Growing up in Edinburgh in the 1970s our main school playground was a slope of rough tarmac with a flat, smooth area at the front of the Victorian building reserved for infants ( under 8s). There were various boiler rooms and outbuildings with narrow spaces where children loved to squeeze in for games of hide and seek, or bullying and ex…
Growing up in Edinburgh in the 1970s our main school playground was a slope of rough tarmac with a flat, smooth area at the front of the Victorian building reserved for infants ( under 8s). There were various boiler rooms and outbuildings with narrow spaces where children loved to squeeze in for games of hide and seek, or bullying and extortion of dinner money. Fights were fairly common and children would stand in a circle, chanting “fight” until the janny appeared in his brown dust jacket to break it up.
In winter we made slides down the rough hill and if you slipped, the tarmac would rip your flesh so there would be another visit to the janny for some yellow cream and a plaster. There were also games of British Bulldog where long lines of over 50 players faced each other off and the object was to batter through each others’ line. This game was never banned in our school. Skipping was another popular game for girls but some boys too. Generally there would be two queues of players to “jump in” from either end to rhymes like
Granny’s in the kitchen doin some stitchin
In comes the bogeyman and out goes SHE!
At this point the cawers would whip up the pace of the ropes and shout
Salt, mustard, vinegar, PEPPER!
Whoever survived this was then Granny.
There was much less time for play at lunch than break, as our school dinners were served in sittings and if you were at second sitting much of the first half of lunch was spent in a queue.
Growing up in Edinburgh in the 1970s our main school playground was a slope of rough tarmac with a flat, smooth area at the front of the Victorian building reserved for infants ( under 8s). There were various boiler rooms and outbuildings with narrow spaces where children loved to squeeze in for games of hide and seek, or bullying and extortion of dinner money. Fights were fairly common and children would stand in a circle, chanting “fight” until the janny appeared in his brown dust jacket to break it up.
In winter we made slides down the rough hill and if you slipped, the tarmac would rip your flesh so there would be another visit to the janny for some yellow cream and a plaster. There were also games of British Bulldog where long lines of over 50 players faced each other off and the object was to batter through each others’ line. This game was never banned in our school. Skipping was another popular game for girls but some boys too. Generally there would be two queues of players to “jump in” from either end to rhymes like
Granny’s in the kitchen doin some stitchin
In comes the bogeyman and out goes SHE!
At this point the cawers would whip up the pace of the ropes and shout
Salt, mustard, vinegar, PEPPER!
Whoever survived this was then Granny.
There was much less time for play at lunch than break, as our school dinners were served in sittings and if you were at second sitting much of the first half of lunch was spent in a queue.
hahaha fellow 70s kid and you've just reminded me of my similar experience in Aberdeen Scotland. Laughing at 'janny'