Maurice Payne: Fun and Games
Us boys were very close when we were young, we didn't have but very little money, so as to enjoyment we made our own.
Football was always top of the agenda. We played on the top Moor, the ball then was very different to the one of today. It was much more heavy, the case was of leather, and inside there was bladder which often burst. When this happened we would fill the case with paper and old pegs. Often there would be not the normal eleven a side but twenty or more. We didn't abide by the laws of the game, no throwing, no offside, etc. Often it was way after dark when we finished, no winners, no losers, we didn't care about that it was our enjoyment.
Sometimes we would go for long walks and take a tennis ball, and pass it from one side of the road to the other. Then there was very little traffic on the roads.
Another popular game we made up was what we called 'Pitching in hats'. Around five or six of us boys would lay our caps in line against a wall (nearly all boys wore caps then.) In turn we rolled a tennis ball towards the caps. If the ball entered your cap you ran forward to get the ball and throw it to the other boys who had run off. Whoever you hit with the ball it would be his turn to roll the ball into the caps again.
The game of 'fag cards' as we called it. These cards were issued in packets of cigarettes. Different brands of cigarettes had many interesting pictures ranging from sportsmen, birds and flowers etc. To this day these are collectors' items. Around five or six of us would in turn fling a card towards a wall, then if you could fling your card on top of any of the ones already there you picked up all the cards. Should you miss you carried on flinging until successful.
After cards came spinning tops, these came in different shapes. One would spin tops with the aid of a piece of string tied onto a stick to form a whip. The top which I had was called a mushroom. Spinning my mushroom outside our house at 127 Waterside, I gave it extra wack and the top took off straight through Mrs Groves' shop door window. This lady had a sweet shop next door to us, and she never did like me, and after that our relationship got even worse. When Dad came home from work I felt the weight of his hand, and my top was put on the fire, and no pocket money for a number of weeks. What a good thing it was only a small square of glass!
Hoops. First there were wooden hoops (made at local factories), generally used by girls. Then the hoops us boys had we called 'iron hoops'. They were around two feet in diameter, we rolled them along with a stick or a 'hooker'. The 'hooker' was a piece of thin iron, bent at the end, made by Holly Ringsall, who at that time had a blacksmith's forge beside the railway. We ran long distances with our hoops and occasionally had races.
Maurice Payne
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