i was one of the last generation (80s kid here) of kids that got thrown outside in the morning if the weather was nice and told to go play with my friends till the sun goes down .. with a bite of food in-between. We played cricket with the lamppost in the cup - de -sac as the wicked ... Kerby... football. Hide and seek. or just anything that would keep us occupied.
Not too many fat kids where about back then from what i remember.
My average day at junior school was:
walk to school (only half a mile)
play cricket (bin for wicket) at first playtime
play football first half of lunch
play game that involved chucking a tennis ball over a telephone wire for second half of lunch
walk home
cycle to friends house
play cricket in the street (brick gatepost for wicket)
cycle home for tea
It is a surprise that I'm not very good at either cricket or football.
Anyway - it's more difficult today. My mum started work at half nine, and school was on her way to work, so she was able to walk us to school and still have time to cycle to work and be there on time. Many of the parents at my child's school are not able to drop their kids off at all, bit those that do often come in their cars because they have then to go straight to work - although there are also a fair number of bikes around.
Many of the school playing fields that were around when we were kids are now housing estates, so kids can't play football at school. The grass bit we used to play on at lunch is now more school buildings, foe example.
The cul de sac my mate lived on was great for cricket because until after 5pm there were no cars on it and no traffic. Most families had only one car, which was either somewhere else, or on the drive. I went down there for old times sake a few years ago and there are cars all over the place, parked with two wheels on the pavement down both sides - you could not play cricket there now.
Though not on that scale
