A 1960s Childhood: From Thunderbirds to Beatlemania (Childhood Memories)
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This nurse’s uniform for young girls was typical of the merchandise that was sold following the success of Britain’s first hospital-based television drama series, Emergency Ward 10. It was advertised during the period leading up to Christmas 1962.
Five Stones (known to me as ‘Gobs’): This game was often played on doorsteps and involved five evenly sized small stones and one larger stone, with the player using just one hand. One person would play at a time by placing one of the small stones on the back of his or her hand and throwing it into the air, picking up the larger stone and catching the thrown stone on its way down. This was repeated, adding one small stone to the back of the hand at each throw until all five small stones had been thrown into the air and caught at the same time as picking up the large stone. Your turn ended if you dropped any of the stones or failed to pick up the large stone before the small stones were caught in the palm of your hand. In an alternative version, you would throw the five small stones onto the ground and place the large stone on the back of your hand. You would then throw the large stone in the air and pick up one small stone from the ground before catching the large stone on its way down. You would continue to pick up one stone at a time until you had all five small stones and the one large stone in the palm of your hand. This was called ‘onesies’. If you were successful then you would start again with five small stones on the ground, but this time pick up to two small stones at a time (called ‘twosies’). If you continued to be successful then you would then progress to ‘threesies’, ‘foursies’ and ‘fivesies’. You were allowed to throw the large stone up from the back of your hand and sweep the small stones on the ground together with your fingers, but if you used this tactic then you had to catch the large stone on the back of your hand in between each sweep.
French Skipping (also known as Elastics): This was a girl’s game, played using a very long piece of knicker elastic tied into a loop. Two or more girls would stand inside the loop of elastic, a few feet apart, with the elastic stretched around the outside of their ankles. The first player would then perform a series of skipping movements on, under and over the elastic. Both feet under the elastic, both feet on top of the elastic, one on top and one under, one on top and one under and then swap feet. The player would then move around one girl to the next section of elastic and repeat the skipping movement. The skips or jumps were often done in time to a skipping rhyme. If the player successfully completed a round of jumps without tripping over or making a mistake, then the elastic would be moved up to knee level (called ‘kneesies’), then thigh level (‘thigh-sies’), and then waist level (‘waist-sies’). The player would be out if she failed to do the correct jump, and then one of the others would come out from the elastic to have a go.
He, It, Tag, Tig, Tip: Known by various names, this was the simplest and most basic game of chase for a group of kids to play. The person chosen to be ‘it’ ran around trying to touch or ‘tag’ one of the others. When touched or tagged then that person became ‘it’ until he or she touched another player. You could avoid being ‘tagged’ by lifting your feet off the ground temporarily, by pulling yourself up onto a wall or a bar so that your feet dangled just above the ground. There were loads of optional rules for this game.
He Ball: Similar game to He, It, Tag, Tig and Tip, except with ‘He Ball’ the person that was ‘it’ chased the other players with a ball. If ‘it’ managed to throw the ball and hit a player then that player would become ‘it’.
Hopscotch: Usually played in the street. A set of eight or ten equal-sized joined-up squares was chalked onto the pavement in a hopscotch pattern and each square was then numbered. The first player would stand behind the starting line and toss a stone into square number ‘one’ and then hop over square ‘one’ and land in square ‘two’ on one leg, then continue hopping through the hopscotch, landing on one leg in single squares and two legs in double squares. At the end you would turn around and make your way back down through the hopscotch until you reached the square number ‘two’. You would then bend down and pick up the stone from square number ‘one’, hop into square ‘one’ and back to the start again. You then threw the stone into square number ‘two’ and repeated the hopping process as before, only this time hopping over square number ‘two’ as you made your way through the hopscotch. You repeated this through all the numbered squares, always hopping over the square with the stone in it. A player was deemed to be out if the stone failed to land within the lines of the correct square, he or she stepped into the square where the stone was, put two feet down in a single box, stepped on any of the chalked lines, or lost his or her balance while bending over to pick up the stone. If you managed to complete the whole hopscotch successfully then you hopped through the whole hopscotch again without a stone in any box, and out the top of the hopscotch to finish.
Hula hoop: The hula hoop craze hit Britain in 1958 with the arrival of the American Wham-O toy company’s lightweight tubular plastic hoop, made from a recently invented durable plastic, and called the hula hoop. However, the craze was short-lived and only lasted for a few months. But Wham-O relaunched the hula hoop in the late 1960s and it became popular again. The idea was that you twirled the hoop around your waist, limbs or neck for as long as possible, and you had competitions between friends to see who could keep it going for the longest time. It was most popular with the girls, and grownup women also enjoyed it as a way to keep fit. Boys were a bit too ‘cool’ to be seen gyrating their hips to keep a silly hoop in the air.
Jacks: This game was very similar to Five Stones except it was played using a small bouncy rubber ball or a table tennis ball, and between five and ten small stones. You would bounce the ball once and pick up stones, then catch the ball before it bounced again. As with Five Stones, you played ‘onesies’, ‘twosies’, ‘threesies’, ‘foursies’, ‘fivesies’, ‘sixies’ etc., but again, there were several versions to the game.
Knock Down Ginger: A game that was mainly played after dark and could get you into serious trouble with your mum and dad. In its simplest form, you knocked on street doors and ran away without being seen. Most people still had knockers on their street doors in the 1960s. More advanced players would quietly tie cotton to a street door knocker and then reel the cotton out to the other side of the street, where you would hide and then pull the cotton until it broke, thus lifting the knocker and dropping it back in place to create a loud knock on the door. Sometimes you would do three or four knockers at the same time, but that was risky because there was more of a chance that one of the victims might come out and chase after you.
Lolly Sticks: Played with a bunch of used flat wooden lolly sticks. The lolly sticks were held a few inches above the ground and dropped into a heap. You then picked up all of the sticks that weren’t touching any of the others and used one of these to move or flick each stick off the pile without moving any of the others. If you moved another stick while flicking then one of the other players started a new game. The winner was the player that had picked up the most sticks during their turn.
Marbles: There were many different versions of Marbles and usually the rules were agreed before the game started. In its simplest form, players took turns to roll or flick marbles at their opponents’ marbles and if they hit one then that marble became theirs. Sometimes the game was played within an agreed area or circle, in which case you had to flick your marbles from the edge of the circle without encroaching. The aim was to either hit one of your opponents’ marbles that had already been placed near to the centre of the circle at the start of the game, or to knock one of their marbles out of the circle. If you were successful then your ‘shooter’ marble remained where it had stopped in the circle and you could shoot again from that spot. If you were unsuccessful then the next player began his or her go from outside the circle. Loads of different versions and rules!
Popular children’s books from the 1960s.
These Jack and Jill storybook annuals were always popular with young children.
Run Outs: The person that was ‘it’ would close his or her eyes and count to an agreed number, usually between ten and one hundred, while the players ran and hid. ‘It’ would then go in search of the players and each one he or she found would join in to search for the remaining hidden players. The players could change their hiding place during the game as long as they weren’t seen by any of the searchers. The last player to be found would be the winner. Seekers would often call out the names of hidden players in the hope that they would answer, and sometimes they did!
Scissors, Paper, Stone: A simple game that was usually played to determine who was to go first in a game, or who was ‘it’, or who should do a dare. Best played with up to three people, but when played with more than two people there were lots of drawn games, which meant playing again. Being a very fast game, you sometimes played best of three. The players would form a circle and each player would hold out their arm and make a loose fist. You would then shake your fist up and down counting ‘one-two-three’ and on the downward stroke of ‘three’ you would open your fist to reveal either ‘scissors’ – two fingers open, ‘paper’ – flat open hand, or ‘stone’ – clenched fist. The winner would be determined as follows:
Scissors cuts paper – scissors wins
Paper wraps stone – paper wins
Stone blunts scissors – stone wins
Skipping (with rope): Very popular, mainly played by girls and usually done in time to a skipping rhyme. A skipping rope, often adapted from mum’s washing line, was never too far away to bring into use when someone suggested it. Girls would often skip alone, but it was best played as a group competition. Depending upon the number of players, the rope would be turned by one girl at either end, or one girl would turn the rope with the other end tied to a lamppost. The turners get the rope to slap the pavement in time to a skipping rhyme being chanted by the skippers. There were loads of rhymes with key words and phrases that prompted the skipper to do a trick in one turn of the rope; like jumping extra high with both feet together, hopping the rope very close to the ground, kicking one foot out, crossing and uncrossing feet and legs, and turning to face the other way. Boys were always fascinated by the skill of the girls and the tricks they could do. The skipper would run out from the turning rope, around one of the girls twirling it, and back in time to the beat of the skipping rope hitting the pavement. Certain phrases in the rhymes would invite other girls to join with, or to take over from, the skipper on the next turn of the rope. Double Dutch was really difficult, with two turning ropes for the skipper to negotiate. There were names for all the tricks, like Kick (kicking one foot out), Sizzler (crossing and uncrossing feet) and Split (opening legs wide apart). There were many skipping variations and so many rhymes, with several different versions adapted around the country.
Stamp collecting was a very popular children’s hobby, with plenty of letters and postcards dropping through the letterbox in those days, long before email and text messaging existed.
Georgie Porgie Puddin’ Pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
He kissed them once, then kissed them twice,
How many tears did they cry?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 …
(Count until someone messes up)
Cinderella dressed in Yellow
Went upstairs to kiss a fellow
Made a mistake and kissed a snake
How many doctors did it take?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 …
(Count until someone messes up)
I like coffee, I like tea, I want [name] to jump in with me!
Salt, Mustard, Vinegar, Pepper!
Tin Tan Tommy: Played with an old tin can. One person was chosen to be ‘it’ and a place was designated to be the ‘home’ point, where the tin can would sit while the game was played. To start the game, one of the players would throw the tin can as hard as he or she could, away from the ‘home’ point. Whoever was ‘it’ would chase after the can to retrieve it and return it to ‘home’. Meanwhile, all the others would run and hide. Once the can was back in place on the ‘home’ spot, the person who was ‘it’ would go and search for the other players. When one was discovered, ‘it’ would run back to the can and bash it up and down on the ground while shouting ‘Tin Tan Tommy, I see Mickey behind the wall’, or something similar. But if the discovered person could get back to the can and bash it on the ground before ‘it’, then he or she was ‘home’ and safe, otherwise that person became ‘it’ and another game began.
An advertisement for Meccano, every schoolboy’s favourite model construction kit, appeared in magazines leading up to Christmas 1964.
Two-Balls (juggling with tennis balls): A girls’ game that was usually played by juggling with two balls in the air or against a wall, but sometimes the girls would use three or four balls. It was a skill that was mastered by most girls at a very young age, and although boys admired the skills, they saw it as a girl’s game and usually steered clear of it. Playing two-balls was always done to the beat of a chanted rhyme. There were lots of tricks that were described with words like plainsy, upsy, over, dropsy, bouncy, legsy, twirly. Such words were inserted in the rhymes to indicate when to do a certain movement with a ball … One, two, three and PLAINSY; four, five, six and PLAINSY …
Over the garden wall
I let my baby sister fall;
My mother came out
And gave me a clout,
I told my mother
Not to boss me about;
She gave me another
To match the other,
Over the garden wall.
Juggling two-balls against the pavement was usually done to the rhyme One Two Three O’Leary.
Up the Wall: Usually played with cigarette cards or other collecting cards from packets of Barrett’s sweets or Brooke Bond Tea cards. Teenagers sometimes played it with coins (farthings, halfpennies and pennies). From an agreed spot, a few feet away from a wall, you would flick your card or coin forwards as accurately as possible. The player who got nearest the wall won and took all the cards or coins already along the ground.
What’s the Time Mr Wolf?: One person was chosen to be ‘it’ and a place was designated to be the ‘home’ point. The player who was ‘it’ was called Mr Wolf (sometimes Mr Fox or Mr Bear), and would either stand with his or her back to the other players or be walking slowly away from them. The players would slowly creep up on Mr Wolf chanting, ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’ The wolf would stop, turn around and reply, ‘It’s one o’clock’. The players would continue to ask, ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf?’ and the wolf would reply, ‘It’s two o’clock’, ‘three o’clock’, until eventually the wolf would reply, ‘It’s DINNERTIME!’ Mr Wolf would then chase the other players who had to return to the ‘home’ point without being caught. The first person to be caught became Mr Wolf.
Five
MUSIC, FASHION AND CINEMA
As a child of the sixties, you couldn’t understand why your mum wouldn’t let you choose all of your own clothes or let you have your hair cut like your favourite pop star. You will, at some time or other, have stood in front of the mirror miming to a pop record while using a hairbrush as your microph
one. You could never have imagined that the music you grew up with, and so proficiently mimed to all those years ago, would still be played on the radio in the next century, and that many of the 1960s icons that you once raved about would continue to be regularly pictured and reported on in the media for several decades to come. There are particular sounds and images that always fire up personal memories and remind you of certain times and events from your childhood; lots of these are common to us all and seem to epitomise life as it was back then. Seeing or hearing any of these immediately transports us back in time. Such things include the music of certain pop groups, like the Walker Brothers, anything sung by Donovan, old photographs of Twiggy or ‘The Shrimp’, the sight of an E-Type Jaguar out on the open road, images of the 1966 football World Cup final, a Mini Cooper ‘S’ with floral designed bodywork or the psychedelic paint job on an old Dormobile van. These are just a few of the countless things that can trigger memories and transport us back in time to a bygone age that seems like only yesterday.
What was so special about the 1960s? Well, there were so many new and exciting things happening all at once, particularly in the areas of popular music and fashion. You can’t help but remember how extraordinary it was to witness the scenes of fan hysteria that surrounded The Beatles when they first started to become famous. The amazing idolatry frenzy that they stirred up in their fans wherever they went became known as Beatlemania, and the four lads from Liverpool quickly became known as the ‘Fab Four’. Their music and persona gripped the imagination of an entire generation and they became one of the most important elements of the ‘swinging sixties’. Yes, The Beatles were big icons and an amazing phenomenon, significantly influencing world culture in that decade and for many decades thereafter. But the British cultural revolution was already well under way by the time The Beatles had their first hit record with Love Me Do in October 1962. Prior to that, The Beatles were known only to the local fans in their native Liverpool and to regulars at the Hamburg clubs that they had performed in. While The Beatles were still scratching a living in German nightclubs, several avant-garde British entrepreneurs and talented original artists were already well on course to help make the decade a very special one.