Update on toys

I have just been reminded of a couple of things that I had forgotten. Slinky's, skipping ropes, french skipping and hopscotch.

A slinky for the uninformed, was a giant sized, wire coil, like a spring and you could make it walk and do tricks. Fortunately I never damaged the stairs with it!

We used to play on the green in front of our house with our neighbours children, Beverley, Shirley and Yvonne. Both hop scotch and skipping games were common. French skipping involved a giant piece of elastic tied to make a big round. The elastic was put around the feet of 2 girls who stood about 4 feet apart so that the elastic was stretched taut. The person skipping then use to jump over the elastic and do little steps crossing the elastic back and forwards. Sometimes you would have several children all jumping at once.

We also used to play another game which involved putting a tennis ball inside the leg from a pair of tights. You then tied a knot above the ball to hold it in place. We used to then swing the ball against the side of the house and count how many times we could do it in a certain rhythm before dropping it! It used to drive our parents and the neighbours crazy because it was so noisy.

I also had a bike and a scooter which I would ride round and round the little square in front of our house. The scooter was big thing with enormous wheels, nothing like the tiny light weight things that were popular when my children were small.

One last memory that I forgot, was that as a very small child I had a dog on wheels. It was a sort of terrier dog with a beard in brown and grey. I loved that dog! My Dad has a photo of me in the garden with it. I will try to get a copy when we go up on Saturday.

Simon is going to take me up on Saturday so that I can see Dad and go and visit my Mum too. It will be 4 weeks since I have seen her and I feel so bad about that. I usually go once a week, but that hasn't been possible this month as I wasn't well and was supposed to be resting at home. Then there was my hospital appointment and complications with Coralie. As long as "Bob" doesn't arrive, we will get up to Stevenage on Saturday.