Hi Jill Yes there were fads for one game or another and then seasons for some as well Like Conkers ! (another no-no for health & safety) I can't recall ever having wet playtime, I think they just threw us out no matter what was happening outdoors <g> I remember there was a Whale at the museum up New Walk amongst many other artifacts (I did love museums) they had a Dodo in a glass case, and mummies under the stairs and yes clambered on the same canons The Magazine for the Leicester Tigers, the Guildhall with the prisoner in the cell, you peered in and pressed the light which made you jump, why we thought it was scary I don't know <g> Then the Newarke Houses , the costume museum (only visited that once as it was a bit sissy :-) Yes queuing up for "the jab" (eeek!) or was that the next school up ? Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > Re playground games : there were crazes. For a couple of weeks it would be skipping ; a sea of > twirling ropes from one end to the other ("All in together girls; all out together girls...") > while the boys played snobs and 'fag cards'. Then it was all change for 2-ball against the wall > (onesies, twosies, threesies, dropsies etc) or The Big Ship Sails through the Ally Ally-Oo. And > crates of little bottles with metal tops bulging over the frozen milk that took all of playtime to > thaw? > > Anyone old enough to remember ragged piles of Dandy & Beano and plasticene (all colours in a muddy > mix-up) pulled from the cupboard for wet playtime, the shock as the cane met the back of your > hand, the effort to hold back tears of rage and pain, the churning in your stomach just before the > whistle to start a race on sports day, or the smell of meths and carbolic in the church hall where > they sent you - in those days on your own, mark you - to see the school dentist ? > > Not exclusive to Leicestershire, but fun to recall, I reckon. > > Did anyone see the whale (what was its name?) that parked up on a lorry in the city centre back in > the 1950s or climb on the canon outside the Museum in New Walk? > > Jill