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Sunday 1 October 2017

Hopscotch

Hopscotch was an odd one.  It was a game which adults could remember from their own childhood and so it was approved of - but not at our school!  The problem was we weren't allowed to chalk on the playground and hopscotch needs markings.  


These days most playgrounds have painted hopscotch pitches.  I found this one at the Eden Project when I was in Cornwall.  This isn't quite the same as "our" layout but there are many variations.  The idea was to throw a beanbag (or whatever!) into the first square and then hop over it and continue down the pitch and back again.  On the way back you stopped at square two, picked up the beanbag, hopped into square one and home.  You then threw the beanbag into square two and repeated the hopping, this time hopping over square two and so on.  The people awaiting their turn watched with eagle eyes and woe betide a hopper who put a toe where no toe should be or if the beanbag didn't land cleanly within its proper square as that was instantly the end of the "go".  To overbalance was the end of respectability and a cue for pitying or contemptuous remarks.


No-one stopped us from chalking on pavements so it was a good game after school.  I remember it especially in the long summer holidays.  I actually preferred playing alone as the wait for one's turn could otherwise be very long!

5 comments:

  1. Another blast from the past, I remember it so well.

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  2. We loved Hopscotch, and we were allowed to chalk!

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    1. I have now turned green! Even in retrospect I can't understand why we were not allowed to draw hopscotch.

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  3. Another one for the girls - or was it just our school? We all had matchboxes (Swan Vesta were the best because they were the biggest) and we would go around plucking wool from everyone's jumpers. Each tiny bunch of fluff was placed in your matchbox and the idea was to end up with a full box in a variety of colours. Pretty pointless, looking back, but we spent every playtime in doing it !!!

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    1. Now that's a new one on me! A variation on autograph books but more fun.

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