The Games We Used To Play

[Regulo]

Making ice slides in winter in the playground was strictly forbidden - that was asking for trouble, wasn't it? Lost count of the number of cracked bones and bruises incurred - let alone the number of lads in detention over it!

[Arthur]

Different times Ray.

I recall in the severe winter of 1963 that the playground was just a complete sheet of ice.

Numerous slides were made and used .

The teachers in those days just let us get on with it.

When we were kids nearly all boys ( and some girls)  were constanly getting cuts and grazed knees when playing.

I suspect there would be a massive fuss if it happened today.

 

[Regulo]

During my 4 years at Junior school two boys fell out of trees onto the spiked railings of the fence surrounding the school (separate incidents). I don't recall anyone being sued, or the fence or trees being removed.  On one occasion two of the teachers had to take turns to support the casualty until the fire brigade and ambulance arrived. General consensus was "stupid idiots for doing it" (the boys, not the teachers). We spent nearly as much time up trees than on terra firma.

[ChrisB]

A hankerchief string tied to four corners and all led to a sizable bolt made a good parachute.

[ChrisB]

Two large  bolts meeting in the same nut made an excellent "Cap Bomb"

[grendel]

I was once blamed for one boy breaking his arm - well he did hit me on the head - with his forearm, thats when he broke it. I have a head that has survived:-

1 my sister throwing a pair of scissors at me (they stuck in point first)

2 running around a corner and head butting the corner of the coal bunker. (I was told to run home and get a hankie on the way to church)

3 falling off one of those stage blocks at school and landing head first on the corner of another.

4 a stone hitting the windscreen of my transit parcel van - it had a wrap around screen nearly 4 foot high, the sun visor held enough together to make a nasty cut on my head.

5 countless viking battles where my head deflected a sword blow intended for a softer spot (head shots are banned of course, so if you inflict one you are honour bound to take a killing blow from your opponent..

so how this lad thought that hitting me over the head would hurt me, I dont know.

 

[Regulo]

The only time in my life I have been unconscious (apart from planned outages during operations), was when I was about 6 or 7. We had a dilapidated old shed in the garden, in the last stages of decay. I had been explicitly told not to go in, near, or on it. My little friend Patsy next door, decided the roof of the shed would be a good place to be, so up we went. Down we came, straight through the roof. My mum had gone down the shops, and the next thing I remember is looking up at her, wondering where I was. Patsy had survived unscathed, but, thinking I was dead, had gone in for her tea. My protestations that it was Patsy's idea, cut no ice with Mum, but as I never got pocket money, there wasn't much she could do about it! I was confined to barracks for a week, as I recall.

[Timbo]

Unconscious as a kid...thrice as a result of my parents and OK I'll fess up...once, well...

At the family home Uncle Albert had placed the hot water boiler in a cupboard in the corner of the kitchen. My parents being fairly short missed the corner of the cupboard, which projected out into the kitchen, by several inches. At 11, like Grendel I was tall, about six foot. Unlike Grendel I stopped growing...due to hitting my head on the corner of the cupboard and laying myself out repeatedly.

At the age of four I discovered Uncle Albert's barrel of cider behind the sofa. Living in Singapore it was hot. A cool refreshing drink of apple pop seemed a good idea. I discovered how the tap worked...and slowly got ratted over the course of an afternoon. Stayed unconscious for two days.

As a cocky sixteen year old I was giving my Mum some lip.
"If I was taller I'd belt you round the ear!" said Mum.
Being a bit of a prat I fetched Mum a chair to stand on. Which she did, then belted me round the ear...and I banged my head on the damned cupboard and got knocked out.

Finally, I suffer the ignominy of having been discovered unconscious on the bathroom floor of the Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall with my trousers around my ankles. Wait for it...A result of a dubious curry two days before in Bahrain and having caught a cold the day I returned home to the UK, I coughed, had a bout of the runs, was sick and sneezed all at the same time hitting my head on the hand basin opposite the toilet in the process and knocking my self out. My simultaneous impersonation of the seven dwarfs. Disney left Crappy and Pukey our of the film!

 

 

[grendel]

I dont think I have ever been unconscious, there was the time me and my mum dropped something, I bent down to pick it up and as I was coming back up met my mums head as she bent down - she has a hard head like mine, unconscious no, sore head and woozy - yes. then the time I cant remember when I had a bike accident, but I cant remember from about 5 seconds before I hit - until I was rolling down the road seeing sky and road, but I think that was my brain shutting out memories it didnt want me to remember.