Things we did as Kids


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yes the marble guns were good, as were the pipe bombs we made with copper tube and a "certain mixture" (easily bought but not saying what) you used to hear the pressure build up, then BANG! anyway clever dick here just had to push it, via about 18" of 1" steel pipe! resulting in demolished shed and police visit

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I used  to go scrumping with the kids next door,we would cook the apples in an old tin on a little fire we had made,they tasted bloody awful and we had terrible belly ache.

Don't think Mam or Dad ever hit me....but the way Mam looked at me sometimes i thought 'ey-up' here it comes,,,Dad used to threaten me, but i knew he'd never do it,,,,Always remember when i was about

Here's my "Gadder or Galley" KatyJay.  I've had it since I was a teenager - it is now looking a trifle sad and in need of some new elastic and sling:      

yes the marble guns were good, as were the pipe bombs we made with copper tube and a "certain mixture" (easily bought but not saying what)

It wouldn't be something to do with making plants grow and what you put on your corn flakes.

You would have liked the formula we got hold of for making Napalm, ingredients easily obtainable from Boots and any hardware shop, now THAT was impressive when loaded into a Corona bottle, it was a bit dangerous making it though as the mixture had to be boiled before adding it while still hot to petrol, I used to wear an old gas mask for doing that.

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You need to read Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam - or watch the movie version - "October Sky".

A true story about a bunch of kids in a coal mining town in West Virginia who decide to build rockets - their stories of mixing, and testing, the fuels is especially funny!

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"...Why did children disappear from our streets?..."

"...Up to the 1960s there were few children who didn't spend much of their free time outdoors, playing in the fields, parks, streets, back alleys, old bombsites and local beauty spots..."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8399749.stm

Cheers

Robt P.

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What about SPUD GUNS? the best one we ever made was some plastic drain pipe 4"dia with a blanking plug on one end and a small hole drilled in it, ram a spud down the pipe and spray some of me mams hair lacquer in the hole, light with a match and watch the spud vanish, I tried it a few months ago and nearly blew meself up, the missus reckons I'm not right in the head!!!

Rog

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We also got banned from 'dustbin lid' racing...two of the old metal dustbin lids...one on each foot with your foot through the handle...then run down the street ( paving slabs then )...couldnt get much louder so all the parents banned us.

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Did anyones mum have one of those ( kinda woven ) dogs made out of fag packets??

We used to play marbles into one the paving slab cracks.

Down the tip we'de spend hours playing in a burnt out car....then using its bonnet to slide down the mud hill.

Then on the swing in the 'rec' we try and swing OVER the top bar.

Also discovering and showing others what you had learnt....it was impossible to kick the center post of the rounderbout once you had got it up to speed and you were on it ( as your foot went off to one side )

And up Bluebell woods...the Rope swing on the tree.....if we fell off that thing we would have fallen about 60 foot.

And in summer swimming in pike pond near plessey and also in the lock....all clean water ( yeah right ).

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We used to wrap dog poo up in newspaper, put it on somebodies doorstep, set fire to it, knock on the door and run off. Whats the first thing you do when you see paper on fire? Yes you've guessed it, stamp it out with your foot. Oh happy days. !rotfl!

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Now when "Super glue" came out ..........................Super glue a drawing pin to a latch key on some bodies gate (Obviously point side out) smeer said point with dog doo, and wait for home owner to come home . Finger on "latch key" ...finger hits point,,,,,,,,(Are you there yet??)......... persons shouts ouch ,,,,,,,,,,,finger goes in gob..!!

Sorry Kev for using your name in vane !!!

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Spirit Tapping. We used to stick a drawing pin to the top of someones window frame after dark, tie some black cotton on it,about 6 inches down attach a large button then take the other end of the cotton and hide behind a car or bush. As you pulled the cotton the button tapped against the window, try it tonight see how many times they look out of the window.

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Did anyone do 'Hedge Hoppin', I'm trying to imagine Fynger doing this with two dustbin lids on his feet, now that would be a sight to see.

Cockington Road was the best place to do it, left hand side starting from Trowell Road, into the first front garden then race along the rest of them, throwing yourself over the hedges, it was best to do it in the dark so you wouldn't get caught, God knows how many prize roses we destroyed in the process.

Try that now and you'd star being kicked and cuffed in 'Police Action all singing and dancing road chases' on various TV channels.

I remember years later, coming home from a night out on the town and the Hedge Hoppin king, who shall remain nameless, decided it might be a good idea to have a last go, and off we went up Cockington Road at 2:00am, totally slaughtered, but we didn't get far as we were laughing so much that we didn't get past more than the first few hedges and had to retire disgracefully.

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Hedge hoppin....did loadsa that.......like the button on the window idea....dont let beefy near drawing pins...hee hee

Our hedge hoppin progressed to swapping washing lines for the next doors....just find two together who had left them out overnight and switch em.

Must have been confusing in the morning......also it did progress again slightly by always coming home with a decent pair of jeans.....

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what about tying 2 side by side front doors together, then knocking on both, best if about a foot slack left in the rope, first one would open, then slam shut as next door took up the slack! then vice versa and so on, another good un was similar with an entry house, tie front down to the back, but you lost your rope, ditto the case if you tied a phone box shut with girls in it!

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A common sight up Chilwell was on a sunday morning...all the kids were sent out up to the farmers fields to get taters and veg for the sunday dinner....the farmers knew it was happening but as long as it was just the edge of the field he didn't mind.

And you could wear bottle tops on your jumper by pressing a hap'ney ( half pence ) into the back of them on the inside of your jumper....those sharp spikey edges kinda wrecked your jumper tho.

Knock -a-door-run was hard up chilwell as the path up the front gardens were quite long.....Till they built the new estate ...small gardens.

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Roller skating on completely tin roller skates. No luxurious rubber wheels in the early days. Tin skates do not make for a smooth ride. Rattling the teeth out of your head comes to mind.

I had a scooter before I got my first bike [age 14], a big scooter that I went everywhere on. No back brake though, had to use the sole of my shoe to slow down.

Nobody has mentioned playing cowbugs and injuns yet. If I couldn't find any girls to play with, then I'd play this with the lads in Broxtowe woods. I also played with tin soldiers in a neighbours rockery with him. Eh if you're desperate.............

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Similar to Ashleys, we used to tie black cotton to a door knocker and then on the one on the house on the opposite side of the street, knock on one and hide , first door opens and as they close the house on the opposite side gets a tap on their door too!! it went back and forth (on 18 and 23 Gladstone Street, Carlton.) for 4 goes each once !!! then they both snatched open their doors at the same time and ruined the game , b45t4rd5,!!!!.............rotfl.gif

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Denshaw!!!! thanks a lot mate, I've just tried the button trick on my next door neighbors and she caught me, she said to stop pissing about and that she will set Meg the dog on me and tell my wife if I do it again

Rog

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Around bonfire night we used to get tuppenny bangers. If you added a short length of string to the blue paper you could light the string and leave the banger in somebody's front yard. It gave you plenty of time to be quite a safe distance away before the bang.

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How about building dens, that was a good wholesome pastime, no bother to anyone, perfectly safe, or was it.

The field between Jackos Oller and Balloon Woods had a sand sub soil base. The older kids built a massive construction of dens more akin to the trenches on the Western Front, they were linked with tunnels and covered over with branches and bracken, they were quite amazing, though it was a bit dodgy crawling through the tunnels that probably could have collapsed at any time. One day some git, and we never found out who it was, set fire to them, we went up there to play one morning and it was a mass of smouldering debris in the ground, it was heartbreaking. You lived just down the road Bip, know anything about it.

We transferred our den making activities to the Bramcote Hills House Woods that hardly anybody went in, you could build massive dens out of branches and bracken and they would remain untouched all summer.

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didn't make dens as such as we had a hayloft above 2 stables at end of the house, also an ex ARP concrete air raid shelter as per one just off Radford Blvd near aldi (if still there). typically with those to play in we also invaded factory yard next door where hundreds of whicker laundry baskets were stored outside under a felt roof, these were stacked about 6 high and by carefully re positioning them made maze type passages into the centre space, sometimes the workmen knew we were in there but couldn't get to us! a death trap if a fire but great fun (eventually the lot did go up in flames, suspect chard st.gang) Another passion was a tree house, several attempts at building one but all ended with just odd "obtained" planks nailed to branches where we'd sit

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