What we remember…………. Part 2

We all know that there are many many articles about how children nowadays spend too much time indoors or on the computer and how they rarely play outdoors anymore – many factors have played a part in that. BAND are quite a small staff team of varying ages and we all have different memories of play and what play means to us. So I thought that I would talk to the team and find out what they remember playing with or doing when they were younger……

Jenny (Young in the 70’s, freedom to roam in the 80’s)

I grew up in a suburb of North Bristol, living in a terrace of 3 houses in the middle of the High Street.  When I was too young to go out and about on my own, I used to play with my big brother (when he let me)! We would play cowboys and Indians or ‘forts’ from the top and bottom of the stairs. I spent a lot of time dancing, my favourite thing to do was dress up in hand me down party frocks and dance to Top of the Pops for my family – much to their intense enjoyment!

There were a large group of children who were of similar age and we all used to go to school and hang out in our free time together. Once old enough to take myself out and about we spent a lot of time in my best friend’s cul-de-sac playing hide and seek in the big pine trees and trying not to get caught by the adults as we weren’t supposed to climb the trees!  We also used to go down to the big field by the Portway and play softball, rounders and cricket, all followed by a sprint home so I wasn’t late and could go out again the next day!

Our favourite thing to do was to walk through Penpole Woods, past Kingsweston House and then onto Blaise Castle, once there we would eat the packet of crisps and bottle of squash we’d taken, play on the really tall slide that used to be there, go for a paddle in the pool that used to be there and then catch the bus home, if we hadn’t spent the money on ice cream!

Tell us here at BAND what you remember doing…we’d love to hear from you!

ellie@bandltd.org.uk