School Holiday-The Old Days

thebaileys

Was just reading one of the other threads about Frugal School Holidays, it got me thinking about school holidays when I was younger, with not much money.

I can never ever remember being bored, just wanted to share a few memories, and wondered if anyone wanted to share there's too-

Making topsoil, in the garden with a plastic sieve, and trying to sell it-and wondering why no one wanted to buy it!

Making 'perfume' with old pop bottles and rose petals-urrggh the earwigs!!!

Tie-Dyeing T-shirts!

My Gran making fried chips for all the kids in the street and putting them in a brown paper bag.

Making bow and arrows with sticks.

Putting a tin can in the wheel of my bike and pretending I was on a motorbike.

Making Dens.

Good Memories!:j

threemuttleys

My sis and I had a wendy house each, and we used to play "mums" popping round each others for a cup of tea (the tea was mushed up berries from around the garden with water added!)

Used to spend hours on our bikes, climbing trees, looking for worms/slugs/snails/frogs/newts

3v3

~Climbing trees to see who could get the furthest.
~Making rabbit snares and setting them up in the woods (never caught anything, but it was fun for us, anticipating!)
~Using pegs to clips strips of cardboard onto the spokes of the bike wheels to make a clickety-clickety sound.
~Playing: 52 Bunker/Port n Starboard/Hide and seek
~Skipping/roller skating/playing "2-ball" against the wall
~Scrumping
~"Camping" (aka taking a can of beans and a can opener and going to the woods and eating them cold)
~Catching bees in a jam-jar that were gathering around the fruit bushes in the garden
~Going to the swings
~Swimming in the local (shallow) river
~swapping beads
~blackberrying
~knock-out ginger (poor neighbours )
~playing "chicken" with a penknife
~footie
~kiss chase
~Saturday morning pictures
~asking neighbours if we could take their dog for a walk (small fee)
~rounders
~ french cricket

(I'm worn out now! :rotfl:)

SandC

I can actually remember being bored. Me and a friend spent most of one summer aimlessly walking the lanes.

Many a summer morning was spent sunbathing and listening to the Radio One roadshow. According to a british weather prog I watched last week (next one tonight BBC1) though, we had almost as much rain back then as we do now - I must've blocked the rainy days out!

Before teens I remember we had a playscheme most days for stuff to do.

Actually most of it as I recall was aimless wanderings....

The boys were far better at creating things to do.

make_me_wise

My brother and I were never bored either. Our house backed onto a wood. All the kids down our street use to go out there for the day with packed lunches. We took blankets to make tents between the branches. It was heavenly.

I remember lots of tennis matches and football matches being played up and down the road. Our neighbours were very patient about balls going into their gardens. We must have got on their nerves.

There was a stream in the village and my cousins and I would head off for the morning with fishing rods and buckets to see what we could catch. I remember one of my cousins falling in and squelching back home to my mum moaning and groaning.

I made perfume with rose petals too.

My mum use to buy the beatrix potter plastercast sets which we made and then painted.

We had a big garden and a tall blue slide. On hot days dad use to put some plasterboard on the end of the slide and a hose up the top. Brilliant fun.

We would go up to Epsom Downs and fly kites. I use to love going for long walks over Headley Heath or running round like a thing possessed at Oxshot Sandpits.

Trips to the seaside were a special treat. As were sleepovers at my nan and grandads. Most of what we did was free and I have the fondest memories of those times. Six weeks seemed to go on forever then, it flys by now.

flippin36

Making dens
Playing by the stream
Blackberry picking
Making things out of left over wood in the garage
Riding my old bike for miles
Rollerskating on the pavement
I remember doing a lot of digging in the garden, making big holes and marble pits
Playing tennis across the road!! (too much traffic now)

justmel

I remember making the perfume with the rose petals too,we as a family didn't have a lot of money but i don't really remember being bored that much either.

I was quite lucky though,the row of houses we lived in backed onto a huge park,you literally walked out of the back garden and you were in it so i was always there with the other kids from the neighbourhood,we spent hours playing there and having picnics.

Every summer the fair would come and set up there for a week,it was so exciting for us and we all had a good time there for no more than about £2 although i admit you could do more with £2 in the 80's than you can now lol.

We also used to get the sports for all group come to the park,they set up loads of free activities and you only paid for refreshments so that was fun.

As i got into my early teens those things had stopped and we moved too but i had a friend whose mum worked at the local leisure centre and we had unlimited free swimming,i really cannot thank that friend enough because we had so much fun there.

I only ever had two holidays as a child,my eldest brother is 20 years older than me and when i was 13-14 he would book a Haven holiday and i was invited to help his wife with my neices and babysit for 2 nights of the week so they could go out alone together,they were planning Spain for the following year but sadly split up.

Even when there was really nothing to do we would find something,we mostly used to walk for miles right up into the hills and then wish we hadn't when we realised we had to walk all the way back :rotfl::rotfl:

sock-knitter

we used to make 'perfume' from rose pettles too, made dens, made tents from blankets just thrown over the washing line, then stones to hold the corners down, played rounders and cricket in the street and also rode our bikes for miles
once a week we would bake with my mum, and as a treat lick the spoon afterwards. we always had one day trip to the coast too for a special treat. the local park was a good walk, and we'd take a picnic including bread for the ducks

zaksmum

My little sister got hold of a load of those cocktail sticks with little paper flags on, and spent many a happy hour seeking out the dog poo in the area and sticking the flags in it all...!

This was, of course, long before the days of actually picking up after your dog!

moomoomama27

As children we spent most of our time riding bikes, playing on the beach, blackberry picking, making cakes and using our imagination! Hardly any money was spent, maybe an odd bag of chips or an ice cream, yet we had terrifc fun, were hardly ever bored, used up our energy and have wonderful memories!

Sometimes (alot of the time!), I despair of the sort of childhood many children are getting, where they have electronic babysitters, hardly any fresh air and no motivation! I wonder how many happy memories some kids will have being bundled alomst 24/7 in their rooms with a dozen different gadgets!?

SailorSam

We'd go into town then go on the ferry.
Didn't have enough to go all the way to New Brighton so we'd get the ferry to Birkenhead and walk watching all the ships coming in and out.
Coming home we'd hide in the toilets on the ferry until the next lot of passengers got on, then we were able to keep going back and forth.
We' d get home about 10pm and get battered 'cos we'd been out since early morning.