While kids still play outside, they don’t do so quite as much as previous generations. Between tablets, streaming services, YouTube, video games and all sorts of gadgets and toys, today’s kids have so many ways of keeping themselves entertained.
Those of us who were kids in decades gone by didn’t have the same experience. With a lack of technology, in some cases larger families and therefore less money for toys, we had to make our own fun.
And so we played outside with other kids living on the street/in the estate. It’s amazing how many hours could be filled playing games that didn’t require anything but swift feet, thick skin and occasionally a ball.
Read more: From Barry's to Polly Pineapples: the Northern Irish summers of our childhood
If you grew up in Belfast, you’ll likely remember playing some or all of the below games when you were younger. Be it on the road or on a green, playing these was how we spent our summers and after-school evenings.
Stop-start/command games
We had a good couple of games that were about bossing each other about... or watching each other like a hawk.
Mother, May I? and Simon Says were great ones to be made a fool out of with whatever actions the leader had you do. You felt like a right eejit whenever you jumped the gun only for someone to say “I didn’t say you may!”/“I didn’t say Simon says!”
Our games of Statues (or Red Light, Green Light ) weren’t quite as high-stakes as that in ‘Squid Game’, but they sure felt as intense. What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? gave us the best of both worlds as a sort of a crossover between Statues and Mother, May I?, but it was extra thrilling as you awaited the eventual answer of “dinner time!” and the chase that ensued.
Hiding/chasing games
Tip the Can/Kick the Can /whatever other name you know it by was Hide and Seek for elites. The sprint from the hiding spot you hadn’t been discovered in towards the ‘can’ (in most cases, a lamppost) was nothing short of exhilarating.
Nothing beat a game of Tag/Chasing/Chasies - or if you wanted to spice it up, Stuck in the Mud added another layer. Those ‘caught’ could stand with their legs open so someone else could crawl through and free them, so it was a little more co-dependent and a little less ‘every man for himself’ than general chasing.
Knick Knack/Knock Knock was also one to get your steps in as you’d boot it away to hide after knocking on whoever’s door. It could also be considered a chasing game, depending on whether or not you were caught red-handed and had an angry neighbour shouting after you.
Ball games
Ahh, the amount of fun that could be had with a ball. Penalties, Three and In, Headers, Volleys, Red A**e, Piggy in the Middle … the list goes on.
But the best by far was definitely Cribby/Curbsies/Curby . Whatever you called it, there was no greater satisfaction than hitting the ball off your opponent’s kerb and having it land at just the right angle to bounce back towards you.
Violent games
Where nearly every other game previously mentioned on this last was often played in school during PE or lunch break, some games were so injury-inducing that they ended up banned - as did their variations when we tried to find ourselves a loophole. That didn’t stop us from playing them in the streets, though, at least until someone started sobbing and went home to tell their ma.
British Bulldog and Red Rover are games that technically don’t require violence, but just often wound up that way. Between the charge from the players in both, the tackling from the bulldogs, and the attempts to separate the hand-holding chain in Red Rover, it’s no wonder schools didn’t want them played on their grounds.
Then there were those whose entire gameplay was based on suffering. Nothing quite drove home the difference between winning and losing like being the one to succeed in enacting violence vs. being the one on the receiving end of violence.
Knuckles was just about who could hurt who more by punching each other’s fists - with the first person to flinch the loser. This was made all the more bloody by slotting coins in between your fingers.
There was also a team game in which every member of one team was given a letter to keep to themselves. The other team’s objective was to hunt out each letter and put them together to spell out a word.
So how did they get the letters - through yes/no questions and a process of elimination, you ask? Nope, through beating the crap out of each member of the opposing team until they gave up their letter.
This game was known by a variety of names, such as Letter/Red Letter or Hunts . Others may know it by less PC names that referenced paramilitary violence.
What games did you play on the street when you were growing up in Belfast? Let us know in the comments below.
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