LL-L "Games" 2003.06.04 (02) [E]

[R. F. Hahn]

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From: Thomas <t.mcrae at uq.net.au>
Subject: LL-L "Games" 2003.06.03 (01) [E]

on 4/6/03 0:33, globalmoose at t-online.de (Global Moose Translations)
wrote:
> From: globalmoose at t-online.de (Global Moose Translations)
> Subject: LL-L "Games" 2003.06.02 (07) [E]
>When I grew up in Southern Lower Saxony (born in 1958), we had quite a
>few "primitive" games, and I know that some are still played today.

As this article is long I shall submit it in three parts, here comes the
first.....
THE TENEMENT TORMENTORS Part 1
Tenement  Mischief
   A few months ago at Brisbane¹s ŒHighland House¹, a shop specialising
in
things Scottish, I was pleased to learn from a charming young Edinburgh
lady
that naughty games in tenements are far from extinct in my home town.
This
got me reminiscing about the tricks  and games we played in the 1940¹s,
let
me share some tales of bad boys in a bygone era.
Inner City High Jinks
   Tenements in the City Centre could be over  six stories high with
four or
more flats on each landing. The most exciting game in such locations had
to
be ŒRobinson Crusoe¹, don¹t ask me how the name originated but it was
played
as follows........
   All the kids climbed to the topmost level where one was selected as
ŒCrusoe¹, another called ŒThe Parrot¹ would return to the bottom floor
while
the rest waited. When tension was high enough Parrot would yell ŒPeep,
peep¹
whereupon all save Crusoe ran down the stairs each one banging on every
door
as they charged to the bottom. Crusoe had to stay put until the rest had
left his landing then he had to run very fast to avoid being caught. An
extra hazard came from door mats outside the flats being thrown at him
by
his Œfriends¹ during the wild descent.  The gang would then go to
another
tenement block, or ³Stair¹ as it was known, and another session started
with
a new Crusoe.
   I know this game is old as my father played it in  his youth. His
generation had some pastimes that are now, thank heaven, extinct.
Leather
disks would be cut  and a long string was then fixed through a small
hole in
the centre. The disks were soaked in water and then became Œsookers¹,
pressed hard against the large round manhole covers of the day the
suction
got covers off with a good hard pull. Open manholes then became a
hazard,
wonder how many drunks fell down them when the kids had finished?.
   Those villains would get hold of large iron keys which had a hole
down
the centre, string was tied into the ring at the top of the key and the
hole
was then packed solid with crushed  match heads. A large nail was tamped
in
as far as it would go then the key was dashed nail downwards, on the
pavement. A glorious bang resulted and if this infernal device was
exploded
in a large tenement building the echoes made it sound like The One o¹
Clock
Gun. Many a key was destroyed by this game which explains today¹s
scarcity
of such artefacts, I wonder how many kids were injured by metal
fragments?.
Mischief in the Outer Suburbs.
  Children growing up in  modern housing estates in the outer City
played in
streets where traffic was rare. A favourite game was ŒChickey Mallie¹,
still
a goer but metal framed windows are its bane. We¹d acquire a reel of
Mother¹s black thread, a shirt button, and a dressmaking pin. The button
was
tied about 8² down the thread  and the pin attached to the end. The only
other necessity was  a good dark winter¹s night.  Carefully we would
creep
through the Œback greens¹ the yards where the laundry was hung to dry
and
folks relaxed in summer. An accessible ground floor window was found and
the
pin stuck into the wood above a glass pane, off we¹d slink to a dark
lair,
unreeling the thread as we went.......... then we began pulling  it!
   The button started hitting the glass, ŒChick, chick,chick². The
victim
would raise the window and look out....nothing. Off she¹d go and ŒChick,
chick, chick.¹, a great way to pass an evening in the days before
television. Sometimes, alas, our victim knew the game....up would go the
window, out would come an arm, and away would go our button and pin! Ah
well
there were always other naughty tricks to play.
    In those suburban tenements there were usually only three levels
with
two flats on each, doors facing one another across a landing and each
opening inwards. Each door proudly sported a knocker hanging down,
perfect
for our task. Someone always left their clothes rope on one of the back
green clothes posts all we had to do was find it and The Game was afoot.
First one of the door knockers was raised to the vertical position and a
rope end was firmly tied to it. While one delinquent held this up the
others
took the rope to the opposite door, pulled it tight, and repeated the
process.
  Two knockers sticking out vertically, two doors held fast, Zero Hour!
Time
to thump hard on both doors then stand back and watch them twitch
slightly
as the inhabitants tried to open them. .As we ran off windows would be
raised and voices would yell the standard tenement war cry against
kids....¹Ah¹ll gie Yew it!¹. None of us ever found out what ŒIt¹ was, we
ran
too fast. .
  How did the trapped victims get out? Generally they yelled to a passer
by
to untie the rope but on rare occasions a particularly bad delinquent
would
cut it in the middle before doing a runner.
  The girl at ŒHighland House¹ assured me she had played this game just
a
few years prior to coming to Australia, good to know that some old Scots
traditions persist.

Regards
Tom
Tom Mc Rae PSOC
Brisbane Australia
"The masonnis suld mak housis stark and rude,
To keep the pepill frome the stormes strang,
And he that fals, the craft it gois all wrang."
>From 15th century Scots Poem 'The Buke of the Chess'

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