Ball games and climbing trees

I am little disturbed by a new school rule that prevents children playing ball games.  I gather that this before and after school and perhaps in after school care.  The school in question has banned the ball games because they are too dangerous.

When I was at school we played all sorts of games.  Playing ball was one of our favourites.  We had all sorts of games that went on and on.  We juggled the balls against the wall, we bounced them, threw them and played brandy.  Brandy a game where chucking the ball at each other or branding them was a fun thing to do.  Dodging the ball was the thing.  If you were really good you never got branded.  This was a game of skill and not judged too rough for us kids either by parents or teachers.

I don't think that brandy would be encouraged these days.  What once was fun is now vetoed.  I am sure there are a lot of people that would welcome any kind of exercise for kids but are now stymied by rules and regulations.  How are kids going to get exercise if every exercise is now deemed too rough and too dangerous?

My favourite thing when I was a kid in Wasleys was to climb the huge Norfolk Island pines in the next door paddock.  I would climb and climb until I got up so far that the branches swayed back and forth.  Mum used to come out and shout at me but I affected not to hear.  At Peterhead I climbed a beautiful mulberry tree in the next door house.  I climbed and sat and ate mulberries and made the tree into my little kingdom of make believe.  Almond trees were also a favourite of mine.  Of course I was not supposed to climb them when there were blossoms but hey I was a kid right???

At one place where we lived us kids used to climb up a tree onto the roof of a shed, run across the old saggy corrugated iron roof and then shinny down the drain pipe on the other side.  The purpose of this game I think was to see just how quickly we could do it.  We got yelled at for that one too.  Yelling did not stop us it was too much fun.

While I never hurt myself climbing or playing ball I did suffer skinned knees.  Skinned knees were a badge of honour.  If your knees weren't skinned now and then obviously you hadn't really been playing properly like a kid should.  I always managed to sprain my ankle.  I was forever bandaged up and limping but the temporary bother of a sprained ankle never stopped me from going back to doing the exact same things again and again.

'In the 'good old days'  I ran and ran and fell and scraped, bruised and sprained and I had 'fun.'  I was skinny.  I exercised all the time.  I didn't know it was exercise I thought I was playing.  I am sad for kids who will never experience the joy of  playing brandy or climbing up and up through the branches of trees.  Poor poor kids.  I feel like crying.