Street Games From Another Time

Street  Games From Another Time

By Paul McCann

In another time that seems so distant now we used to play games of one kind or another around the streets. It was so innocent then the boys were hopping around on  pogo sticks  and the girls were swiftly jumping playing with their games of hopscotch on the pavements . Belfast children often run around the streets with their  hoops and cleeks , steering the bicycle wheel minus the tube and tyre with a bent  L-shaped piece of fence wire  . It was hard to do with the cleek bent in two and the  hoop running wild with no brakes but a Belfast child had a knack to keep it going around the neighbourhood . Guiders were made of a four foot plank of wood with a another two foot piece of wood up front attached with a bolt going through the plank allowing it become a T- Section that could swivel for steering with two pram wheels on each end and at the back was another two foot piece of wood that was fixed to the plank with pram wheels on  each end , The guider where fast and furious , and we raced down the hills with both feet off the ground when I was just a lad .

All of us were buck mad with our hoops and cleeks and guiders ,

Back in the days we played games on the street and made songs up in our head .We had d

so much innocent fun when we were young with our Tommy  guns and six shooters with their  deadly sounds and the barrels were out  fingers  .

We played cowboys and Indians . Little ones with imaginary minds  that played  in an enchanted land as we rode on invisible horses through the wild west and we never rested until the sun set .

We played ball games then Cribby and rounders , then as we got a little older we got more ladventurous and played run catch kiss and red rover . One two three red lights , thunder and lightning , queenio , leapfrog and off ground tig .

All the girls played ropes and skips and there were songs that were sung in tempo with the skipping such as "I’ll tell me Ma "and "My Aunt Jane" . There were so many rhymes and songs that echoed through the streets and yes , they were rare old times indeed   .

We played piggyback rides and pussy in the four corners , we played with marbles and jacks on the mucky ground and conkers and dabs while the girls spun around lampposts  with swing ropes  that were tied to the top of the post ..

The older boys played cards and other street gambling games like handball up against a gable wall on some spare ground . Then there were older men playing pitch and toss in the back entries or in the brickyard . Card schools were a plenty and many had won and lost small fortunes back in the day .

The peelers as they were called, would descend upon those games in their efforts to break up the illegal gambling . As a result, the men would all scatter in different directions and sometimes they would forget about the money that was left lying on the ground . So, there was always one man on standby at the toss whose job it was to pick up the money when the peelers came. They were the hard men handy with their fists who became local heroes around the district .

Every Sunday there was a football match and the people would gather to watch some of the greatest players who never got a break but could have played as professionals in the premier league . Those Sunday games always attracted huge crowds and the games were played from noon to nine thirty at night as people sat on the dump hills watching the talent of those on the pitch in a magic atmosphere .At any given moment a crowd could invade the pitch without a warning.

They were the games from another time  that always made us laugh at life and  people never forgot how to enjoy themselves . The strength of the people’s character crafted out a lifestyle where they could always wear a smile on their face no matter what .Everybody was happy with what they had .

The End