Random kiddy things

scotshammer

I remember asking my parents every Christmas and birthday for BigTrak. Anyone remember it? They never got it for me!

PrestonHammer

I had a BigTrak. You had to program in the route on the key pad.

Cuz1

Must have some good tactics in then cus they stabilised your club for you, put us back in the premier league and kept us there and left us better than he found us, so good old bubble gum I say

thornburyiron

Preston I got my son a BigTrak about 40 years ago one Christmas. Drove everyone crazy trying to program it to get it to go around the house in one go.
Found it up in the loft a couple o& years ago when we had the house reroofed and it had rusted away inside where it had got wet. Had to chuck it.

EXETERHAMMER

Panini stickers in the playground.

Got, got, need, need etc

Hamstew

EXETERHAMMER said:

Panini stickers in the playground.

Got, got, need, need etc

Got about 10 Tim Breacker's. Have no idea why I keep bringing them into school.

OldCastleSwift

EXETERHAMMER said:

Panini stickers in the playground.

Got, got, need, need etc

Shineys

yoyo

Hanging around the flats with my mates. From somewhere would appear a cart made from wooden planks and pram wheels. Steered with your feet of string. Basically just pushed down hill, an accident waiting to happen!

thornburyiron

I remember those and you didn’t have to wait long.

PrestonHammer

Sitting in a milk crate or a bread crate and positioning yourself on the top of long, steep set of stairs. The good old days before Health and Safety hahaha

thornburyiron

All made up games and dares. Can’t remember what age I was but with my mates we all wanted to be the first to jump down a whole flight of stairs in our flats in one go. There were about 11 concrete stairs. None of us got above 6 steps and we never thought we’d manage the whole lot but I had an idea. One of us had a rope in their coal shed so I suggested they tie it around my wrists and as I jumped they’d pull it and I’d sail down and do it. The flaw was by tying it around my wrists it ensured when I jumped and they pulled I’d come down head first, face first as it happened. After a visit to an emergency dentist who extracted what was left of my front teeth, who ensured me my adult teeth would be fine my mates told me it didn’t count because I hadn’t landed properly and it was a dive not a jump. It became a bit of a joke.
My front teeth did come through but one of them overlapped the other and still does. As Preston says Health and Safety ruins fun.

ironmike44

Around 1953 - our playground was a bombed out cinema opposite Ilford station. The front of the building was still standing and had a ornate tower at the top - our little gang would climb to the tower and wave to the 2 coppers standing outside the station. As soon as they moved we would run down the stairs to the basement and squeeze in behind a a large electrics control cabinet. The coppers knew we were there but couldn’t get to us - once they gave up we would come out, give them a wave and then leg it. We thought it was great fun - never did do an H&S risk assessment.

thornburyiron

Ironmike bomb sites were a massive attraction in the early 1950’s. There were a lot of bombed houses around where I lived and we would go in and if there were stairs climb up to the next floor. Generally there wasn’t much of a floor there but you could sometimes walk across the beams and into the house next door if there was a hole in the wall.
Like with you at Ilford police or wardens would arrive outside but would never go in so provided you kept quiet they’d walk away and you’d come out.

epsom_bubbles

When I lived in the slums of Glasgow, one of our play areas was a demolished tenament block, which still had flats either side. A bit risky to play war games on, as the people would throw rubbish from the upper flats. We had to duck when someone shouts "Rubbish). I was five at the time and no barriers or H&S to stop us playing there.

chicagohammer

Me and a mate were out on our bikes and saw a sign that said, London - 15 miles and we thought, that isn’t far so we set off.

Of course it got dark and we got lost, at least we had the sense to go to a police station and fess up, my dad had to come out and pick us up - and yes, we both got into a bit of trouble for that.

We told everyone at school that we had cycled to London and it was only as an adult that I discovered that we probably didn’t get further than Gants Hill :-)

BubblesNeverDies

Ironmike, thorn, 👍.
My playground was one of the many debris sites in Canning Town where the bombs had missed the Royal docks. Mine was about 30metres wide and we used to play marbles on it, which was quite a job given that the ground hadn't been levelled off. Come Guy Fawkes night the grown-ups would make a huge bonfire on it. Some years later, what must have been an early form of H&S (or maybe it was just developers ) fenced it off.

Kuchinghammer

One for ASLEF... steam trains on the Fenchurch line. I used to stick my head into all the smoke and cinders.

ironmike44

Around 1953 (revisited) - our little gang’s headquarters was a bombed out gasworks in Manor Park. The only structure left standing above ground was a brick chimney/stack - to gain membership of the gang you were required to climb the internal ladder of the chimney to the top and wave to the other gang members gathered outside/below.
Having successfully carrying out the task myself I had to assist my little brother (he would have been 7 at the time) who froze half way up. Managed to get him moving again my threatening to throw him off the top! In hindsight I should have thrown him off as he grew up to become a rabid Spud who thinks Harry Kane is a god (he is 75 now bless him).

Hamstew

Great stories