Conkers

How goes it Thresa
yes that was the fate of the humble conker to hahe a hole bored through its centre and the a boot lace inserted through that with a knot on one end followed by the exercise of beating them off one another till alas one broke, but now and then the conker would extract a revenge by giving the player a nasty smack any where along hand elbow or head area still good fun.
The hollow what a great place to play my feet may have been big enough to fill Dans steps but the legs were lacking in his stride.
another great spot out there the dir tracks on a bike no tyres mostly and ending up going down most of them on no bike as a fall made sure the body passed out the bike and your pals would be full of sympathy laughing and jeering at a fall
greetsto mick

Hi Andy
Remember the conkers did not take part in the game with the old string left that to the lads but i do remember collecting them and making the odd necklace from them we were only left with the small conkers after all the lads had stripped the trees bare to get the bigger ones many a time i got the belt of a stone or a stick trying to knock them from the trees, the best tree to get them from was the one across from O'Donnell's many a morning i was late going to school after gathering some conkers.The string i would use to make my necklace was the army green thread my god was that strong i still have a big spool of it and every year guess what i stitch the turkey with and you can be sure no stuffing gets past that, always have to make sure i have a needle big enough to fit the thread through that thread has come in handy for many a thing.also the conkers did look well after you would have polished them well we did have to make sure our necklaces looked nice

bye for now Geraldine

Hi MaryF and All
We had some super times growing up and what i would give to be back there again the kids of today would not know what playtime is its all computers and TV now[for instance] if you have a power cut they go ballistic they have nothing to do,where as we would have had some fun like playing knock knock and all sorts.The first musical instrument i ever owned was a Xylophone anyone remember them? i had hours of fun on it well that is until the batteries ran out and i would have to wait a hell of a long time for new ones.Christmas time was the best hail rain or snow every kid would be outside playing with their new bikes,prams and dolls, and best of all everyone shared with each other. another great game was the marbles hours of fun and loads of tears if someone won your big marble the [bruiser] as we called them and you thought it was great if you had a certain marble that someone else wanted it was always you give me 4 or 5 and ill give you this one, you would have someone else shouting ill give you 6, they always won them back in the end by playing nearest to the wall. Also our ball games like quine i oh and others.Tip the can, spin the bottle. i could go on but i might start boring ye to tears.
bye for now Geraldine ;D

Hi All.
Those chestnuts are roasted and sold in the street in London cant say i liked the taste myself yuck.I think they have banned playing conkers in matches health and safety .I reckon you would need to wear the following ,Safety goggles,Helmet, knee pads Reinforced gloves,steel toe caps in the boots and shin guards and you should have public liability in case you injury a passer -by not forgetting the spectators.I don't know how we ever survived as kids.The best way to harden them is leave them in a jar of p and dry in the sun.
Cheers
Anthony.

Hi Geraldine,Joey and all.
you could have gone on all night Geraldine and nobody would have been bored all the games you mentioned god it took me right back. Marbles now that was my game I had a stash of them and a fair number of the famous bruisers[ mostly won from the lads in Pearse but they were good sports about been beaten by one of the girls and would normally offer a swap to get their marbles back! We used to play outside the front door of the houses up against the facing wall nearest the wall was my best one but wasn,t to bad at knocking the bruiser out of the circle that accounted for the large ammount of those beauties that I used to have. We used to be able to buy them in bags from the shops but the CHAMPS usually offered a more lucrative deal. Hustlers? NEVER just young opportunists learning valuable marketing skills!!!
Had brilliant hand to eye cordination back then, now would most probably hit the wall if I was lucky and thats on a good day with my glasses!! Oh if only we could roll back the years.
regards to all Mary F

Hi Andy

Quite a good thread you started not many Chestnut trees down this part of the country, when my Mam was alive she used to collect a few for my kids. As has been said on other threads we had a good time growing up on the Curragh. When John and Fiona used to visit my Mam I always had a hard time getting them back to Cork all the open spaces they used to love it.


Jerry