We used to play all sorts of games as children. One such item was a “booly”. It was simply a circle of metal and you had a little stick and we used to bowl this hoop along the roads.

We also played a lot of marbles. We used to dig a hole in the ground and you would stand or kneel a certain distance from the hole and you would bowl your big marble, I think they were called “Alleys” and try to knock the smaller marbles into the hole.

I also had a doll until I was 12 years old. It was a beauty. It had the most beautiful face made out of china. I always took this doll in a pram and my brother used to get so mad. He was a short-tempered child and one night he was in a thoroughly bad temper and he got hold of the doll and smashed it on the road. I cried for weeks.

We used to skip a lot both at home and school. We had songs when we skipped and I can remember one. I don’t know how we skipped to this but I know we used to say it.

I dreamt a dream the other night, the dream was really mine

That I was washed instead of clothes and hung upon the line.

The washer lady took me up, she had two monster pegs

And when she’d rung me out like this, she hung me by the legs

I shan’t forget the awful fear of flapping in the air

And what was more and was not least, that no-one seemed to care.

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