Remember When...

[groom]

I think perhaps we were hardier then, you had to be at death's door to be kept off school. I suppose it helped as we met all the germs and childhood illnesses early on and built up immunity. If we fell over we were picked up, dusted down, kissed better and sent out to play again - none of this rushing off to the doctor's or hospital, "just in case". Perhaps our parents, having gone through the war, weren't so worried about the odd bump or scrape.

[Maggie.]

Don't think it improves with age either - a friend's grandmother broke her arm at 76. She fell off a sledge    Said she just had to have a go when she saw the kids 

Good for her  .

The grandmother writing this went sledging last year and it was grrrrrreat 
Said grandmother isn't 76 yet but she is fast approaching the same decade.  She managed to escape with no breakages.   

As a youngster, rope swings - yes did it.  Dangling upside down on that conical witches hat shaped roundabout thing over concrete - did it.  Leaping off playground swings when then were at their highest - did that too, also standing up on the seat and swinging yourself upside down suspended by your arms with legs wrapped round the chains (skirt tucked up knickers if course).  And sliding down a slide which had been customised by the boys with wax to make it lethally slippery, head first, upside down thus staring at sky - did that also, though you did need to have faith in the concentration of the friend catching you at the bottom to prevent shooting head first off the end onto the concrete.

I rode horses too - was catapulted off one of them when aged around 40 and into the side of the indoor riding area and broke my nose.

[mrs.tenacious]

I loved reading What Katy Did and What Katy Did Next.  I really identified with the heroine.

Me too, Maggie.  I read What Katy Did at the age of 8 when I was off school for about 2 months with jaundice, and bed-bound for about the first 3 weeks, then in quarantine at home with my family (who I passed it on to!).

[kiwihalfpint]

Kids don't need trampolines to break arms and legs - we used to fall out of trees and off rope swings.

None of the above broke my finger when I was about 8, skateboarding, roller skates, Judo and other activities are also ruled out .... it was from someone landing on my hand when they slipped.


Cheers
KHP

[Greensleeves]

And then there were the childhood illnesses which parents deliberately exposed us to.  If a child in the area had measles, we would all be carted off to the sickroom so that we could go and catch it so we 'got it over with'.  Without innoculations, we worked our way through measles, german measles, mumps, chicken-pox, whooping cough, scarlet fever.  I remember that I caught mumps at the beginning of school summer holidays and spent the next couple of weeks in bed, curtains closed, listening to my friends playing on the grass outside.  Without television or radio, the only amusement available to me was either reading, or cutting out pictures from magazines to make a scrap-book.

[groom]

measles, german measles, mumps, chicken-pox, whooping cough, scarlet fever.

Apart from whooping cough I had all of those - mumps twice. I caught chicken pox when I was eleven and had to go for my interview for Grammar School with a spotty, scabby face and a note to say I wasn't infectious.

[Maggie.]

No deliberate exposure to illness for me because I had a brother who was just starting infant school when I was born so he brought all the bugs home and gave them to me before I was walking.  There was concern over the whooping cough he dosed me with before I was 12 months old and I was apparently still coughing and whooping at 18 months old.  The good thing about this was I survived with a fully primed immune system. The bad thing from my perspective was that I was never ill so obliged to be at school all the time whilst my school friends were languishing in their beds battling with these childhood plagues.

[Nanna52]

Yes I had measles, mumps and scarlet fever as a kid, waited until it was in my twenties with a toddler to get chicken pox.  Not fun.  Measles left me with bronchiectasis (sp?).  Every time I got a cold it would turn to bronchitis, missed a lot of school until it was controlled when I was about 10.  Now it has come back.  Not happy.  So I am all for the immunisations that they have now days.

[GillyJ]

I have been chuckling over all the things that people have remembered - other favourites were a little red one octave piano, a home made dolls cot, a red tricycle and a noddy car game. My brother had a fabulous tin car complete with driver and I loved the rag dolls my Mum made for me. We were always playing games outside - throwing balls against a wall or playing tennis against the wall and ring games such as "The farmer wants a wife", ring a ring a roses, the hokey cokey and those others like "what's the time Mr.Wolf" and giant steps etc.
Being mad about ponies,  I collected pony books - the best being "wish for a pony" and "the sagebrush sorrel". I also had a cap gun and was in disgrace after "riding" the back of the settee, brandishing my gun as I was "The lone ranger" and smashing one of those old glass lampshades with the gun. I stopped my cowboy games for a while after this.