Being outside was a huge part of growing up. These kids, and their parents, knew how important that was. Wherever you lived, I am sure you will identify with this, as long as you are over forty!
Leap Frog.
Reading Comics.
Swinging.
Hoses in hot weather.
Riding bicycles.
Walking to and from school with a friend.
Hide and Seek.
Playing Jacks. (Or marbles)
Climbing unsupervised at the park or playground.
Pogo Sticks in the street.
‘Oranges and Lemons’.
Hopscotch in the road or school playground.
H
beetleypete 
Those were great times!
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They were indeed, Dan. Thanks for commenting.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Children still enjoy doing many of these if given a chance.
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I am sure some children do, Kara.
Best wishes, Pete.
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In the summer, we played all over our neighborhood until all of us were called in for our dinners, then went back outside and played well into darkness before being called in once more to get cleaned up and ready for bed. Different times now to be sure, Pete.
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We had to go back in for dinner. I can still hear my mum shouting my name now, Bruce. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Reblogged this on A Teacher's Reflections and commented:
Play. Outdoor play. It stimulates the brain and develops muscles. Children learn to get along and make friends, to take risks and be brave. None of these life skills happen when children’s play is on the internet, and not outdoors.. Thank you to Beetley Pete for posting pictures of play. While they are from the 60’s, they’re just as relevant and important today.
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This is wonderful, Pete, and so important to children.
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I guessed you would enjoy this post, Jennie.
Best wishes, Pete.
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You know me well. 🙂 Best to you, Pete.
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I think I played most of theses as a kid. I hope these last the test of time. I know I still play some of these with my niece and nephew 😊
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Glad to hear you are keeping those traditions alive, Wrookie. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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All of the above plus roller skates no fancy boots or single wheels just Jacko roller skates, my dad built us stilts after we had been to see the circus and the jump elastic game we were never bored and if we were my mother would tell us she would find us something to do… at that point we vanished-smile-xx
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I loved my Jacko skates too, Carol. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete. x
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We hated being indoors. We were always doing something outside. How things have changed! I live in a huge residential area and I only see kids when they are coming home from school!
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In our small Norfolk village, the kids do make use of the local playground and basketball court, but only in good weather. For most of the year, you hardly see a child outside.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I remember all of it, from the pogo sticks, comic books, to the jacks, to the hide and seek. I think it was an extraordinary childhood and we rarely used anything but the front drive. Hugs, C
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Kids today are definitely missing out, in my opinion.
Best wishes, Pete. x
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HI Pete, I remember playing a lot of these games. We never had Pongo sticks and we never did the swinging.
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Pogo sticks were very hard to master. I gave up on mine after a week of trying. They are still sold though.
Best wishes, Pete.
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(1) Children in France like to play leap frog.
(2) Too young to read Thrilling Romances?
(3) “Hey, let’s pretend she’s a wishbone!”
(4) Drinking water straight from the hose has always been on her bucket list.
(5) Overheard:
Girl: “Look, there’s a turtle up ahead!”
Boy: “So what? I never slow down for a speed bump!”
(6) Two girls walking to and from school. Unbeknownst to them, two boys are always following them. (The boys are behind in school, too.)
(7) “Nine thousand forty-five, nine thousand forty-six…”
(8) Overheard:
Girl #1: “My jacks are nimble.”
Girl #2: “So what? Mine are jumping jacks!”
(9) “Okay, kids! Play time is over… Bring in the birds!” (Alfred Hitchcock)
(10) “Watch out for potholes!”
(11) “Next, let’s play cherries and bananas!”
(12) Bad analogy:
* Girls throwing a rock into a hopscotch square.
* Men drinking scotch on the rocks, made with hops, inside the Square Tavern.
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11) Oranges and Lemons is a song about the sounds of different bells in London churches. It is a very old nursery rhyme that is almost unknown now. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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When my brother and I were growing up, we were outside most of the time when we weren’t in school. We still played outside in the winter but not all day, too cold for that!
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When I was a child in London, we loved it when it snowed. Out all day having snowball fights. Now I dread snow! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Snow can be beautiful, but it can sure cause some problems.
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Even when my children were growing up these could have been photos of them at play. Warmest regards, Ed
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Simpler times, and often happier times too.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I am fortunate to have been a kid in the 1950s. My pals and me did all of those things. We had a television, but only for watching cartoons. Thank God, there was no internet then.
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We had a television in 1953, but I was too young to watch it until 1957.
Best wishes, Pete.
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It was a great time. It was before the internet, the cell phone, and even TV.
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I think so too, Don.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Good times! Late summer nights playing hide-and-seek and poison-tag with all the neighborhood kids. No worries. Riding a bike fast down the hill. And I had a pogo stick and loved to play jacks!
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Surely you are too young to remember all this, Susanne? 🙂 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Oh right! I forgot! I’m waaaay too young! 🙂 🙂
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Red Rover and Kick-the-Old-Tin-Can were other outdoor favorites.
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Yes, indeed!
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The only thing I didn’t do out of those was pogo sticks!
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I had one, but I never mastered how to use it. I preferred my bike and roller skates.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Bike, not roller skates for me!
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We managed to survive all of those dangerous activities. I am so glad i grew up before the internet.
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Me too, Molly. I had some scraped knees and a few tumbles from my bike, but just carried on playing.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Same here.
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Never had a bike or pogo stick but did all the others. I used to like swings (the ones you sit or stand on and go back and forth) and there were those round-a-bout things in parks. I also liked going to the Thames and feeding the gulls.
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You never had a bike? Something else you missed out on, Carolyn.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Actually, when I came to the USA I was given a bike but there was nowhere I could learn to ride it. I tried a couple of times but wobbled so much it unnerved me. It felt like another failure!
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I could have been in all but two of those photos, Pete. I don’t know the oranges and lemons game, and I almost always rode a bus to school. All the other pictures were a part of our every day life.
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You had to walk along the line as the song was being sung. If you got to the last line of the song before you left the line, the arms would come down to ‘chop off your head’. It was very popular, but I suspect it has been lost to history. This explains it better.
https://wordsforlife.org.uk/activities/oranges-and-lemons/
Best wishes, Pete.
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I did them all except the Pogo sticks. Happy days.
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I had a pogo stick, but was hopeless at using it. I think it was passed on to a cousin eventually.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I had one of those orange bouncer things – what were they called?
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A Space Hopper. They are still for sale. 🙂
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Ah yes. Thanks. I also loved my roller skates and would skate everywhere.
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I was really good on roller skates. I had Jacko Skates that strapped onto my own shoes. 🙂
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I used to skate so much that after a while the wheels would go square-shaped and Dad used to moan because he then had to buy me some new ones.
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The internet came around after my childhood and I am happy for that. My parents told me to get out of the house and come back before it got dark.
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That sounds about the same as my childhood in the 1950s, Leon.
Best wishes, Pete.
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So familiar! Back in those days, Filipino kids had their own version of these games. How about playing marbles and rubber bands?
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Yes, marbles and rubber bands were used here too, Arlene.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Most of those I relate to. All schools in NZ are still marked out with 4 Square
then there is bullrush
https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/40853/bullrush-in-west-auckland-2012
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Thanks for the links, Gavin.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Happy days!
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They were for me. Lots of friends, always out playing or on our bikes. 🙂
best wishes, Pete.
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yes, absolutely !
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Many of today’s kids are missing out, in my opinion.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I couldn’t agree more
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We had to use our imagination….that has been lost today. Great photos chuq
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It was that or nothing. The play developed social skills, character, and better health too.
Best wishes, Pete.
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And look at the state of kids these days. chuq
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Some of those, yes! Cheers, Jon.
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Halcyon days of ‘playing out’, Jon. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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