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Wednesday 23 April 2014

Web Page 2046


26th April 2014


 Top Picture:  Chinese Chequers




Middle Picture: Ludo






Bottom Picture: Spud Gun

Games Children Play

Have you noticed that children these days have stopped playing the adventure games that most of us (especially the boys) played when we were young? When was the last time you spotted a posse of cowboys with a Sheriff hunting down a tribe of Red Indians? Or a crew of desperate Pirates of to find adventure on the Spanish Main? No one seems to make bows and arrows any more, or catapults! In the 1950’s a belt, holster and pistol cost the princely sum of 1/3d in Woolworth’s and a Junior Carpenters Set cost 6d more at 1/9d.

The standard playthings of our youth Cowboy or Cowgirl sets, Nurses Outfits. Bus Conductor sets, toy Post Office sets and Dan Dare Space Guns are all things of the past and of our childhood. It must be several years since I saw a group of lads playing conkers, racing their Dinky Cars or playing marbles on the pavement. Very occasionally one can spot a hop scotch court marked out in chalk on a pavement or playground but five stones or jacks seem to have disappeared as do yo-yo’s and spud guns.

Indoor games such as Old Maid, Donkey, Happy Families, Chinese Chequers, spinning tops and the Viewmaster all seem to be out of favour.

Hornby train sets and Scalectrix (a good old Havant invention) are still around but are very much in the minority compared with the electronic games all the youngsters, boys and girls seem to have today and in this I include both of my Grandchildren I have never ever seen them play a healthy make believe game with their friends.

One of the most popular hobbies when I was in my early teens was biking and especially dirt track racing, all this was well before the BMX craze took hold. Most of us lads knew our way around a bike and could change sprockets, cotta pins, chain wheels, brake blocks, bearings and extensions to try to make a bike go just that bit faster. (Who remembers riding with the deadly fixed wheel?) Steve Long and I spent many happy hours customising and building bikes in either his dad’s garage or my dad’s shed. But today the kids now demand a ready-made BMX bike, which can be bought ready to ride and taken out of the shop and ridden away. Not for us we had to build ours, even though this meant cutting our fingers and breaking our fingernails in the process! Although I must admit that the introduction of cycle helmets and knee and shoulder pads has been a good thing, we just fell off and bled!

Toy soldiers, in our day they were plastic, the lead ones were a little before our time although there were still a few around in older children’s toy boxes. Cap guns, Matchbox cars, did you ever have the John Bull printing outfit? There were several various versions of these and the larger the number of the set the larger the amount of rubber letters there were in the box.

For the girl’s dolls prams, dolls clothes and dolls houses were popular and still are if my granddaughter is an average little girl, as are toy kitchens and pots and pans, so not much has changed there.

Brooke Bond tea cards were popular and rivalled the infamous cigarette cards at one time. In fact my father collected them up until the end and I still have his albums of them. I believe Brooke Bond released 56 different sets of cards and I think my father must have had at least 75% of them!
The Merit Magic Robot Quiz Game was first produced in 1950 and while marketed as a board game, the Magic Robot Quiz game was probably more accurately described as a “curiosity” game. The “game” consisted of placing a little robot figurine, which held a pointer in the centre of a circular pattern of questions and it then indicated the answers. I think I saw a modern version of that quite recently! Whilst on board games, remember the Magnetic Fishing Game, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo and Draughts? I cannot end without mentioning Meccano and books.
We all read Enid Blyton, we were not to know at the time that she was far from being an ideal mother, the Penguin books for children and the abridged versions of the classics such as ‘Heidi’ and ‘Children of the New Forest’. But for me one character in children’s literature stands head and shoulders (not literally) above all the rest. I will always most certainly cast my vote for the books of AA Milne and Winnie the Pooh.  
Stay in touch

Peter
DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Griff sent this in:-

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about eleven things they did not and will not learn in school.
He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem.
The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.
You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.
Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping:
They called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault,
so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills,
cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were: So before you save the rain forest
from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. *This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. (Do that on your own time.)

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life.
In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds.
Chances are you'll end up working for one.

If you can read this...thank a Teacher.
If you can read this in English...thank a Soldier!
And for life and everything else you have...thank God!
Now....think about this and smile if you agree and please pass this on....

If you don't agree, go stick your head in the SAND and take a DEEP BREATH!



News and Views:


Fabian underwent heart surgery at a hospital in Pittsburgh April 7th. According to his wife, he received an aorta route, valve replacement and single bypass. The surgery was deemed a success and Fabian is reportedly recovering fine.


Glen Campbell was moved into an Alzheimer's Disease Care Facility, it was reported Wednesday (April 16). The 78 year-old announced he was suffering from the disease in 2011.


On this Day 25th  April 1960-1965

On 25/04/1960 the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Armchair Theatre (ABC) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 25/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 25/04/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - The Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 25/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 25/04/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles and the number one album was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


 











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