SCHOOL GAMES    NEW

Ron Whyatt; (East Broomehill School late 1930’s)

She-oak nut fights was another crazy idea. We would gather up the nuts from under the trees outside the school ground and soak them in tins of water, this made them sting more.
Everyone had a shield which was the top of a gallon kerosene tin. When we had filled our pockets with nuts the war began, nuts would fly in all directions. I cannot remember anyone getting hurt, luck must have been with us! How someone did not lose an eye I will never know.
We had a swing under a she-oak tree. Someone had the bright idea to get the smaller boys on the swing, send them up as high as they could and then get them to jump off.
A mark was put on the ground where they landed. The winner was the one who landed furthest from the swing. It's a wonder an arm or a leg wasn't broken.

GLASS MARBLES     #1

Tennis was played but not much because while you were playing doubles your mates had nothing to do.

The play area on the south side of the school was slightly larger than a standard tennis court area the rest of the playground was much smaller.
In winter we played other games such as Prisoner Base. The children were divided into 2 teams. Six sticks were placed at either end of the ground and a half circle was drawn around them, this was a base. The object of the game was to get your sticks from the other side to your base.
If you were caught by the opposing side before you reached the semi-circle then you would be their prisoner until one of your team was able to break through their defence and get you out. This was a very popular game and we spent many play times playing this game.
One more game comes to mind and we named this Kick the Tin. The tin was a jam tin and placed about 8 feet out from the south east corner of the building.
One of us would go "He" and count aloud to 50 while all the others hid inside the playground fence.
The aim of the game was to find each person, run back to the corner of the school and call out 1,2,3, home, name the child and where you had seen them. The person hiding would make a dash and if he could kick the tin before you reached the building you had to remain “He”.
Doris Martin (Toodyay) I thought of all the things that we played in those days in the old playground. Such things as: Drop the Hankey, Simon Says, Marbles, What's The Time Mr Wolf, Fly, Donkey and Chasey.
Skipping with two people holding the two ropes at a time to see who could run in and skip at the right time without being hit by the ropes and run out again or even Hot Pepper with a single rope to see who could handle the heat so to speak.
Then there was the prefab room somewhere in the vicinity of where the toilets are today where we either somersaulted through the rails of the ramp that led into the classroom or hung upside down from the railings. We never seemed to get into any trouble from doing it either.”

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References:                 Article:      Ron Whyatt

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