|
She often risked life and limb to join the local boys on top of the wall. She would also dare to leap from one dyke to another, many of which had sharp metal railings positioned perilously below. Stories of how children were impaled whilst undertaking this dangerous stunt, were constantly circulating around the neighbourhood and I often wondered if the graveyards would ever run out of space for all these dead punctured children. The tenement windows would suddenly be thrown open and adults would yell. 'will you weans get doon aff that wa', dae yae want tae be kilt'. 'children would shout defiantly ' aw ma, a'm no gonnae fa', a've done it hundreds of times afore'. 'A'll no tell yae again, jist git up the sters fur yer dinner when yer tellt'. Getting down off the dyke without falling required considerable skill. The technique was to lie on your belly and dreep slowly over the side until you were holding on with just your finger tips, then let go and hope you landed safely on your feet. Dyke jumping wasn't the only hazardous 'back coort' game. Weans (mainly boys) would climb over the railings around the 'dunny' and walk precariously along a horizontal drainpipe. Falling would have meant plunging into the damp, rat infested dunny below (pictured on the left of the painting). Tormenting rats was another popular pastime. Weans would pour rain water, collected in old tin baths, down the numerous rat holes. As the rats swam out of their burrows the children would pelt them with bricks. Lassies preferred to use the bricks to build pretend houses and shops. Old cans, packets and bottles were lined up on imaginary shelves ready to sell to customers. This may sound like a less dangerous activity but playing in the dirt with rusty cans and dirty water must also have had its' risks as I later discovered, having contracted Weil's disease. |
|
