There was a brief moment in time when donning the uniform of the Queen flickered through my mind. The thing is I was a fantasy soldier my battles were fought in the infant’s yard of Saint Cuthberts or on my bed with my toy soldiers.
Yard games were important back then be it Germans and British or another favourite ‘stuck in the mud’ a form of touch where once you were touched you would have to stand with your legs apart and could only be freed if one of your mates crawled through your legs. I remember we were always running, chasing or jumping there was always something going on. Girls in the most would play clapping and rhymes games, skipping, and catch. It was also the time Kiss Chase/Catch was introduced to me but I never remember catching a girl I must have catch one but been a Catholic school being caught it was a teacher and the confessional with Father Bernard one scary old bugger.
Thinking back, I remember one game but for the life of me, I can’t remember how we played it, ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’.
We had two yards the girls and infant’s and a wall separating the boys yard with a door joining the two yards. I think all the boys felt like it was a right of passage when you progressed into the boy’s yard I know I did. Soon games like Germans and British came to an abrupt end as we grew into the yard. Now it was about getting an invite to join the older boys in a game of football or leaning against the wall talking and looking hard.
In a yard full of boys, girls begin to take on a completely new meaning with conversations about girls you liked and crushes, we were in the big boy’s yard now. I had a crush, who didn’t and although her name is lost to me still remember lifting her skirt and chasing me all around the yard.
After five years you take your place has the top boys in your final year controlling the yard before moving on to Secondary school and dropping right down the pecking order.
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