Games and pranks played by Peebles children in the late 19th...

Original Track ID

SA1972.203.B7

Original Tape ID

SA1972.203

Summary

Games and pranks played by Peebles children in the late 19th century.

Girls played with skipping ropes and balls thrown against a wall. Boys and girls played at kick-the-can, cat-and-bat, rounders and dickie-show-light. Boys played at cuddy-loup and robbie-duckie. Robbie duckie was usually played in the school playground and was quite a rough game played with stones. This game and also kick-the-can, dickie-show-light and cat-and-bat are described by David Lawson. In summer, hoops and girds were played with.

There were also a lot of pranks. Tammie-reekie was a prank in which a hollowed-out cabbage stalk was filled with combustible material and the smoke blown through keyholes. A rubber sucker would be put on a window with a thread and button attached so that the button clicked annoyingly on the window. Door-handles were tied together. Doorbells were jammed with snow, and when the occupants of the house came out they would be pelted with snowballs. These were street-games, but other games were played at Venlaw, such as hide-and-seek and cowboys and Indians. Children also fished for minnows and bathed in the river. They also played at the sawmills, of which there were three in Peebles at the time. Boys helped at the cattle market, and bought tuppenny pies and lemonade.

Item Location

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Information

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Poor