The backyard didn’t lend itself for play activities, not that it was so small, but the shed and the coal storage, the chicken housing and fenced off run, the dahlias and washing line blocked our chance to engage in games or fool around. The paved area in front of the shop and the footpath with its wide nature strip was far more inviting for a game of marbles, a quick movement of the heel of ones shoes and a small hole in the earth, set us going, banging them with great expertise.
Someone’s loss was your gain and we’re always eyeing the best-coloured types, carrying them in a linen bag full of ricocheting beauties. We loved the heavy steel ones as well. The girls liked skipping, giggling and singing: ‘In spring, de bocht in…’,
‘Klikspaan, boterspaan…’, ‘Hop Marjannetje, laat de poppetjes dansen…’, ‘Iene, miene, mutten, tien pond grutten…’, Annemarieke waar gaat gij naar toe…’ and so on. It was not only the girls who sung; we knew literally dozens of popular songs too.
The summer months with the long daylight gave us plenty of opportunity for some leap frogging, a boisterous play tag or a spinning session with our green and purple top.

At times it could get rather rough, playing horses, in trying to unseat each other’s jockey.
Hide and seek drew always a lot of interest, covering one’s eyes with the hand, facing a wall or behind a tree, counting slowly to fifty or as it happened often, accused of being to quick of the mark with a dubious fast tally. The most popular and at the same time divisive activity was when we decided to play football in front of the shop between our neighbours’ fences. When luck was on our side we played with a tennisball, but the supply ran quickly dry, because they went down the drain once too often. Once in the blue moon, a scavenger with his dirt cart and long shovel would do his round clearing the gutters and drains and it was then a beneficial moment to be in attendance. From the filthy ooze we were able to recover our lost treasures, reeking like a skunk.

More often we relied on a self-made ball of newspapers and string, it didn’t have the bounce to score a spectacular goal, but than at the other hand it was not such a menace for the neighbours. At times the heart was in the mouth when a misdirected shot battered one of their windows and I’ve got the feeling that old Mr Huizer must have cursed us a few times when we were on our hands and knees between the conifers and flowerbeds in his garden.
Another exiting but brazen pastime arousing the ire of the adults, were the firecrackers we put on the tramrails, watching the face of the startled driver when the things exploded under his wheels.
I should not forget the fun we had with an ordinary key on a bit of string. The head of a match was put in the cavity of the key and topped with a nail, than with much expectation we hit the wall and that gave a fairly loud bang.
Somehow we were able to put our hands on a knife of sorts that was swung with much fervour into the square we had drawn on the ground. We called it ‘capturing pieces of land’. Typical of the times, I suppose.
The street was ours, knocking on windows and ringing bells, we played tag (krijgertje) and hide and seek (verstoppertje), after the count it was ‘ie wie weg, wie niet weg is wordt gezien’. You held your breath if the seeker came close, and we breath again when someone else was uncovered. It became a race who touched base first, the loser being the next seeker.
We never played hoop, but shared a cart put together from a set pram wheels, a few planks, a soapbox and length of robe. We were on a roll all right, on a collision course, with too many fences and trees to avoid.
Most games were tied to the seasons; in winter we build snowmen and had snowball fights. That was not as innocent as it looked, when you hold a snowball long enough in your clinched fist it becomes a hard piece of ice that can hurt. Everywhere you go, someone had made a slide in the snow and you had to try its slippery run. At times you had to wait for your turn to take a big run of twenty metres or more to take on the gigantic slide. Yes many hours were spent on our vast playground, the street.