"Kick the Can" definitely survived into the 60s, as did my favourite, "Reelie Fo".

8=)

Wee John. ;o)

Hmmm did eh hae patients.........mibe less said the be''er. LOL ;o)

Wee John. ;o)

During the seevin weekies, we travelled south to stay with relatives who had emigrated to Leeds.   Tennis was a favourite there during Wimbeldon fortnight and cricket was played constantly, a religion in Yorkshire, whose God was Len Hutton, much as rugby and Gareth Edwards were in South Wales, where I went to Military College.

Can't recall playing these English games in Dundee either. The southern relatives had very English names, I thought, like Brenda, Eric and George. There was no Peem or Chick or Shug or Lizzy.

Travel does broaden one's outlook, however, and I became quite a respectable spin bowler, thank's to Uncle Des's coaching (a demi-god, an ex Paratrooper who gave me a few inches of parachute cord) and a knowledgable angler, thanks to Uncle Harry's tuition.   Even had my own fishing rod, no mean feat for a wee lad fae Dundee wi nae erse in 'ees breeks!

Somethings, would be plain awful;
Just to mention wid be unlawful.   LOL

:) Joie de vivre

:)

Wee John the name we yased for playing chestnuts wis just "chessies". Eh ken conkers wis the proper name for but always eh associate that wi' the likes uv Billy Bunter and Just William as being the English version.

And "spammy" wis that no "spangy" maybe derived fae the word "span". The air raid shelters were aboot ten feet aff the ground and feve feet apert so it was safer tae spangy across rither than jump unless you were a dare devil like some were.

Do you remember the underground air raid shelters in the Blue Mountains similar to the bunkers you see in pictures of the Maginot Line.   The entrances were just like the conning tower of a U-Boat and we yased to lie up there pretending to torpedo the tram cars going up the Blackie.

Then there wir cigarette cards depicting every subject under the sun, movie stars, famous buildings, military uniforms, politicians, anything you cud think of.   

They came in sets of 50 and we used to swap them with each other until we got a full set.   Same with stamps, everybody collected stamps and we would pass our albums rounds swapping two Southern Rhodesians for three Australians or New Zealanders. It was very educational too.

Speaking of boabies there was a polis box on the Blackie on the corner of Ure St. that had a wee boalie that contained some kind of communication device that presumably connected it to Bell Street.

You could open the door of the boalie and leave a message.

Hooever was at the ither end must have gotten affy seek of hearing kid's voices reporting;

"Calling all cars, calling all cars, Hitler's lost a pair of drahwers".

:)

8=)

cheers Scotty

8=)

Anywey eh wis curious so eh consulted meh Dundee Dictionary, "Wironwirown" beh the late George McLaren, and he lists "spangie" between slop and spulters as a "jump landing hands first".

Doon's probably right though, these words evolve ower time; before the ither day eh hidna yased the word spangie, for aboot sixty-feve years.

Eh suppose thir's nothing worth spangieing on anywey since they puhled the air raid shelters doon.

cheers, dave.   

Then there wiz chainy tig. If ye got tigged ye had tae hid hands an form a chain an try to tig other fowk. we wid hae a line o' 10 tae 12 people huddin hands an chasin abody tae tig them but when the chain got that lang it wiz next ti' impossible tae catch anbody.

Finally wot abooot the fore-runner o' the skateboard. Ye wid git yer dandy or beano book, (it hid tae be a hard back) then ye wid lay it on a roller skate and scream down the brae on a deadly luge type ride.

Or iz it jist my imagination.... wiz it only me?????

Now they were made in Japan and I passed comment on the name on the bag, and he gave me a lecture on the subject said the best ones were made in Montrose, made of marble and ground in water baths.
I never had money to buy marbles , just used steelies. great for the catapult as well as playing the game.
My grandfather called the boools.

and another question has any body written down the rules of the game ?? would love to teach my grand kids , but do it properly .

cheers Scotty

A gunney Bale buckle was fround upon because of the big hole.

A filer was to be envied because of the friction grip and   ???????

LETS GO !!!!!!!

Nobody has mentioned "Geordies", that was when you were particularly far from the player you were trying to hit you could call out 3 Geordies and be able to take three giant steps towards your target. It could of course be 1,2 or 3 depending on your estimate of how far you had to go to be within striking distance of your target.

All this was of course only allowed if the opposition had not called out "Nae Geordies" when they saw your predicament.

Just wondered if the term Geordie came from the policeman nicknamed "Big Geordie" who made sure you behaved yourself when he was in the vicinity. Anybody have a theory on this?

http://www.streetgames.co.uk/Pinner.html

from which we get...

"The object was for each player to score points by throwing their pinner onto an agreed manhole or solid drain cover or 'cundy' as they were called locally. When the first child got his pinner on the 'cundy' he could score more points by hitting his opponents pinner with his own. At this point it was a race of words between the players to see how hard or easy this task could be made for each other. The word calls I remember 'in Dundeneese' included; CHAPPY (bend down and chap or touch your opponents pinner with yours) DRAPPT ( try to drop your pinner from a hight to touch your opponents), STANNY HARD BANGIE (stand up straight and hurl your pinner hard at your opponents), BLINDY (do it with you eyes closed) I am sure there are others which I no longer remember.

If the game was played by more than two players, the first player to have is pinner 'chapped' was out and so on until only one player was left to become the winner

The game was usually played in the school playground (if not banned) or in the street, e.g. when walking home. Each player possessed a 'pinner', a flat piece of metal, about 2-3cm squarish. Perhaps the most valued version (a 'filie') was a piece cut from a metal file. After some preliminary ritual, a playing order was established, as well as a set of current, local rules. (See later.)

The basic prinicple was to take it in turns to throw your pinner towards a nominated drain cover, the 'killer cundie'. ('Cundie' is believed to be derived from the French 'conduit'). The first person to reach this cundie became 'killer' and tried to hit the other players' pinners. Once hit, you were out of the game for that session. A killer could lose his status if someone else could land on the killer cundie, thus becoming killer in turn.

That is the basic game as remembered, but it could be elaborated by additions which were either shouted at the beginning of the game or at certain points within the game. These were either positive or negative and the one who was acknowledged as shouting first won the rule. Examples included:

(Nae) steppie-tappie: (No)taking one half step forward and bending to tap another's pinner, rather than having to hit it with a throw.

Stannie-hard-bangie: killer must not step (see above) and must throw the pinner down as hard as possible at the other one, thus increasing likelihood of a miss.

Nae cleech, nae cleech, nae cundie cleesh: players under attack could not seek refuge by landing on an (unkiller)cundie."

No reflection on you Sailor, your just daein your best ana.

Was there any place else that pinner was played or was it just around the Dundee Angus area ???

There in a game called TEXAS WASHER GAME

this has much the same objects as pinner but apparently came into the USA 1927. and drifted south to texas in the 30's .

To me it looked like a misinterpretation of pinner played with steel washers ; and a bit like pitch and toss ,
as if somebody just did not get either correct.

But as you now say " In your neck of the woods " it was the name. just where was your neck of the woods ??

I saw a very small video clip of kids playing this " Texas Washer Game " and it got me interested in the history of these games in general.

entered the game of pinner.

and I agree with him that that was what I used when I played the gameof pinner.

But   here we have Baxter park who knew the game as "KILLER " and some where in my memory I have heard it called that as well.
Hence my question to Baxter Park; where or in what area of Dundee was that the name used ?

Stot, stot, ba, ba
twinty lassies on the La
No a lad among them a'
stot, stot, ba, ba.

or

one two three a'leary
I saw missis Peary
sittin on her bumbaleerie
Eatin chocolate soldiers

Ann Street and Cotton road area used Pinner.
So it might just be a district thing or maybe a school district thing.

anybody elses district welcome.

Findin this thread really interestin.

Wee John. ;o)

Speaking of the lassies they seemed to spend maist of their time ootside skipping, accompanying themselves from their large repertoire of naughty sangs. .

"Meh lad's a kiltie, a kiltie, a kiltie,
Meh lad's a kiltie, he wears a cockatoo,
Oh, the wind blew up he's kiltie, he's kiltie, he's kiltie,
The wind blew up he's kiltie and showed he's cockatoo"!

(I think a cockatoo was the local name for a glengary).

Fur whut it's worth did you ken there was a World War II era American destroyer crehed USS Kilty?

Cheers, dave

I thought the "cockatoo" referred to the red hackle on the Watch bonnets.   The kilty's tartan would, of course, be Black Watch.

The ship served with distinction at Guadalcanal and various battles in the Pacific during the Second World War.

Speaking of kilties put me in mind of a story an old aunty of mine told me many moons ago. When she was just a little girl of 3 or 4 an uncle of hers had run away from the Army, and was laying low. This must have been before the Boer War because she was born in 1893.

A couple of boabies came to the door looking for him and everyone swore they hadn't seen him, had no idea where he was, until my aunty piped up, "there's a kiltie under the bed"!

So her uncle got dragged away to the glasshouse and she got a hammering for not keeping her mouth shut.