Toys of your youth

[Randomnerd]

no, we had the real thing... and its still there today

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Played on that a few times. Dullest, weirdest way to have fun, but strangely English and quite kitsch. Dreary

 

[Mrs M]

"Rocking horse" is such a gentle name. How misleading.
Evil nags!!


I assumed they'd all vanished years ago - I certainly never saw any during the years I took my children to playgrounds.
Then found this one just before lockdown last year.

(Location: Admirals Walk / Ellis Road, Old Coulsdon. Not far from Farthing Downs, which is on the 'Fridays' route from London to Brighton).
Edited to update the address and add a google maps link
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My one and only encounter was on a school trip to the “David Livingstone memorial” many years ago!

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

We didn't have adventure playgrounds as such, but....... we did live not far from a functioning coal mine, complete with waste heaps.

There were several "pit ponds" formed, I suspect, from water pumped out of the mine, plus, rainwater which ran down the spoil heaps and collected in the valleys.

We used to make rafts, from pieces of wood, old oil drums, and, in later years, bits of polystyrene foam, and, "sail" across the ponds. We never risked swimming in the ponds, the water was foul. If you were unfortunate enough to fall in, none of your mates would come near you, because of the smell.

The site of the pit is now a nature reserve, I see very few if any children there, when I walk or cycle through.

Another source of "amusement" was a small factory nearby. They manufactured radios, I think. Whatever it was they made, required a sheet metal base with various size holes punched out. The discarded circles of sheet metal, of various sizes say 1" across, to 6" across, and, with extremely sharp edges, were discarded into bins in the yard. We would climb over the fence, fill our pockets with the discarded circles, then, later, amuse ourselves throwing them at trees etc, where they would invariable embed themselves in the trunk.

The game came to an end after several months, when, an off target throw, resulted in a disk embedded in one of my pals forehead. trip to hospital, several stitches, a good hiding for all concerned, from respective fathers, new amusement had to be found.

One favourite of ours was playing on the coal trains that supplied the local power station, hitching rides and dropping underneath them onto the tracks then letting the wagons pass over us. We got chased by the Police frequently, which was part of the fun. One day a drunk got run over by one of the trains and all of our parents issued dire warnings not to go near the tracks. Of course, these were ignored and we headed for the spot that was surrounded by police tape. The rumours were that he'd been sliced into a hundred pieces and ambulancemen collected the parts in bin bags so we approached with morbid fascination. The thing I remember most is the huge number of crows hanging around the overgrown bramble bushes on both sides of the line

 

[kayakerles]

Yes - Raleigh Choppers. They nearly wiped out an entire generation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Chopper#Handling_and_safety

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Nice, Chris! My youth's (only) and other Stingray ride was similar... Schwinn's Apple Krate. I had never even HEARD of disc brakes (my family never had a car, I grew up in NYC) and this bike had a front disc brake. Front & rear suspension as well, a huge slick tire on the back, 5-speed stick, and a scooped rear fender. We would have made a bad pair of dudes cruisin' around together!

But wow, the Wikipedia link tore this bike up in the Safety & Handling paragraph. Hopefully, you never had any of those probs! I bet that bike was a blast. Unintentional wheelies? Ha. Whoever made UNINTENTIONAL wheelies on our stingrays, Right?

Here's what mine looked like. I would ride it on the boardwalk by the shore, alongside my dad taking his morning walk. Good memories.

 

[Blue Hills]

Nice, Chris! My youth's (only) and other Stingray ride was similar... Schwinn's Apple Krate. I had never even HEARD of disc brakes (my family never had a car, I grew up in NYC) and this bike had a front disc brake. Front & rear suspension as well, a huge slick tire on the back, 5-speed stick, and a scooped rear fender. We would have made a bad pair of dudes cruisin' around together!

But wow, the Wikipedia link tore this bike up in the Safety & Handling paragraph. Hopefully, you never had any of those probs! I bet that bike was a blast. Unintentional wheelies? Ha. Whoever made UNINTENTIONAL wheelies on our stingrays, Right?

Here's what mine looked like. I would ride it on the boardwalk by the shore, alongside my dad taking his morning walk. Good memories.

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Strange that that frame never sized up for adult riders.

 

[kayakerles]

Strange that that frame never sized up for adult riders.

I agree, Blue ~ Like adults couldn't have fun just cruisin' around on bikes like these? From here my next bike when a little older was a Peugeot UO-8, my first 10-speed, a new type of bike for me, but never as “fun” as a Stingray.

 

[kayakerles]

And this I still have this, it's 50 inches long

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Very cool. Did you sail it in ponds? I never had one, but my dad would take me to Central Park (I grew up in NYC) and we'd watch them for hours. Seemed like it was just old men that sailed them. But then I was so. Young that EVERYONE seemed “old.”

 

[kayakerles]

And this I still have this, it's 50 inches long

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50” was a pretty nice size boat! Did you grow up to sail real full-size sailboat? I had a JY14 and then a Catalina 16.5, both trailer sailors, but those were when I was in my 30s. Sailing is so much fun. 👍

 

[raleighnut]

You missed out spud gun

I had a 'Sekiden' pellet gun.

 

[Illaveago]

I can remember having a double barreled popgun, it broke when I had to throw it down to the ground from a railway carriage whilst playing cowboys. My friends had an old railway carriage in their back garden which we used to play in .

 

[BoldonLad]

I can remember having a double barreled popgun, it broke when I had to throw it down to the ground from a railway carriage whilst playing cowboys. My friends had an old railway carriage in their back garden which we used to play in .

ah yes! I had one of those. To "load" it, you sort of broke it in half, like a real shotgun. It had some kind of ratchet and spring mechanism

 

[Illaveago]

I can remember having a "Real Australian Boomerang". It was made from shaped plywood. A friend and I would play a type of chicken game where we would throw the boomerang at each other . We would take it in turns aiming the boomerang whilst the other person stood still. The boomerang would fly straight at your opponent and just at the last second swing off In another direction . It tested our nerves to the extreme!

 

[Illaveago]

Oh! A footnote!
You had to point the boomerang in a certain way otherwise it would just swing round in an arc. I think it was the reverse to the normal way of throwing it .

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

We had a very short-lived game called "chuck ma heid" (throw my head).

Walking along a high brick wall (about 20ft) a length of washing line was tied around your head. The other end was tied to a brick. The objective was to get to the end of the wall and back whilst your mates threw the brick back and forwards over the wall.

 

[oldwheels]

One favourite of ours was playing on the coal trains that supplied the local power station, hitching rides and dropping underneath them onto the tracks then letting the wagons pass over us. We got chased by the Police frequently, which was part of the fun. One day a drunk got run over by one of the trains and all of our parents issued dire warnings not to go near the tracks. Of course, these were ignored and we headed for the spot that was surrounded by police tape. The rumours were that he'd been sliced into a hundred pieces and ambulancemen collected the parts in bin bags so we approached with morbid fascination. The thing I remember most is the huge number of crows hanging around the overgrown bramble bushes on both sides of the line

I used to employ a bloke who was a part time undertakers assistant. He had numerous gruesome stories but your story about the person hit by a train is probably not far off the truth. He said the he was called to such a situation and the police in attendance could not cope so he had to collect body parts much as you describe. Bits were scattered over a wide area.p