down Mr President!" Lots of chaos, bruises and often tears would follow. Wouldn't be allowed today.

Ha ha ha - That's new one on me but love the idea of being encouraged to bundle on top of a school mate ( well not seriously but you see what I mean )
When clackers and the stocking thing and cat's cradle were banned - what we did was on one lawn by the school , the perimeter of which was railings - you faced the failings , bent over from the waist , put your arms behind your back and grabbed the uprights of the railings , then lifted your legs up and hung them over the railings in between the spikes. Then you ended up facing inwards so you ( now being supported by knees over the top of railings) put your hands on the floor and kicked your legs off the railings to end up back pretty much where you started. A rubbish description , I think you had to see it to know what I am talking about ....

This too was banned

At my primary school the playground was tarmac, it wasn't quite level, there was a largish but very shallow dip in the middle which accumulated water when it had rained and, of course, in the freezing weather it turned to ice. So we had a mini ice-rink to 'skate' on, but we weren't stopped from skating around on it! I can't see that being allowed these days!

It’s difficult to imagine because we got a new draconian headteacher who banned most playground games while I was still at school.

Bulldog and alley-oh were the most hated games though. Bulldog I can understand but alley-oh was just a complicated version of tag.

There was also a game that we called Gaelic football, but no one actually knew how to play that so it really involved someone picking up a ball and everyone else piling on top to try and grab it 😂

British Bulldog was banned in my primary school. None of us really knew how to play it properly, but we all really wanted to play it, as it sounded so exciting.

We used to hang around by the railings at the bottom of the playground and chat to passers by. The railings were beyond a line of trees and bushes so we couldn’t even be seen by lunch time supervisors. The last time I drove past my old primary there was a seven foot high sold wooden fence where the railings used to be.

British Bulldogs as far as I can recall , was just lining up in two opposing lines and charging at the other line and trying to knock people over. I am sure there were more nuanced rules ( I think you had to get to the wall / fence behind the opposing team & get points per person for doing it ) but that never really seemed to feature greatly -it was more just charging

Love the mini ice rink

Not at school, but I grew up in a Large estate of flats. The boys used to play British bulldog beats, basically the same as the usual version except you were allowed to “beat” (thump) the opposing team!

At school we played a game called “rollercoaster”
we would link hands in a long chain, then the leader would run around the playground , dragging the rest of us behind. Usually the 3 children at the end of the line would end up with heavily grazed legs after being dragged across the tarmac. (Particularly if they were very small/light) Strangely, everyone wanted to be at the back of the line!

@Waterlemon, we used to play 'rollercoaster' at school as well, but we called it 'snake' .

I loved Bulldog.

No one actually knew the rules so it was basically 2 lines of kids charging at each other!
I was always one of the smallest in my year group and managed to evade the crush most of the time

WhoTook That was my recollection also - if you were bigger you just straightforwardly charged , if you were nimbler you dodged.

On tarmac it is unsurprising in hindsight it was banned

Though in the fields wth railings we found plenty of ways to endanger our selves. I do believe a pupil broke or very badly twisted an ankle when we were playing "Showjumping" ( this is probably not a general thing ) but it was running as fast as you could in a gallopy / cantering way pretending to hold reins , and then every so often leaping as high as you could but you could not put your arms out to steady yourself because that would have been "letting go of the reins" - said girl either tripped over a tussock of grass or stuck her foot down a rabbit hole. Actually I cannot remember this one ever being banned.

@BasiliskStare very true I remember there being a few dislocated joints and one bout of concussion before the headteacher said 'NO MORE!'

Boringgggg

@WhotookTheChristmasCookie

We once had a girl in my class who had to be taken to A&E because during a Latin Class ( when - young inexperienced teacher faced with a class of girls ) let us enact the Riots of Nicodemia "to bring it to life " and she ended up having been kicked in the ear. It is about 40 years ago - but I think she was called Louise. There are many ways of sustaining injuries at school.

I never realised ‘elastics’ and the ball in sock game were banned. I just assumed they went out of fashion! When were they banned? Shame, I wonder what I would have passed my school days with if it weren’t for such games.

Does anyone remember a game called 'Red Rover'? This involved 2 teams having to stand in a long line,holding hands,facing each other,with a distance of about 25 -30 yards between them. One side would chant 'Red Rover,Red Rover,we call (person's name) over'. Said person then had to run hell for leather at the other team and try to break through their joined hands. If they succeeded,they went back to their own team,if they didn't,they had to join that team. The side with the most people on at the end were the winners.

Re.the mention of British Bulldog by previous posters,I recall that as being similar to Red Rover,the difference being that people were caught and lifted up in a similar fashion to if they were getting the birthday bumps,and the captors shouted 'British Bulldog 1,2,3!',before dumping them back on the floor. But I may be wrong.......

Yes we played red rover but for some reason I think we also called it British bulldog.

@hmmwhatatodo

In my school the elastic game was banned because someone ended up with a broken ankle. The tennis ball in the stocking thing was banned around about the same time as clackers - early 70s I think ? Just general opportunity for injury.

Don't remember Red Rover but it sounds not dissimilar to British Bulldogs.

None of them resulted in as many injuries as playing "showjumping" - and certainly when I look back on it - doing handstands and hanging off the railings must have been the worst of all. Oh and one more - leaning back and walking down a wall in a "crab" and then having to kick your feet over - how we did not crack our heads open on a regular basis I do not know.