Back to childhood.

[la bala]

Whilst walking some hedgerows some childhood memories came flooding back. As kids we all had penknives, and one of the things we would amuse ourselves with was the forerunner of the pea shooter. We would cut a suitable size stem of Elder, then cut a twig of hardwood which would be used to pierce a hole through the centre of the Elder stem. That sorted we would fill our pockets with elderberries for hours of fun. Do you remember it. I just couldnt help myself, my mrs said i was going senile..

[ditchman]

we used to make whistles out of ash and farters out of cow parsley....and i could play the Z cars tune on them

[TIGHTCHOKE]

2 minutes ago, ditchman said:

we used to make whistles out of ash and farters out of cow parsley....and i could play the Z cars tune on them

There really is no start to your talents, is there!

[ditchman]

6 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

There really is no start to your talents, is there!

have you never made a cow parsley farter dave ?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

No I do remember blowing over a single piece of grass to get a strange warbling sound or throwing stones up high that made a rude sound when they hit the water.

But that was an awful long time ago!

[fatchap]

Own up who used to peg a playing card to the back forks of your bike so it hit the spokes and sounded sort of like a motorbike when you rode it?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

1 minute ago, fatchap said:

Own up who used to peg a playing card to the back forks of your bike so it hit the spokes and sounded sort of like a motorbike when you rode it?

We used a wooden iced lolly stick and some tape, same effect though!

[ditchman]

5 minutes ago, fatchap said:

Own up who used to peg a playing card to the back forks of your bike so it hit the spokes and sounded sort of like a motorbike when you rode it?

yup 

 

and i bought a pair of cow horns for my push bike and had tassells on them..............

 

and knobbly tyres

Edited September 29, 2019 by ditchman

[fatchap]

Loved the cow horns on my bike and with a little practise and a few bruises you could eventually navigate the two wooden posts that made up the pedestrian entrance to our local park.

Never had tassels though created too much drag, but did have knobbly tyres.

[ditchman]

13 minutes ago, fatchap said:

Loved the cow horns on my bike and with a little practise and a few bruises you could eventually navigate the two wooden posts that made up the pedestrian entrance to our local park.

Never had tassels though created too much drag, but did have knobbly tyres.

we used to call them "track bikes"....and you could do wheelies with them

Edited September 29, 2019 by ditchman

[fatchap]

I had a rack on the front of mine for my paper round in the morning it was like a bear trap but it certainly held those papers in place. 

On the subject of wheelies I never really mastered it, normally the bike carried on for a while as I was dusting off by backside after coming off the back

[Pigeon Shredder.]

Had a frame part it’s self after too many wheelies and heavy landings, front wheel, forks and headstock assemble went one way as l went **** over titus the other, seem to remember lots of delicate bits hurt for a while 🍒🍆

[Mice!]

1 hour ago, la bala said:

would fill our pockets with elderberries for

never done that one, and I'm amazed you still have green berries, we were eating them weeks ago.

[johnphilip]

Reading all this , seems like it was just yesterday ...... oh hang on it was 😎

[moondoggy]

Used to stamp on tin drinks cans so that they stuck to the heels of your shoes and went clattering up the streets.

[oldypigeonpopper]

2 hours ago, ditchman said:

we used to make whistles out of ash and farters out of cow parsley....and i could play the Z cars tune on them

hello, thats a blast from the past Simon Z  cars   

[McSpredder]

Big rubber band stretched across the handlebars, correct tension sounds like jet plane, insufficient tension sounds like breaking wind.

"Matchstick guns" as we called them (made from a matchbox, half a clothes peg and a couple of rubber bands), would fire a half-matchstick several feet and give a sharp sting if it hit you on the face  --  don't remember anybody losing an eye, but there must have been a bit of a risk.   We smoked "cigarettes" made from cow parsley stuffed with dry grass, when not busy competing at throwing our sheath knives.   We also ate lots of birds and animals killed with lead shot.   It is amazing how so many PW members have lived so long.

[KFC]

We made Swannee Whistles out of Horse Chestnut twigs.

We'd tie a spoon to the end of a garden cane to reach over ponds into Moorhen nests and scoop out the eggs. A tin can filled with pond water over a fire, we were allowed to play with matches, was how we boiled the eggs then ate them.

Nobody drowned and id dibint do me enny aahhmmm🙄

[ShootingEgg]

5 hours ago, fatchap said:

Own up who used to peg a playing card to the back forks of your bike so it hit the spokes and sounded sort of like a motorbike when you rode it?

Used to get these in cereal packs when I was younger, and plastic beads that clipped to spokes so when going slowly it would run along the spoke and clacked as it hit the rims

[Lord Geordie]

I had to stop a father making a peashooter for his kids out of giant hogweed 😕