One year we made a great big beautiful slide - the ice was like glass - and we played on it all day.
We used to have to make our own amusements. Do you remember skipping? We got our skipping ropes from orange boxes and knotted them together. Sometimes we’d use the same ropes to swing from the lamp posts. If it was snowing, we’d go out and make a slide. I was really good at sliding – better than the boys. I remember one year we made a great big beautiful slide – the ice was like glass. All the kids from far and near came, and we played on it all day. We didn’t want to leave it at bedtime.
The next day, everyone rushed out to play again, but the slide was ruined. One of the neighbours had been out and put salt on it, because she said it was dangerous.
That same neighbour, Mrs Globe was always telling us off for making a noise. Now and then we’d get our own back. We’d knock at the door and run away. But she soon got wise to that. So we tied some black cotton to the knocker on her door and unwound it. We could keep rat-a-tatting – and they kept coming out. They never saw the cotton. We were round the corner!
We played ball as well; rounders when we got bigger. And we loved marbles; it was horrible when you lost your best marble.