When it was too dark to play we sat and told ghost stories.
There were very few cars around in the 1920s. We only saw one now and again, maybe at a wedding and one or two of the doctors had a car but ours didn’t. He did his rounds on a bike, so therefore it was very safe to play in the streets. Skipping ropes were popular, also a top and whip and Diabalo.
When the nights grew darker and we couldn’t see to play, a few of us would sit on Mrs Chambers’ doorstep, (she had her own front door) and we would tell ghost stories. Our street was very eerie in the dark, lit only by two gas lamps; one at each end and they only shed a little pool of light at their bases. It was very scary. We would frighten ourselves so much we were terrified to move and if we heard footsteps, we would huddle together in case it was Jack the Ripper.
On this particular night my mother was leaning out of our upstairs window calling me to come in, but I couldn’t move for fear. I had only to cross the street to our door, but I couldn’t do it. Eventually my mother had to come down and drag me in, but you know we still liked to talk about ghosts and murder, we enjoyed scaring ourselves to death.