Favourite Games & Toys as a Kid

[lin]

Hey Lisa...do you ever remember the marbles being called allies (alley)? not sure how you spell that. So many little things that we used to do, and which amused us, not like todays kids.

Lin

[Lisa]

Hi Lin, Yes, I remember Marbles being called 'allies', I wonder why we called them that? We used to play on a coke croft at the back of the shops on Ashton New Road (where we held our bonfires). We used to lie down in all the dirt and play until you either won or lost all your allies. My knees were covered in coke indentations from lying there so long - but it never bothered me as long as I won all the marbles !!!! . I taught my daughter how to play years ago and I think I got just as much enjoyment out of it as she did. I even joined in the skipping games outside our home not so long ago and I wonder who got more excited, them or me ? Most of the children didnt know any of the skipping games and rhymes, but by the end of the day they knew them all. AND they were back knocking on the door the following day asking if I was coming out to play. I was in my 50's then so you're never too old to play.

[Lisa]

Hi Lin & Viv, I remember those triangle cardboard bangers. You got them free in your comic and it drove all the adults mad. We got a real kick out of doing it behind an adults back, watching them go white, then running for hell. In the heat of the summer my mum used to put her clothes horse outside on the pavement and cover it with a sheet so we could use it as a tent and hide from the heat of the day. She'd come out with a jug of lemonade (home made of course) and a biscuit; we'd stay inside our 'tent' until it was bedtime......

[Lisa]

Hi Lin & Viv, Do you remember the heavy snow falls and playing snowballs with your hands in socks and my fingers used to go white with cold but it never brought me inside......I used to make a slide down on of our streets in the ice and it must have been as long as the street. It worked best if you wore leather soles, for some reason, and I often had to get my dad to repair the holes in the soles of my boots. I remember one night being on my own as everyone had gone in to bed, and by the gaslight I slid down the slide until I perfected it from top to bottom without stopping. One miserable old woman came out after I'd gone home and poured salt on my slide but I was back the next day making another one right next to the one she'd destroyed.

[Lisa]

Dont remember those names Lin. Are they the names of the marbles?

lin said:

HEY LISA R.
IT'S BEEN DOING MY HEAD IN, THERE WAS THE WALLIE ONE THROWING MARBLES AGAINST THE WALL, AND THE NEAREST WINNING...BUT DO YOU ALSO REMEMBER KNUCKLER, BOBBYLONG, RINGIE AND BOTTLE WASHER?

LIN

[lin]

HI LISA R.
YES THEY ARE NAMES OF DIFFERENT GAMES OF MARBLES.

LIN

[lin]

I REMEMBER THE APPLES AND ORANGES TOMMY, ALSO GOT AN ASSORTMENT OF NUTS IN THE STOCKING...DON'T THINK KIDS WOULD THINK MUCH OF THAT THESE DAYS DO YOU?

LIN

[tony38337]

Hi All,

Marbles; I remember that collectively we called them allies, both the game and the objects, I remember the words "dobbers and bullseyes" but can't remember what they referred to. Living not too far from Mather & Platt I remember that someone introduced marble sized ball bearings into the game and they were quite desirable but that's about the limit of my memory of "allies"

Tony T

[lin]

HI TONY...I THINK I MENTIONED THAT I REMEMBER THEM ALSO BEING CALLED ALLIES, ALSO REMEMBER THE BALLBEARINGS....I DON'T THINK THEY HAVE MARBELS NOW DO THEY?
THEY MAY HAVE THEM BUT WHO BUYS THEM I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE YOU NEVER HEAR OF THEM BEING PLAYED.

LIN

[lin]

HI ALL, DOES ANYONE REMEMBER PLAYING CONKERS? SOAKING THEM IN VINEGAR TO MAKE THEM HARDER? BEING A BIT OF A TOMBOY I USED TO LOVE THEM, IN FACT I LIKED ALL THE BOYS GAMES BEST.

LIN

[Lisa]

Hi Tommy, Lin and I wanted to know the names of the marbles. We could remember DOBBERS but what are the names of the other marbles. Come on you men on the Chatline, surely you must all remember their names........

[Lisa]

Hi Lin, You can still buy marbles because I taught my daughter how to play and we used to go into Stockport every Saturday to buy more marbles to add to her (my) collection. There was a shop in St. Petergate called Galt Toys and they had a large selection of them. Wasnt it fortunate that I kept mine from all those years?

lin said:

HI TONY...I THINK I MENTIONED THAT I REMEMBER THEM ALSO BEING CALLED ALLIES, ALSO REMEMBER THE BALLBEARINGS....I DON'T THINK THEY HAVE MARBELS NOW DO THEY?
THEY MAY HAVE THEM BUT WHO BUYS THEM I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE YOU NEVER HEAR OF THEM BEING PLAYED.

LIN

[lin]

HI LISA..I HAVE SEEN THE MARBLES IN THE SHOPS BUT I'VE NEVER SEEN KIDS HERE PLAYING WITH THEM...I THINK YOUR COLLECTION MAY BE WORTH SOMETHING

LIN

[lin]

clancy said:

i used to play conkers sometimes it hurt when you missed and the conker or string hit and was caught in your fingers we would call the conker a (twoa) or a (threea) or how many the conker had beaten also played marbles there was a game we played that had a grid at the side of a house i think it used to be some kind of a vent we used to play with 2 when someone missed the other person won all the marbles that was in the grid or we found a hole and rolled the marble toward the hole to see who would win like Tony i remember the steel ones 2 i had my collection in a tin Tommy oxx

HI TOMMY,
AS I JUST SAID TO LISA, WE NEVER SEE KIDS DOWN HERE IN CORNWALL PLAYING WITH MARBLES, AND CONKERS ARE THE OTHER THING WE DON'T SEE DOWN HERE, I'M GUESSING THAT FROM WHAT LISA SAYS THEY MAY STILL PLAY THEM UP NORTH? I USED TO LOVE THEM.

LIN

[Lisa]

Hi Everyone, If anyone gets Saturday's Daily Mail they will see an excellent article in the magazine about games we played as children. Its called Boys Just Wanna Have Fun. I can now tell you about the game of MARBLES for those who dont get the newspaper. Called Marbles because the Romans used marble to play the game. FULKING was when you flicked the marble from a distance of 6ft from an outer circle into the inner circle to knock out your opponents marbles. The favoured marble was a TAW. Other marbles were known as ORDINARIES, OILIES, PETROLS, CHINAS and DOBBERS. They still play the game in the World Marbles Championship at Tinsley Green, West Sussex every year. The article also shows Go-Karting, Bows & Arrows, Conkers and Catapults, most of these games now banned in the name of Health and Safety !!! Tony, you'd love the picture of the go-karts exactly as you described them.