[kirklancaster]

The sheer fun of playing; 'Sticks', 'Kick Out Can', 'I Draw A Snake' and 'Pie Crust' in the back alleys and ginnels.

Sticks, Kick Out Can and I Draw a Snake were all variations on the scatter and hide and be chased type activity, while 'Pie Crust' was a rough and tumble game that brought real laughter:

One of the team was picked to be a 'donkey'. He would bend his back and lean forward with his hands palm up against a wall or clutching a fallpipe, and the others would take it in turns to shout: "Pie Crust"(????) and jump heavily on his back then straddle him like you would a Donkey. The 'Donkey' had to writhe and wriggle and kick up until he dislodged the 'rider'. If he did, the rider became the Donkey. Sometimes this was played with ALL the others leaping on (or as many as could fit on) and the inevitable 'collapse' of both Donkey and Riders was often hilarious.

No doubt this would be banned now because of Health and Safety.

Then, there was the excitement of climbing trees and collecting birds eggs (we were young, time's were different and we didn't know any better) and 'scrumping' - nicking apples and pears from the local orchards (we were young, time's were different and we didn't know any better).

Simple games played in the school playgrounds included marbles and 'Jacks' and 'Ciggies'.

Ciggies was played with flattened out sleeve type cig packets being 'skimmed' at an upright cig packet some distance away in an attempt to knock it over. Players took it in turns and the first to knock it over claimed all the other players cards which had failed. The game was taken so seriously that the bigger the collection of flattened cig packets someone owned, the more 'cool' he was perceived to be. Fights sometimes even ensued over alleged cheating.

Simple, free and enjoyable fun for poor kids in a less sophisticated era.