Games and hobbies

Reading

Have a look through the following extracts from a scrapbook. In it, the writer gives us an impression of the various pastimes and hobbies that he enjoyed at different times in his life.

As you read, ask yourself how his interests and activities compare with yours at each stage ofyour life. Decide what you and the writer have in common and how you differ. Also identify the words for the things in the illustrations.

0 to 5

Nursery Rhymes

with Mummy and Daddy

Jack and Jill went up the hill and Fairy Tales with Uncle Bill

Once upon a time

there was a handsome prince.

Dummies and rattles and big soft toys teddy bears, dolls that walked and talked abacus, bricks andjigsawpuzzles crayons, plasticine, paints and chalk.

Swings and roundabouts climbing frame

see-saw, slide

and playground games castles in the sandpit bucket and spade.

'Jennifer pushed me.' 'Hecalledmenames.'

6 to 10

Feet stuck

on the rocking horse toes squashed

on the tricycle knees grazed

coming off the scooter bottom sore

from the bicycle.

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Games and hobbies

Model aeroplanes sticky fingers missing bits

and breaking things train sets

and making pastry cut-out shapes and rolling-pins.

Keeping pets

like mice and hamsters rabbits in their hutch and snakes in jars puppies and kittens

in kennels and baskets canaries in cages with budgerigars.

On Sundays, we went to Sunday School. 'Well, you're going, whether you like it or not. Whatever would Jesus say?' Before that, we usually managed half an hour of skipping in the garden. I still think giving my little sister my treasured three-year-old skipping rope was my most generous juvenile act. Afterwards, there was hopscotch on the pavement — were we really as blind to traffic as children are today? - or, if it was raining, 'doctors and nurses' indoors.

And then, every now and then, horror of horrors, a party with party games like pass the parcel and musical chairs. I am convinced that my present unease in the company ofladies can be traced back to the afternoon when, as a seven-year-old and as a forfeit — or was it a prize? -1 was required to leave the party room with a gigantic ten-year-old girl and plant a kiss on one of her cheeks.

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Games and hobbies

11 to 15

Life became slower. My friend Mary went off for hours:

knitting - huge needles, dropped stitches, uneven rows, 'Aren't I clever?' sewing -1 swear it took her half an hour to thread the needle every time.

doing embroidery - she managed one flower on a cushion cover in seven and a half months.

doingcrochet—'Now I'm reallygrown-up!' We got involved with:

chemistry sets - the smell ofrotten eggs, the sound ofbreaking glass. andflyingmykites in the April winds.

I didn't see her so much after that, except for our board games together: progressing from Snakes and Ladders — Your go.' 'Pass the dice.' - to Monopoly, todraughts,tobackgammon,to chess.

She never liked card games, but we didfinallygraduate from snap to whist, to canasta, to bridge. We stopped short ofpoker; poker came later.

ace of spades king of hearts queen of clubs jack (knave) of diamonds 'You shuffle the cards, she can cut them, and I'll deal them. Perhaps I can deal myself a good hand. It's about time I won some tricks.'

She got bored by my riddles - 'What will go up a chimney down but won't come down a chimney up?' 'Don't know.' 'An umbrella.' 'Huh!'

and made paper aeroplanes with my romantic poetry - 'You and the Daffodils,' to Mary, love George.

She went to ballet lessons and then tap-dancing classes. I was sent to ballroom dancing lessons. Does anyone know the difference between a tango and a quickstep,awaltzandafoxtrot, asambaandacha-cha?'Takeyourpartnersfor a military two-step,' I hated every minute ofit.

16 to 20

We got interested in cookery - 'The recipe said it would rise like bread, but it's as flat as a pancake!'

I took up photography - expensive camera, telephoto lens, light-meter built in, hours in the darkroom, developing and printing, photos ofthumbs and backs of heads.

Then came hercrosswords—Clues: 1Across: see 23 Down. (Solutionbelow) - and word games and puzzles.

And then, all of a sudden, hi-fi:

And nine months later, motorcycle maintenance:

oily rags and dungarees; stripping engines, decoking, tuning, changing wheels, plugs, pistons, oil; sweating.

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Games and hobbies

Then there were outdoor activities like: skiing, skating,

surfing, canoeing, horse-riding, wind-surfing, parachuting, hang-gliding, mountaineering, pot-holing, roller-skating, skateboarding, water-skiing, hiking, campingandshooting.

My friends all told me they were great fun. I enjoyed the occasional picnic but my favourites were indoor activities like:

fruit machines and pin-tables, table football and video games, pool, darts,

skittles and bowling.

We can't all be outdoor types.

21 to 25

Once we went hunting together, all red and white - red for the jacket, the fox, the blood,

white for the teeth, the trousers, her face.

That started her on a year or two ofanger and protest: meetings, demonstrations, placards and posters: 'Down with whatsisname,' 'Stop the whatsit', 'Hands off thingummy,"Soandso out!'

Meanwhile, I began gambling:

£20 bets at fantastic odds of10 to 1,

winnings of£200 plus my stake money back, ifthe horse that I'd bet on had won. She then gave up politics for dress-making -

'You can't go wrong ifyou follow the pattern.' I flirted with gardening - fun for a week -

'Sow in boxes, in moist compost, plant out carefully, water daily.' Then I turned to alcohol, brewing my own beer,

distillingmy own whisky, makingmy own wine. She did basket-weaving, then pottery for a while: handleless jugs and unusable vases,

while I tried my hand at carpentry.

I was in danger of becoming a do-it-yourselffanatic when, suddenly and gloriously, I fell in love with cars.

After my love-affair with cars, what else was there left? Onandoff,therewas:

fishing - apparently the most popular outdoor pastime in Britain. Happiness for millions is a rod and a line, a good catch on the hook.

playing bingo - a strange phenomenon, a party game with gambling, and lots of prizes.

newspapercompetitions—'Andthis week,YOUcanwinanyorAll ofthePrince's wedding presents!'

yoga, jogging and keep-fit classes - 'Touch your toes! Don't bend your knees!'

Cartwheels, forward rolls, somersaults, press-ups.

Anyone who can do all that must be made of rubber. And, ofcourse, TV

and ante-natal classes, and then:

Nursery Rhymes

with Mummy and Daddy

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

and Once upon a time

there was a boy called Hansel.

Fairy Tales with Uncle Paul.

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Games and hobbies

Practice

[1]Note down the hobbies and activities you enjoyed from the age of five to the age of fifteen.

[2]Write or discuss the answers to these questions.

1What hobbies do you now regret not taking up when you were younger? Include any hobbies that you gave up too soon.

2What activities will you encourage your children to enjoy? Are there any you will discourage them from?

3Is there any reason why both girls and boys shouldn't be actively interested in any of the pastimes listed above?

[3]Practise giving instructions on how to do your favourite hobby or at least three of activities 1-6.

[4]Write a few paragraphs of a speech, in which you complain that girls and boys are treated very differently from an early age and therefore grow up with very different roles in society.

[5]Write, in dialogue form, a conversation between a bored teenager and a parent who's trying to interest him or her in some worthwhile hobby.

[6]Write a reply to a friend who has written asking for your advice on how to keep her six-year-old twins amused during the long summer holidays.

Add here any other activities that you know or hear of:

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