things we did as kids in the 70s

Playing the wag from school

Making swords for bits of wood, Boggies with pram wheels.

Penny for the guy

Carol Singing

Making a go kart

I did most of those things in the 60s, hopscotch was strictly for girls round our way though.
8 fruit salads or black jacks for an old penny in my day. Inflation must have kicked in by the 70s

walk the plank.....

join the crew.....was quite vicious.

oh and just out playing generally all day...from early morning to late at night.

we played a game called Leeveeooooo.

2 teams, once had to hunt and capture the other team members....take them back to a light pole....if a remaining member managed to hit the pole and shout Leeveeoooo, the captured members were free to escape.....one everyone in the team were captured, it was the other teams turn...

this game lasted all through the school holidays...

and football, jumpers for goalposts, 20 a side....you dont see kids playing nowadays....everything is so organised....you grew up in the 70s , early 80s, the internet, phones has spoiled everything.....parents think the world has got scaries because everything is reported online......it isnt, weirdos were about back then too but there wasnt a 24/7 gossip service online.

Knockey Door Danger,Cricket with the gear nicked from the school sports shed. Tennis when Wimbledon was on, Chalked a court out on the road,No Net.

Yes, there were no parked cars on the street during the day. Anyone who had one was at work.

Watched the fa cup final from 10am till 6 pm bbc followed one team itv the other ,all sorts of things going on throughout the day teams leaving the hotel without earphones or headsets happy days watching the greatest football competition there has ever been or ever will be ,I know back then most football fans would sooner win the fa cup than the league especially those who went to games.

kerbie was another game.......had to kick or throw a football and hit the kerb....1 point for hitting the kerb, 2 points for hitting the kerb and catching the ball on return.

"annies"another....football game in grass areas where folk put up their washing..

one against one, walls for goals, only allowed 2 touches before shooting..

Aberdonia

Football jumpers for goalposts we played till it was to dark to play anymore nobody ever got hungry thirsty yes .

There were no overweight kids where I lived. One, or possibly 2, in our school.

Aberdonia

Football jumpers for goalposts we played till it was to dark to play anymore nobody ever got hungry thirsty yes .
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indeed, we were out until our mothers came shouting for us....you could hear your ma before you could see her....i someting walk past the big field where we used to play.....it was packed back then, lost of things going on...now, its empty.....

Yes saddo very good point just the odd one all we did all day was burn energy

Playing in the park, treading on white dog poo.

We had one fat kid at school...poor loon was teased constantly.


"loon" means boy in North East Scotland language....lol

Scrumping

Flicking cigarette cards closest to the wall

Same with marbles

Kick the Can

F***ing about on building sites, and running from the cocky watchman.

Dodging the Dog sh** on the pavement

British Bulldog
Wallsy for 10p coins
Trade football stickers
Parks with absolute deathtrap rides in

Taking empties back to the shop for the deposit refund.
Spud gun and 'caps' gun.
Cowboys and Indians - almost the whole school took part.
Talking to, and accepting sweets from, strangers.

Building dens
Scrumping
Spinning a 10p coin in the 50p slot of the Space Invader
Penny for the Guy
Getting the entire school playground involved in a game of British Bulldogs
Cycling to the newsagent at 7am on a Saturday to buy a comic (Bullet)
Outdoor swimming pools with Minestrone Soup in their vending machines (because it was 12 degrees outside)
Saturday morning pictures (Lassie, Champion The Wonder Horse, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, etc)
Collecting enough deposits from discarded Corona Bottles to buy 10 B&H
Sitting close to the TV, so you could change the channel

Comics  Beano and Dandy

Agree with all of these.

But jimnast talking about Cup Final day was something else.

Watching from about 8.00 am - teams in the hotel having breakfast, "Road to the Final" stuff, FA cup "it's a Knockout", proper celebs putting their twopence in, on the team coaches, Community singing, etc

Brilliant stuff! Then the game itself went by in a flash....

Shoplifting from Woolworths.

Standing outside the bookies asking an adult to put a pre written bet on for you.

The OP said 70s acey!! lol

Remember FA Cup final day raspberry, oh how things have changed.

Also the Woolworths bit acey, and getting caught stealing some pic n mix! Got away with that one though as they didn't follow it up. Phew!

been sent to the newsagents/tobacanist with a note of your parents
for 20jps n 20 baby regal, and collect the papers n putting the pools coupon
in as well(usually sat mornings!!!!)

I still live in the village where i grew up in mid Kent. In the 70s as a kid we all used to be in the local rec most days playing football, cricket etc or just chilling listening to Radio Caroline. If we were not there we were up in the woods on the Kent Downs larking about on rope swings etc. As others have said, we were out in the morning and stayed out all day until tea time, then back out again for a few hours. Happy times.

Nowadays the village has almost twice as many people living here due to development over the years.  The rec has almost doubled in size as well, as a disused farmers field next door has been utilised for extra space and all kinds of climbing frames, roundabouts and the like have been brought in for kids to play on. There is a basketball court and two football goals as well, me and my mates would have loved it. But whenever i walk through there the area is depressingly empty and it's very rare to hear the sound of kids having fun there, sad really but a sign of the times i suppose   In the summer i had the pleasure of looking after my nephew's pet Beagle  for a week or two and we went on long walks through the lovely woods on the downs, but we hardly saw a soul even though it was the school holidays. There would have been plenty of people, especially youngsters up there when i was a kid.

I'm glad i grew up in the 70's and at least i can still listen to Radio Caroline

kerbio
ollies (marbles)
pirates
rush goalie
claiming deposit for soda syphons
sagging
boys pen

Watching Tiswas while waiting for my dad to finish reading the paper so I could pick out my horses.
I was allowed 21 x 5p win doubles on the TV races.

We had a paraffin heater at home so regularly sent round the local hardware shop to get a half gallon of paraffin in a metal container.

we were posh.  Didn't have to share our outside toilet with other families.

Homework by candlelight during the 3 day week.

3 large housing etate getting built near our what wa a large village,meant taking lemonade bottles back morphed in to hanging about cabins going to nearet hos atbreaktime/dinner time to get worker aterie,fih n chi,drinks and keeing the change for going, we got greedy with the lemonade bottle tarted breaking in to the yatd ar back of ho,knicking back what we,d took and taken them back again a few day laters,till we got rumbled

cant blame parents today,we thought we were safe but turned out 1000,s of u  were getting touched up/abused by church,sport coaches,boys brigade/scouts/cubs,teachers etc,etc

Begged and begged my Mother to get me a Chopper Bike for Christmas even said i would never be bad again.....I will never forget that Christmas morning waking up and looking at the floor at the end of the bed and seeing......A pair of fakin Roller Skates.

my mate had a real mcoy racing green mark 1 type,always 1st with everything remember him getting a FIZZA  motorbike when he was 16, were from boro and i saw on facebook few yr back,he,s living his bet life few 100 yds from sea in a static caravan in cornwall, wander for a surf before breckie everyday

Pitch and toss at school
gettin the cane
clocking fruit machines with a token and thread
apple raiding
garden creeping
throwin clumps of mud from a branch or twig at peoples back windows
Angels we were

doing the johnny machine in local pub of all its 50p, s,with a lolly stick and if you were really brave give ye mates  dad his 50p back

and to be fair everychance they get my grandkids and their friends in the street ,every chance they get set up a tall outide their house on the avement elling their toy,football cards etc etc

We used to play walk the plank but it got ridiculous. We lived on a barge so people used to just step off on to the tow path

Birmingham bags and wonderfully dressed pop stars ,minder,faulty towers ,fa cup replays and fa cup semi finals on a neutral ground not Wembley,I don’t miss burning the top of my mouth on the jacket spuds straight from the bonfire,happy times when the world was you g

Young

Nearly dying several times due to different reasons or risks we all used to take as children in those days!

Pretty sure there are reasons kids today don't do some of the stuff we used to do.

Manhunt, 123 and In, Summer holidays, up early watch kids tv, then get a pound for dinner and over the park playing football, cricket and plenty more, home for tea, back out again until it was dark.

Has to be better than the kids have these days.

yep many injuries, but could have been worse often, without luck.

Infant mortality per 1000 currently around 3 in the UK, in 1975 for comparison it was 15.73.

Marbles, waiting for the racing results 5 past the hour on the radio

catapult fights
sone and brick fights as you say stu dangerous games climbing cliffs even chucking knives at each others feet split the kipper
jumping off wash house roofs onto a thin mattrass
ha a few split heads of them bricks

throwing aerosols on bonfires and running like fck before it explodes riding your bike with fireworks sticking out the handlebars on a fixed wheel

fill a nut bolt with matchstick heads then tighten the other bolt up throw it up in the air ffs or it would even go off in your hand  sometimes

GREG
that not how you spell ARRISHOLES ,
but i can think of a few on here who could do with chucking

Junior school football team . we played our matches against the other schools on a weekday afternoon , maybe wednesday or thursday , so got the afternoon off school .

Yep, so did we, when we got up the big school it was Saturday mornings.

Remember proper sports days too in proper events, you know, when it was OK for someone to come last without worrying that they were about to top themselves like today

Trying to finish a jubbly in a day.

throwing the javelin and shotput n stuff
like the olympics it was back then.....
n at our local skool there was even a "faggers wood"
(AS INsmoking ****..!!)
n the six formers or prefects, would do fooking raids on the place,
tother side of the skool rugby pitch.....!!!

Oct 5, 2026 -- 5:22PM, duffy wrote:

Yep, so did we, when we got up the big school it was Saturday mornings.Remember proper sports days too in proper events, you know, when it was OK for someone to come last without worrying that they were about to top themselves like today

Yes , my school was pretty small and mixed so you were more or less certain of being in the team if you could kick a ball , i remember every friday the sports teacher would put the teams on the board for saturdays matches , they never changed much .

if ye got a "detention" ie, for jumping the dinner que
ye had to stand on a square outside the 'dinner hall'
and wait till everyone else had gone fro , n by time ye got inn
there were nowt left...propr torture and abuse from the teachers back#
then

ha, a thousand lines....!!
i though not shalt commit a sin....

I am sure in todays world, Knock Down ****** has been renamed.  I loved Texan bars. Only worry I had, I must have been buck ugly, 2 years as an altar and never touched once.

Might be of interest to some on this thread

https://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/

Oh and everybody I knew, no matter what colour or creed had a decent command of English.

Going to the newsagents saturday morning to get your comics , and just before the season started getting the league ladders in shoot .

We always played Saturday mornings however I do remember on one occasion playing on a Wednesday afternoon,we draw 4 4 with a posh grammar school on the morning of the Sunderland Leeds cup final I remember to this day the referee say no matter what happens at Wembley this afternoon it won’t be as good as the game you all played,the replay was the Wednesday after the head allowed all our school the afternoon of to watch the replay against this posh school we beat them 4 0

from bror we had a week tour every yr pkayed 3 games in a week,we tayed at hexam for one week playig 3 geordie team,ome in a place called WALLBOTTLE  inbetween hex and n.castle, and a team im coldstream, we were very good in our area but WALLBOTTLE were a notch above us   and following yr stopped around edinbrough and 3 games against the jockss in the area

Did a lot of the above, especially nicking the empties from round the back of the shop and getting the shilling back

But, got introduced to quite an ingenious one in the Summer holidays aged about 14...
In the morning we went round all the local phone boxes and stuffed a blown up balloon up the return money chute, so it was out of sight...
People would put their 2p, 5p or 10p into the slot, but if the number was engaged or no answer, then they'd put the receiver down and wait for their money to be returned ...
Of course the balloon was stopping it but they couldn't see that so they'd just give up on their returned coin...
We'd then go round in the evening and stick a pin up the chute, if you pardon the expression, to burst the balloon, then all the day's coins would fall down...
Used to be a nice little earner

Does that sort of thing happen anymore 1st time ? We played a few games from school in Holland back in 77 I would imagine now the hoops everyone would need to jump through it wouldn’t be worth it.

reg brilliant,we did something a little bit like that when following United you would stop at the motorway service and back then the one armed bandits were simple and not well built,you could press on the weak plastic as the 3 wheels went round to make sure you got 3 strawberries

1tp...if you were following United you'd more likely get 3 lemons

Sorry, not 1tp,apologies, jimnast

1tp was further up, apologies to jimnast as well, a cheap shot at United

No worries there reg not in the slightest,I trust your still visiting weatherspoons I was reading there shares report which are doing very well ,but surprisingly the food sales are showing very small growth,

Been there this evening, jimnast
Live in a seaside town, so the customer numbers start dipping now until Easter
They are cutting back on staff levels so the wait at the bar can be frustrating, and tables full of piled up empty plates at times...
But, it's cheap....Real Ale Festival starting Wednesday as well, happy days

I’ve noticed a decrease in all round standards recently in some of there pubs by the staff ,they are now in airports where they will be printing money.

yes those bell fruits you could use a straightened metal coat hanger

We have 5 in Manchester ones in a no go area in Piccadilly ,the other 4 are fine one is now franchised out I think they have 15 that are franchised.

Yeah, prices in airport Spoons twice that of other Spoons, but still cheaper than the other outlets there
They've also started putting new Spoons in Haven holiday camps, again at a premium from the normal prices

That’s it Greg you must have been at it yourself

Wrapping a two-shilling piece (florin) in tape to fool old vending machines into treating it as a 50p piece is a classic bit of vintage British schoolyard lore.
While the two-shilling piece and the 50p piece were worth vastly different amounts after decimalisation, they shared a crucial physical trait: they were almost exactly the same diameter (28.5 mm).
Why People Did It
Old mechanical vending machines from the 1970s and 1980s did not use advanced electronic sensors. Instead, they relied on basic physical properties to validate money:
1. Diameter: A drop-slot or sizing cradle checked if the coin was the right width. Because the two-shilling coin and the 50p coin matched in diameter, a pre-decimal florin would clear the 50p size check perfectly.
2. Shape and Thickness: The main barrier was that a two-shilling piece was perfectly round, whereas a 50p piece is a seven-sided equilateral curve (a Reuleaux heptagon). The machine’s internal balance mechanisms or tracks expected the distinct "rolling" rhythm and thickness profile of the 7-sided 50p.
By strategically wrapping cellotape, electrical tape, or foil around the edges of a two-shilling piece, people attempted to mask its smooth round edge, slightly altering its thickness and weight distribution. When dropped into a less-precise mechanical mechanism, the taped coin would trick the mechanical rocker or weight balance into registering it as a genuine 50p piece, allowing the user to get a drink and pocket the change.

   Used to do this quite regular, it would work occasionally on cigarette or change machines. Wrapping insulation tape around 7x.

There’s a saying in horse racing that not everyone who goes racing is a thief or vagabond but all thieves and vagabonds go racing.

I’m beginning to wonder if that saying could be used about this forum.

JIMNAST
lots of weekend  school football now done by local clubs,my grandsons local REDCAR ATHLETIC ive noticed that at age 12+ they do lot of events to raise £ for a football tour to spain and play at equivalent  spanish clubs, the senior REDCAR ATHLETIC  team are now in tier 7 for 1st time top of the lg and unbeaten in 40 lg games coming up nearly a yr unbeaten, i go watch if their at home and BORO away or home in midweek,good watch, all these team/football  centre,s are now partly funded by EPL £

was telling the mrs the other day another nice little earner when  the pubs all had OFFIES on the side was to get round the back nick a crate of newcy brown and take it back to another offy down the rd, i think from memory you used to get 5 bob for the crate with all the bottles,think it was a dozen bottles,another nice little earner

jimnast

There’s a saying in horse racing that not everyone who goes racing is a thief or vagabond but all thieves and vagabonds go racing.

I’m beginning to wonder if that saying could be used about this forum.


We have a nerve to call jockeys 

That’s good to hear about the young lads still playing and doing the tours 1st time ,the bottles we would nick and then take back were the things that squirted soda out they were the Crown Jewels of getting deposits back

Remember blokes openly hanging around our playground area, and even actually offering sweets to kids! It wasn't just a myth!

of course, in those days, not a parent in sight!

This topic reminds me of that song by Cher.  Ironically that was also from the 70s...

"Gypsies, tramps and thieves
You'll find 'em all on the Horse Racing Forum"

kids these days never lived
bedrooms playing games wrapped in cotton wool

Parenting in the 70s was completely easy - they just didn't bother to do it!

Nowadays it's 24/7 job