Remember the good old game of Hop Scotch or the adrenaline rush from British Bulldog? This week's podcast is a heartfelt journey back to the playground or schoolyard, where the simple joys of childhood games unfold through my treasured recollections. Realising that I may no have been playing all to the actual rules!
As I sit in a hotel room in Bedfordshire, the ambiance is a blend of strange and familiar—much like the games of yesteryear. In this episode, I talk about how nostalgia for these timeless activities fills the air, inviting you to share your own playground sagas.
I take a nostalgic look at the pastimes that peppered our school breaks [recesses] and ponder if these games would still resonate with the digital generation. From the strategic steps in Hop Scotch to the suspenseful chases in "What Time is it, Mr. Wolf?," I recount the stories and lessons these games embedded in us.
Plus, I share my gratitude for the warm reception our video podcast with Dex received and hint at the exciting visual content brewing on the horizon, inspired by your feedback.
Plus, I mention the possibility of supporting the show but I emphasise the power of a simple comment, like and share.
Remember the good old game of Hop Scotch or the adrenaline rush from British Bulldog? This week's podcast is a heartfelt journey back to the playground or schoolyard, where the simple joys of childhood games unfold through my treasured recollections. Realising that I may no have been playing all to the actual rules!
As I sit in a hotel room in Bedfordshire, the ambiance is a blend of strange and familiar—much like the games of yesteryear. In this episode, I talk about how nostalgia for these timeless activities fills the air, inviting you to share your own playground sagas.
I take a nostalgic look at the pastimes that peppered our school breaks [recesses] and ponder if these games would still resonate with the digital generation. From the strategic steps in Hop Scotch to the suspenseful chases in "What Time is it, Mr. Wolf?," I recount the stories and lessons these games embedded in us.
Plus, I share my gratitude for the warm reception our video podcast with Dex received and hint at the exciting visual content brewing on the horizon, inspired by your feedback.
Plus, I mention the possibility of supporting the show but I emphasise the power of a simple comment, like and share.
Hello, welcome to Infinite Prattle. Today's, coming from the location in a hotel room, I've not done this in a while, probably like over a year ago. Since I did this, we're close to the start of the uh, the Steven speak era, um, so, yeah, welcome to Infinite Prattle, and today's episode is going to be about um, childhood, um, playground games, basically, um, yeah, let's, let's talk about that.
Stephen:
You're listening to Infinite Prattle with your host, steven. Thanks for joining me for unscripted, unedited everything.
Stephen:
Okay, thank you very much for joining me. Um, I'm sorry about the audio in this one because I'm in a hotel room and I'm using some portable equipment, so I hope it's okay for you. Um, before we get into like playground games, just want to say thank you very much for the reaction to the video podcast last week with Dex. Um, really good. Uh, I'm not breaking any records on YouTube, but it's the highest downloads that I've had on a YouTube video, so I'm really pleased that you know people um swapped over and went and looked at and let me know if you want to see more videos. There's another episode of Dex coming out and I plan to record a couple more guest episodes as videos, and we're just intrigued to see whether you guys would want to see my mug on a solo. Um, so, like, this one could have been a video. Would you like that? I'd love the feedback.
Stephen:
Um, I realized the other day that I like interaction when I talk, so it's probably the worst media for me to use, so I think recording a video might give me some to interact with. I've said this before, haven't I? So, yeah, just let me know. Um, add a couple of comments on. Well, add a comment on um Instagram and add a comment on YouTube. So it's just nice to have someone that listens to the show, uh, give some feedback. So thank you very much, mike on on YouTube, um, for for giving that feedback. I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoy the audio ones as much as the video. Anyway, thank you for that. Oh, don't forget to subscribe and like and comment and share, and please share, because that's that's how I'm going to get more listeners. And they always say I don't do it for the listeners, but it's nice to you know, it'd be nice if them listens went up at the same time you know, um, anyway, yeah, childhood games I was.
Stephen:
I was a little watching something the other week and it had, uh, like kids playing like old school games I don't even know what it was now. They were like playing tag and stuff like that and it just got me thinking, like you know, the games I mean I'm 40 this year, I was 40 last year, I'm 41 this year, christ, um, and it just got me thinking about the games that, like you know, I used to play when, when I was at school, and and the things that the kids still play them. It kind of got me thinking that really, but I was, I was just thinking about um, um, yeah, just the ones that I used to play and the games that I really really enjoyed as a kid. So I'm going to just chat about that, basically, um, so, yeah, I got a list up of, of, of, of, googled a bit. I've actually done somewhat some sort of research on this. So I, I did a little bit of research and I discovered, um, well, I'll say, discovered I. I looked at Is this still recording? Oh, I think it is. I thought it had gone off for a second there and I discovered like a list of things on. I think it's picking up me on the phone. I've got my phone next to me to look at the internet and I think it's picking me up. Anyway, I'll carry on. Stupid stupid phone signal. A list of basically childhood games that you can play and I just thought, well, let's chat through the ones that I used to play. I don't even recognise some of them, so the list is on heartcouk, which is a British radio station website. So some of them are quite basic really, but some of them I used to play and remember, and I don't know whether I was playing them correctly, to be honest, especially one of them, I don't think I knew the rules too, and I've read the rules and, yeah, I probably wasn't playing it correctly, so we've got.
Stephen:
Number one is skipping, which, when I'm thinking about kids games that you play, you know, play, you play. You're like, yes, skipping was one of them, and I don't know whether this was in all schools, but when I was at primary school which was like At the age up to 10 or 11, isn't it? And younger, when I was in, like Like you know, infant school and reception and all that Like they used to bring like a box of toys out. I don't know if that's a thing that exists in other countries maybe, but they used to bring like a box with. You know skipping roads and balls, and you know different types of balls as well as the ones you can play catch with, and I think these ones I think this list is a bigger range from like young to a bit older, but the first one's skipping, which, yeah, boring but valid.
Stephen:
Now. The second one is hide and seek. Now, I mean I didn't really play hide and seek at school per se. I think that was more of a like maybe around the house or in a garden or out and about kind of situation. I remember playing hide and seek in my mate's garden. I mean my garden, because we started from what was really lucky. We had quite a big garden, so there was quite a few places to hide. Mum and dad didn't really like us playing hide and seek in the house, though, so I thought well what? Maybe they were afraid we were going to find toys or something near Christmas.
Stephen:
But the big one which you'll see kids playing now, I'm sure, is tag. Slash it. I don't like calling it. We used to call it tag at school, which is basically when you nominate someone to be on or the person that's got a tag people and they just have to run around and tag and once they've caught everyone, someone else gets nominated. Normally, I think the first person that was tagged gets. You know, you're the first person to get tagged, you're the one that's going to tag next.
Stephen:
But we used to play this in two different ways. There was one way that we used to play where the first person just had to tag everyone and when you got tagged you were out and you had to go and sit down. And then the second one was when you got tagged. You became on as well, you became it as well. So there was more and more people chasing people. I don't know if I have a preference to either of them, actually because I never liked getting caught, I never liked fast at running, but persistently. I always say to people I'm good over short distances, don't make me run persistently. Opskotch is. Oh, excuse me, I've had a long week.
Stephen:
It's a Friday evening.
Stephen:
Yeah, actually this is what I was going to do. Actually in my new episodes I was going to actually tell people what date it was. So, yeah, it's the first of March. Today I'm recording this for the third of March episode. Yeah, I'm just had a shattering week Very, very busy at work at the moment and had to travel on a train and everything. Anyway, I digress, Excuse me yawning. I feel now I've done one, I can't think stop thinking about it. I was gonna say another one's gonna come, but there was another one. Oh my gosh. Anyway, half the episode is gonna be me yawning. Yeah, so Hop Scotch is another one.
Stephen:
I never really understood Hop Scotch. I remember playing it when I was a kid and then one of my friends it was a girl showed me how to play it properly, where you throw stone onto one of the squares and you have to miss that going and then pick the stone up coming back. And I never knew that. I used to just Hop Scotch, you know, just one leg, two leg, one leg, two leg and just try and keep it within the lines. And it wasn't until she showed me and I'm presuming that's the way you play it. Let me know if it's not. That's how I know to play it anyway. Marbles. I never really played marbles properly, yeah, no.
Stephen:
The next one though I absolutely loved and I think this is where I'm.
Stephen:
This was probably the pre-curses to my love of American football. Years and years later. So I've never heard it called Red Rover, but I used to call it British Bulldog. Now, the idea of this was you'd nominate one or two people to be the Bulldog and then there'd be it works better with larger groups of people and then everyone would be stood on either one side or both sides of you and basically the idea was they had to keep getting across past you. So it worked well in a small playground where there was a safe zone on each side and you'd basically had to avoid getting tagged when you ran across. Yeah, really, really good game.
Stephen:
I was never saying never that good at it, because it's basically like the bleep test constantly, because you just constantly have to run back and forth. So I was always caught pretty quickly. I remember one distinct time where I was quite successful and lasted quite a long time and I was so proud of myself, so so proud of myself. Then I got down to like the second to last person, which never happened. I was quite chubby in school. I was like really skinny when I was a kid and then I got chubby and then when I was in a less school I got thin. So pretty much from primary school to leaving school I was like chunka, chunka-thun, chunka-thun. Well, that made me laugh so much.
Stephen:
Cats Cradle never really played that. That was the thing, the wool or the string around your fingers and you had to pass it between each other, wasn't it? I don't know, it was a girl game for me. Rounders, I mean, he used to play rounders. I feel like a baseball, isn't it? Rounders, less rules and lasts about five minutes.
Stephen:
At what time is it, mr Wolf? Now, I don't know if this is something that my international listeners have ever played. So, basically, one person gets nominated as the wolf, normally facing a wall, and there's a group of people behind and they have to keep in line. They start on a line, say like I don't know, like 10 meters behind you, and the wolf has to face the wall close in their eyes, and everyone says what time is it, mr Wolf? And the wolf will say it's three o'clock and everyone's allowed to walk a little bit. But then the wolf will turn around and if you're spotted, so you're out, and the idea is you've got to get as close to the wolf as possible, but at some point you could yell dinnertime. So you always got the kid that used to yell dinnertime straight away, which was well known. But when they said dinnertime, they had to run at you and then, if they grabbed you, you became the wolf Again. That's how I played it. So I heard loads of people listening to this saying Steve, you played all these childhood games completely wrong, but I enjoyed them. I enjoyed them. So number 12 is the one that I think I did get wrong. So I'll come back to that Piggy in the middle. He used to hate that. My dad and my brother and me used to play that, and I was always Piggy in the middle and I was short and I stayed in the middle for a long, long time. So I never really played that at school.
Stephen:
Stuck in the mud God, there's a blast from the past Now. Stuck in the mud is literally the same as tag, apart from you can reactivate the player, but the way we used to play at school, we used to play tag, where you had to go and sit out, a bit like British Bulldog. When you were tagged, you got to sit out. There was another form of British Bulldog, though, where you became a Bulldog as well, which made it really completely free for all and normally ended up in a fight. But tag stuck in the mud is basically like an advanced version of tag. So if you got tagged, you had to freeze and there was two ways we used to play Either put your arms out or you'd put your legs out. Teachers prefer you to put your arms out because especially kids don't care really. So the way you're meant to play is you're meant to open your legs when you get tagged, and anyone that hasn't already been tagged, if they crawl through your legs, it reactivates that player, which is ace, because it makes the game last longer.
Stephen:
So, but the teachers always wanted to play safe. They didn't want you crawling around on your hands and knees, ripping your trousers, ripping your tights, blah, blah, blah. So they usually put your arms out like a scarecrow and they had to duck under both their arms. So you'd have to go front ways and back ways. You had to pass under their arms twice, basically to reactivate them. But it was a cracking game that was. I used to love that and I think, because I like tag, it was a better version, because you and I think well, probably for me it was because I used to get tagged quite quickly because I was an easy target, so it meant that I could get reactivated. So have a bit longer in the game. Are you feeling sorry for me? Yet I was an intellectual, not an athlete. That's what I'm going to say An intellectual, not an athlete. Yes, yes, yeah, I'm in a silly mood today.
Stephen:
Jax, I've never really played. My mum tried to teach me how to play Jax. It's not really something I did at school. That's like with the marble and the little weird X cross, crossed like metal spikes, which are the Jax. Yeah, never really. It's like you have a ball. No, it's not a marble, it's a ball, isn't it? You have to bounce the ball and grab the grab as many Jax as you can off the ground. I don't really know, didn't really get it. Someone tried to show me. I don't think to this day I really understood what she was trying to tell me Double Dutch never done that. I don't even know what double Dutch is and I can't Google it because the noise is coming through this microphone something terrible for my phone. So Leapfrog did that. Never really liked it. Basically, any physical activity, cops and robbers Like just cops and robbers. You have to chase the robbers. Using your imagination, I don't know. 40, 40 in, have no idea, no idea what that is whatsoever. 40, 40 in God knows.
Stephen:
I have no idea what that is. Ringer Ringer Roses hated that. Hate the song move on. Terrible For anyone American, I presume Americans people know this. I don't know. Ringer Ringer Roses. I believe this was a rhyme that came from those are the Black Death. I may have made that up. I don't think I have, though. It came from some sort of disease back in the day, like hundreds of years ago, and this, Ringer Roses, it's basically a morbid tale of tuberculosis. I can't remember, I can't quite remember, but it's basically. It says Ringer Ringer Roses, a pocket full of poses, a tissue, a tissue. We all fall down, something like that.
Stephen:
Terrible, terrible, duck duck goose, duck duck goose. I was not bad at it as a kid because it involved quick reflexes and sprinting, and both of them I was pretty good at as a child. So duck duck goose, I believe, was the thing where you all sat round in a circle, one person was nominated and they just went duck duck. They had to tap you on the head as they walked past you. I think everyone had to close their eyes, apart from the person doing the tapping. So they'd go duck duck, duck duck, and as soon as they said goose, they started running and you had to jump up and raft them and if you could tag them before they got back to your space, they remained as the person going around the outside, I don't know and you basically were victorious. Again, that's how we used to play it. I was actually not too bad at that because I was pretty good at reflexes and I was actually good at catching the person as well. So, yes, the floor is lava. I used to play it. Let me live in my room, my brother. We used to pretend the floor was lava and put pillars on the floor and, like, make stepping stones and such things.
Stephen:
Pogs were massive. When I was a kid, like I went to high school, so like a school that you go to from like 12 to like 16, like college age. I think it's called high school in America, isn't it? And Pogs were them little cardboard circles and you had the little smashy one, the thicker plastic ones, and you had to smash them and whatever flipped over you got to keep. It was basically gambling for kids, let's face it, and you could trade them and such things or you could play mates for them and you got to keep stuff. They were a bit of menace actually, back in the day they were quite popular for me, for my generation I think, like 96, 97, something like that. I don't want to say how long ago that was. It's terrifying Wink murder Now.
Stephen:
I remember playing that with my brother and some of our friends and I can't remember how it went. Was it just you had to try and guess who was murdering people when you got winked at? I can't remember. We used to also play Postman's Knock, which is not on here, but all I remember Postman's Knock being is someone knocking on a door and snogging in a cupboard. Maybe that was just the way I played it. I don't know.
Stephen:
You'll find out in a minute that another game I used to play wrong, I'm about to take beanbag toss. Throwing a beanbag, ah, thumb War. Now, thumb War was amazing. This is something we used to do I presume this is like an international thing but you'd kind of grip with your fingers with the person and you'd kind of like hop, scotch your thumbs over each other and say one, two, three, four, I declare Thumb War. And then the idea was to pin the other person's thumb down and then you had to say one, two, three, four, I've won the Thumb War. And if you could say all that while pinning them, you won.
Stephen:
I used to play with my brother all the time. He used to win. He used to cheat, but it was great when I got a bit older and actually defeated him. So you know, victory, victory was mine eventually, but then he stopped playing after that. You know, as soon as I started beating him things, you know you don't want to play. Yeah, wink Murder, wrestling is obviously on there.
Stephen:
When I was a kid infant school so like pre-10 years old, no, pre well, probably about six or seven actually. Yeah, my friend was mad into WWF as it was at the time, and we used to like pretend wrestlers at school and stuff but teachers were hot on Like if they saw you doing any headlocks or anything like that, they would throw it over to you and I was quite a goody two shoes at school and he was quite naughty. I think that's why I liked him. We were kind of chalk and cheese but we were like the bestest friends anyone could have. There's a song in there and, yeah, we used to play wrestling and I never, really I never had a skyrocket, but he did. He used to watch wrestling all the time, so I loved going out into his house because we'd watch wrestling together and he had those other figures and stuff. And I didn't just because we didn't have it. And my mum I don't think my mum wanted to promote that violence, because I get quite carried away with things and I think she was scared that I would actually kill myself.
Stephen:
But the last one that I'll come back to is Kiss Chase. Now, kiss Chase apparently I googled this is like tag, but instead of touching them you kiss the person. See the way I played Kiss Chase. I just I didn't chase any of the boys because I didn't want to kiss the boys. But I always made sure that when we, if anyone, suggested Kiss Chase, I used to go around the playground and only choose girls, and only choose the pretty girls, and then I used to literally chase after them all and kiss them all. Basically and I was the only one at work that would either.
Stephen:
I was quite Pest when I was a kid. If I fancied someone when I was a kid, I used to try and kiss them and I remember several times at several birthday parties, kissing girls and making them cry. So yeah, I think we're gonna end it there. That was a weird episode. But what games did you play? You know what the games did you. What was your favourite game? I think my favourite game, apart from Kiss Jays, was probably British Bulldog, even though I was absolutely terrible at it, and stuck in the mud Again, even though I was absolutely terrible at it. Yeah, what games did you play?
Stephen:
Are there any?
Stephen:
games I've not mentioned. Or was there a game that I've been playing incorrectly as a child? I was gonna say a game like now, but I don't play them now. Obviously that would be strange. But yeah, thank you very much for listening. It's been a strange episode. I'm in a strange mood. I'm in a strange place, in a hotel in Bedfordshire. Bedford Is it in Bedfordshire? I would presume so Bedford would be in Bedfordshire. Hmm, now I'm gonna look stupid. Anyway, thank you very much for listening. If you want to support the show, you can subscribe and pay a small amount a month to support the show. There's no obligation to. I would prefer you just click a like button and share it with your friends. But yeah, until next week, which will be another decks episode, another visual episode. So until then, speak to you soon.
