School Days - memories & outings

Did the lorry look like this, MikeH?

For me, the memory of Corona pop was the bottle fastening.

I would have been envious of you at the time, living in Bulkington. During the fifties, my bike rides were to Bulkington, in the region of Marston Lane, where I would sit for hours on a warm summer afternoon watching the trains go by. Always with my sarnie pack, made up of lettuce & tomato in the summer, but banana & chocolate buttons in the winter.

Yes, through Bedworth, down Marston Lane, over the canal bridge, past the farm and a few bends then the railway bridge We did the same, our railway bridge was on a footpath between Bulkington and Barnacle

Philip. Seeing the pop bottle reminded me that we used to pull the rubber seal off, put it over a clothes peg, put a matchstick in it, then pull it back and then let it go, and boy did it go. If you got one behind your ear you certainly knew about it.

Most likely, yes. I hardly ever saw one, certainly not down Hartington Cres. The family stores sold Lant's pop, so it was that or nothing at home. Never saw D-Di down our street either. For me, it all happened on Sewall Highway. Perhaps if my mother had realised that Corona was Welsh pop, she may have been more amenable, not that she was in any way Welsh in truth, and would not have know which direction one would take to get there. Those bottles were great for the baking soda powered subs and divers found in cereal packs as I remember. This was one of the few freedoms I had as a child.

We used to have Cowburns pop. Cowburns was a Lancashire based company but had a branch in Nuneaton. Strangely now I live in Lancashire I have had some of the local pop and don't like it.

We have spent the day at the Black Country Museum. In one of the streets there is a hopscotch marked out and we had a slight "discussion" about how it was marked out, I was right, the 10 being a single at the top. I have just looked online at the rules. Most sites say that the game ends when you have reached no.10 but I am sure when we played we chucked our stone over our shoulder and where it landed we marked as our square and no one else could go on it but you could put two feet on your own square. We carried on like this until we were called in! Can any one else tell me if they played this way or had we made up our own rules peculiar to Poole Road.

Hi Anne, Thank goodness I am still agile enough to be able to jump. However, I do remember that far back and have to say our games ended at No.10 Your way does seem more interesting. We also had a mad craze one summer at playing '5 Stones' Nearly all of us had a set and I must say it must have been a lot quieter in the street. It's interesting to note these old games were passed on to my daughter and friends and the Hopscotch was painted in their playgrounds at school. I am going to have a look now and see If I can see any around the neighbouring schools.

Yes, we also played a lot of 5 stones, the metal ones with points with blobs on the end, usualy played that in my friend next doors porch if it was raining. Hop scotch was always marked up outside our house as the paving slabs were right there! There is a hopscotch painted in the playground of my grandaughters school, together with a big snakes and ladders board. Spent a lot of time skipping, seeing how many doubles we could do, also 2 ball up the wall.

Oh, two ball up the wall. I think that was a girlie game. If I didn't know any better Anne I would have said welcome to my gang. Also the doubles at skipping. Then tucking our dresses in our frillies and handstanding up the wall. Now what do/did the little boys do????? No don't answer that, I can well imagine. I think we gained more exercise in those days than what they do now.

Hi Ladies, Some of us played with our catapults. I had a fabulous one with quarter inch elastic. Perfect for cleanly knocking the washing pegs off the washing lines at up to fifty yards.

So it was YOU who broke that window all those years ago - and not the person who owned up to it recently

Hi Tony, I am talking 1950s. I did however break a greenhouse window belonging to Mr White with my catapult. My worst damage was from a homemade firework cannon which smashed a veranda glass roof. Nothing to boast about now though.

Annewiggy we played hopscotch exactly the same as you. We also carried on after ten, although I can only vaguely remember the rule. Like you the game used to last until we were called in.