My wife helped me write this column and we did find a few spots where our combined memories were just a little hazy.
These are in no particular order, but there was a hierarchy of violence, where as you grew older so did the usually-friendly level of violence grow.
They were games that required little equipment and few rules, which were sometimes altered to suit the competitors by a sort of consensus.
British Bulldog was not too violent. There would be a catcher in the middle of the court, who would call the British Bulldogs, upon which everyone ran for the other end, trying not be caught. If caught, you joined the catchers. The last runner caught became the centre catcher for the next game.
This was also, if memory serves, a game called "Charlie over the sea", in a slightly different form. The rhyme would be sung by everyone and on the word 'me' the person in the middle would indicate someone who would then have to run. If that person was able to avoid capture and get to the other end, everyone else would come charging through. There is safety in numbers
"Charlie over the water,
Charlie over the sea
Charlie broke the teapot
And blamed it onto me."
To play Hoppo Bumpo one had to hop within the declared space, arms crossed over chests, and try to bump the various others sufficiently hard to throw them off-balance. If they touched the ground with both feet they were out, and if you hit people hard enough they were down and out. There was risk, a strong risk, of gravel scrapes on knees and elbows but only a real sook complained to a teacher about these.
Sook is a word we seem to have abandoned now. A sook, might now be known as a person of gentle and caring nature, averse to violence. There were not many such people at Longwarry State School in the 1950s.
Poison Ball was another great game that no-one plays any more. It was played on a 'court' marked out on the gravel with a sharp stick. A thrower stood at each end, the targets all stood in the court and the throwers would try to 'brand' them with a large ball. If one used a large enough and heavy enough ball it was possible to knock the legs from under a 'target'. In any case once they were hit they were out.
To play Hoppo Bumpo one had to hop within the declared space, arms crossed over chests, and try to bump the various others sufficiently hard to throw them off-balance. If they touched the ground with both feet they were out, and if you hit people hard enough they were down and out.
The girls had skipping ropes, of course, but no boy would dream of joining in those chanting-song, long rope games. The boys played football, cricket and marbles, and they were girl-free games.
To play Hoppo Bumpo one had to hop within the declared space, arms crossed over chests, and try to bump the various others sufficiently hard to throw them off-balance. If they touched the ground with both feet they were out, and if you hit people hard enough they were down and out.
Football was mostly kick-to-kick. We played 'Kick to Kick' on the small paddock behind the school that we called "the oval". This was a game for the big kids and it was rare for the big kids to let a little kid get a kick. Even when I became a big kid I still had trouble getting a kick, but that was because I was never any good at football. We'd have two groups kicking to and fro between them, and I'd try to pick the weaker end. It did not often work.
I've written about marbles before and I won't do so again. Those of us who played with cat's-eyes, bottlers or honey-reels and Tom Bowlers (once known as tombolas) will remember Big Ring, Little Ring, Bully Hole and Closest to the Line. These games rarely involved violence but sometimes an argument over whose marble was closest could provoke a certain amount of anger.
I can still remember spending my two shillings of lunch money to buy 48 cat's eyes, more than I had ever owned, and clean and shiny. I lost them at morning playtime and I had no lunch, either. Some things stay with you a long, long time.
In the shelter shed there was a wooden seat running around three sides and there was a game we played where we tried to run across the space and not get caught. I can't recall what name it had, but we also played Pussy in the Corner, in which 'Pussy would run around the shelter shed, either way, fast or slow, while the mice in the corners had to change corners.
There could easily be three or four children leaping to the safety of each corner when 'pussy' came flying in to catch anyone still on the floor. You had to be up on the seat to be safe, and with a narrow seat and three, four or more kids trying to be safe in the corner, it became quite crowded. People fell, of course, but we were taught resilience in a way that was blunt, painful and very effective.
Blind Man's Bluff was mostly limited to the shelter shed and there sometimes vigorous competitions over which game would use the space. There was "Oranges and Lemons" with its own chant and metaphorical decapitation. The players would form a circle with two children forming an arch with their arms. The line would pass under the arch, chanting the rhyme and on the last word the arms would come down and trap a chin.
"Oranges and Lemons
The bells of St Clement's,
I owe you three farthings,
And when shall I pay you,
Today or tomorrow.
Chip, chop, chip, chop
The last man's head, head, head - off!"
"What's the time Mr Wolf?" was great fun. The 'wolf' would stand with his/her back to the players. They would chant "What's the time, Mr Wolf?" and the entirely non-vulpine wolf would say "Three o'clock", or "Seven o'clock", or any hour at all, and that told the players how many steps they could advance. The catch was that sometimes the wolf would shout "Dinner time!" and try to catch someone running to the end of the court.
Scarecrow Tiggy had a chaser and anyone the chaser caught had to stand as still as a scarecrow while the chaser went after another victim. They could only move again when another runner tagged them. It all got very complex at times.
There were all sort of games and the two things that seemed normal then but significant now is that we could always make up rules by simple consensus, and that a child hurt in a game simply got on with it.
I've enjoyed the reminiscence. I'll talk about the more formal games and sports one day soon.