Blimey. In two more lists, we'll have hit 500 lists. List #1 was published on 9th June 2012. More of that over the next two episodes in the journey. I am surprised that I haven't done this one before. I first went to school back in 1967. As I was an August baby, my mum held me back until Easter. I was welcomed to Sister Rosalie's baby class. My mate, who lived up the road was my guide "that's Jim and he's tough, that's Rosy and she smells, that's Frank and he's a bit thick" (Names have been changed to spare any blushes). I was at school for the next 14 years. Most of that time was waiting for one four things. Playtime, Dinner time, home time and football in PE. All of the schools I went to had bells of some sort to tell you when it was the start or end of playtime. At St Vincents, my Primary school, the bell was a hand held bell, rung by a Nun. The nuns would often come out and stand there for five minutes before ringing it, just to rub it in that playtime was over. But what did we do at playtime? Here's my list and a few memories.
1. Football. St Vincents had limited playground space. It was tarmac'd and on a slope. Only the eldest class, what we call Junior 4 and is now year six boys played football, unless you were exceptionally good and you'd be invited. I was rubbish so I had to wait. Parents hated it. We were always scuffing shoes, tearing trousers, cutting knees. Nothing stopped us. At Finchley Catholic, I broke my nose in Y2 when I tackled Jim Lynch and he landed on my head. Jim was not liked by the school and they tried to get me to say he did it deliberately so they could expel him. He didn't and I wasn't going to lie. Jim was large and a tough nut. After that, he was also a mate. There was always a premium on playground space for football, but when I could, I loved it.
2. Bundles. This was a big part of FCHS. Basically, myself and all of my mates would jump on someone, forming a pile of humanity. You'd bash and kick them and everyone else, but not very hard. I don't think anyone actually got hurt, if they did, they never admitted it. Our class was particularly keen on this form of entertainment.
3. Penny up the wall. A form of gambling. You'd nick some chalk, draw a line about six feet from a wall and take turns to throw pennies at it. You'd have rounds and at each rounds end, the closest would keep the pennies from that round. It was banned by the school. My Dad caught me practising and showed me a great technique, so I'd more often than not get a bag of chips on the way home with the profits at Tally Ho Corner.
4. Skidding down the playground in the ice. At St Vincents, when it was icy or snowed, the playground would become a proper ski slope. Us boys would love this. The teachers would hate it and do everything to prevent us from doing it. We'd take the opportunity when we could and it was a small victory, usually rewarded with the slipper if caught.
5. Kiss chase. This was the one game that boys and girls played together at St Vincents. Basically someone was it and had to chase members of the opposite sex and give them a kiss, then they became it. Sister Gabriel at St Vincents stamped it out, when she caught two kids at the moment of the kiss. Next day, she got them on stage, in front of the whole school and made them repeat the kiss. At the time, we were horrified. Later both became cult heroes. You'd have to ask them if they were damaged by the experience. No one else ever risked it.
6. It. This was a version of kiss chase, without the kiss or the girls. Someone was it, until they tagged someone else. If you were it when the bell rung, you were a social pariah for the rest of the day!
7. Playground fights. This was a thing at FCHS. Two kids would fall out. They'd start fighting. A big ring would form around them and everyone would shout "fight fight fight". At some point, around 1976, a new custom formed, where the ring would all spit at the two people fighting. I was unlucky enough to fall foul of this. I came second in the fight, I got covered in gob and I got the cane. By the time myself and the guy I'd been fighting with had left the headmasters office, we had both become sworn pacifists. All of my classmates (as well as his) insisted we have a rematch, as it had not ended decisively. He took two weeks off ill. By the time he returned, it was forgotten. I cannot even remember what it was about. He was in a different class and I got on OK with him.
8. Singing songs. When it rained, which it seemed to do for 70% of my schooling, we were not allowed out. Our class would sing songs, changing the lyrics of the songs of the day to be derogatory ditties about members of our class. The two I remember are the versions of Gary Glitters Rock and Roll Pt 2 and also Led Zeppelins It's nobodys fault but mine. I will not say what our versions were called. It really isn't politically correct.
9. British Bulldog. The rules are that "Bulldogs" stand in the middle of a play area while the other players ("runners") line up at one end. When the Bulldogs yell, "British Bulldog!", the runners charge to the opposite end, attempting to avoid being tagged or tackled. Any tagged runner becomes a Bulldog for the next round, and the game continues until only one runner remains, who is the winner. It wasn't popular at FCHS, as the majority of people were from an Irish background and hated anything British related. I was never a fast runner, so it never really interested me much TBH, but I'd join in at St Vincents.
10. Putting people in the pig food bins. At the back of the kitchens at FCHS, there were large bins on wheels that they'd put all of the waste food on. We called them the pig bins. I have no idea if the contents were actually fed to pigs. Our class developed an unhealthy relationship with the pig bins. We'd ambush people we didn't like and throw them in. Then we realised that we could get a classmate to stand up in one and we could push it around at high speed. On one occasion, we liberated one from the school and were pushing it down Woodside Grange Road at High speed, with a classmate pretending to be a tank commander, with his head poking out of the hatch on top. We lost control of it, as a car came around a corner. The bin crashed into that car, then a few others, causing a lot of damage. We all legged it back to school. The headmaster held a special assembly in the playground and demanded that the culprits owned up. The car owner was there. He asked the car owner what colour tie the culprits were wearing. He said red. Class 5b wore purple so us, along with the other four forms who didn't have red ties were dismissed. As we didn't like the class with red ties, we treated it as a double victory. The boy who'd been in the pigbin was miraculously unscathed. We were then told that interfering with pig bins was an expellable offence.
Sometimes, I think it's a bloody miracle we all made it through unscathed. In truth, I think that most of the break time at FCHS, we just hung around doing nothing, chatting. Subjects would be the weeks football, what was on TOTP, whatever scandal was going on in the school (our favourite was when we caught two teachers in flagrante). The kids that were prone to be bullied would hang around the school library, where there was always a teacher on duty. The kids who smoked, would slope off into the bushes. If you did woodwork or metalwork, you could do extra work in the workshops (we didn't). Towards the end of my time at FCHS, I had got into punk rock and a small group of fellow fans formed and would just discuss music. Another group, who decided they were 'Teds' formed. There was a bit of antagonism between us. When I moved to Orange Hill in 1978, there were a 'bunch of Teds'. I was wary, until they found out I was a punk. They were Boz and Phil from The Polecats. They are mates to this day. Once I got into music, I lost interest in playground games.
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