KARRAGULLEN SCHOOOL GAMES 1939 - 1945   

Supplied by Margaret Puzey (nee Price)  2020

Games and Sport

At school we enjoyed running around and playing games in the playground. Games included: "What's the Time Mr Wolf?”; Red Rover All Over; Brandy; Dog and Bone; Tag with one child “He” and Hide-and-seek (Hidey). In the 21^st Century some of our games would not be allowed because they were rough and we ended up with bruises.

In season the girls played skipping games and the boys looked on. Up near the school verandah 2 girls turned a long rope. Sometimes we ran in to

         ‘Two little dickie birds sitting on the wall
            One called Peter, one called Paul.
             Fly in Peter, fly in Paul.              (The two players run in) 
          Fly away Peter, fly away Paul.’      (The 2 players exit the rope) 

Another skipping game went something like this:

‘Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, go upstairs
Teddy bear, teddy bear say your prayers
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn off the light
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say goodnight’

The girl skipped while she acted.
 

HOPSCOTCH GRID

Then there was
'All in together,
Never mind the weather’

In the same area we sang and girls and boys played a non-skipping game ‘Oranges and Lemons’'

At other times we played Drop the Hanky and Hopscotch (Hoppy).  For the latter we drew  the grid, something like the one on the left, in the dirt with a stick.     

When I was 6 or 7 years old we spent a lot of time collecting pine needles which were used to build into the outlines of "houses" under pine trees at the back of the school yard.  I was probably the only person who owned a panama hat and with a bit of netting this was a popular "bridal hat".  In those days before plastic, clothes pegs were made of wood.  There was wire around the dolly pegs that the boys used to make wedding rings.  With these rings and my hat we conducted weddings. 

ORANGES & LEMONS

OLD TENNIS BALL

Old tennis balls were used for lots of games.  We didn’t ever see a basketball.  One lunchtime game played with a tennis ball was rounders.  The bat was often a piece of a branch from the bush.  We went up-market when someone brought a very old tennis racquet with a number of broken strings.  When Philip Bettenay was one of the bigger boys, he brought a cricket bat in the cricket season and some children played cricket

There was no sporting equipment but when the numbers rose and there became enough students for two Australian Rules football teams Mr. Halse produced a football. He taught us to play on our sloping dirt ‘oval’.

As one teacher decided we needed a tennis court we children and others worked hard and eventually we had a gravel court. I don’t recall playing much tennis at school.

Eventually the teacher introduced us to hockey after students had organized their own hockey sticks.  Some were made from gum tree suckers. Dad scoured the bush behind our house until he found a suitably shaped banksia branch. He carefully shaped it and I had a very fine stick. The teacher made a ball from old socks.  Boys and girls played together with bare feet and most of the time I loved the game.  Not so on the day when the skin was removed from  the end of a big toe by a swipe from a boy’s stick.  It hurt.
 

Athletics

The athletic season was the sport season of the year because of the interschool annual athletic carnival which was held at the Kalamunda recreation ground.  Schools participating were the big school at Kalamunda, the very small school at Canning Mills, Carmel, Pickering Brook, Carinyah, Karragullen and others. Before the big day we always practised hard on our sloping ground with students handicapped according to ability.

With much excitement the big day arrived and my whole family went to Kalamunda. Each school had its own colours and we pinned rosettes, that we had made, on our shirts. We sprinted, skipped, jumped (long, hop step and jump, high) and took part in flag races and relays. There was no individual recognition like a ribbon or a certificate. Participants were always happy to compete for points for their school. The schools were handicapped according to school enrolment. It was a wonderful year when we Karragullen children took home a cup which sat on the mantlepiece of our one room school.

LINDA MOORE  (nee Bettenay) ALSO REMEMBERS

I was still playing all of these games in the 60’s.
Along with this skipping game:

Cinderella, dressed in yella,
went upstairs to kiss a fella,
How many kisses did she give him?

 – and then we would go like the clappers in ‘Pepper’ where the rope was turned very fast.

A bit riske by the naughty sixties.

Copyright  2008 - 2020   Gordon Freegard