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We will never forget the games we played in the schoolyard as children. Which of these 16 have you all done?
1. Elastic Twist
In the spring in the schoolyard: a long elastic, two girls holding the elastic around their legs, the others made the most beautiful movements with it. When was the last time we did that? Far too long ago!
2. Bouncing balls
Kaatsenballen, who remembers? With two, three or even four balls. Against the wall of the house or in the schoolyard. Underhand, overhand or even under your legs. I myself (editor Lenny Langerveld) never learned it again, but my mother was the best, she easily kept four balls in the air and sang a song to it: Karel 1 broke his leg, Karel 2 swam in the sea , Karel 3… We watched breathlessly and with admiration. What a beautiful mother we had.
3. Stilt walking on tin cans
Stilt walking was fun, but hardly anyone had real stilts. So our mothers made up a ruse. My mother was very handy at it: she made stilts from two tin cans. Drill holes, thread through them and Kees was done. You fell through it pretty quickly, so you had to eat canned peas and beans again, for a new supply of tin cans.
4. Hooping with a stick
We didn’t need much to play. Our father made a hoop from an old bicycle wheel and with a stick we made the thing roll in all directions. Guaranteed fun. Have you done it yet?
5. Jump rope
You could only jump rope, but it was much more fun to jump in a long rope with as many girls as possible (or did the boys participate too?). We sang a nonsense rhyme to it: “In spin, the bend goes in, out squirts, the bend goes out”. Jump in and out with a running motion, or jump all together. Until the rope irrevocably hit someone’s legs. All over again!
6. Marbles
Make a pot first, then shoot your index finger behind your thumb. Whoever gets the last marble in the pot wins and gets to keep all the marbles. Your pockets were then packed with bangs, mega bangs and super bangs. Or you had to go home without all those fine marbles. Half crying and broke.
7. Click-clack balls
Click-clack balls were very popular in the 1970s. With a quick movement you caused the balls to bounce off each other, creating the click-clack sound. But it often went wrong, and then you were left with a very sore wrist. Why did we like them so much?
8. Shoot arrows
By blowing vigorously into a long PVC pipe, you shot paper arrows as far as possible. You turned the arrows from elongated strips of newspaper. You glued the tip with a little saliva. The arrow shooting was usually done illegally, because the teacher was not happy with it. Such an arrow could hit hard and cause considerable (eye) injury. Ouch!
9. Hopscotch
First draw a hopscotch in the street with chalk, which was divided into numbered sections. Then jump on one leg in the first box and hop to all the next boxes. A variant was: throw a stone and hop to the square where the stone was. Hopscotch was fun, but also a bit boring. You didn’t last very long.
10. Spinning
A wooden spinning top looked like some kind of mushroom. You wrapped a rope around the handle, set the top on the floor and yanked the rope. The toll then started spinning hard. If you were lucky, that is. Most of the time it failed, which it was really very difficult. Did you get the toll in motion?
11. Sidewalk Chalks
Chalkboard chalk is not new, we used to do it too. Especially to set out a hopscotch or to make beautiful drawings. We didn’t do ‘sidewalk chalk’ texts then.
12. Laying a handkerchief
“Put a tissue, don’t tell anyone / I’ve worked all day / I finished two pairs of shoes / One of cloth and one of leather / Here I lay my handkerchief.” Sit in the circle with your eyes closed. Quickly look back when the song stopped. Was the handkerchief with you? If that was the case, you had to try – choking with laughter – if you could tap the handkerchief holder. Usually that failed, and you were the loser yourself. Always exciting and always great fun.
13. Stand in the basket
We used to play on the square with the neighborhood children Stand in the basket. You only needed one ball and you threw it straight up while yelling: “Stand in the basket and the ball is for…Inge”. After that you all ran away, except Inge. He had to catch the ball. It was important to get as far as possible, because after that Inge had to try to hit you with the ball. It was an exciting and enjoyable ball game – even the little ones could join in – and it never got boring.
14. Skippyballs
One of the funniest fads ever: the skippy ball. A mega bouncing ball with a handle. You sat on it and made progress by jumping up and falling down again a short distance away. Like a kangaroo, so. The skippy balls were not cheap and not all children had one. The lucky ones with a skippy ball were your best friend in no time. Get away from the earth for a while. Magic.
15. Yo-yos
Today, yo-yos are made of plastic or metal in exciting prints and with lights. The youth do ‘tricks’ with it and the rope is now called string. But we do know better. Even our parents already had one. Two round wooden discs, with an axle in between. You wrapped a rope around it. Throwing down the yo-yo uncoiled the rope. An unforgettable feeling if you managed to pull up the yo-yo in the right way. A minimal recoil in your hand and off you go… the yo-yo rolled up again. moments of happiness.
16. Boxing Jump
You really didn’t need anything for boxing or leapfrogging. No ball, no goal post. Just a group of kids. Your classmates stood crouched in a row. You put your hands on the first back and jumped over it wide-legged. After the last one, you bent down and felt all those sweaty hands on your own back. Some of the girls were butterfly-light, but you could barely stand up when that one stout lad tried to hoist himself over you. His fingers digging into your skin. Ouch!
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