Web
Page 2046
26th
April 2014
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:
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!
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment