Games Without Gadgets: From Marbles to Monopoly

From Pick Up Sticks to Marbles, Monopoly to 'Elastics' in this episode, we reminisce about the games we played as kids, from classic schoolyard staples like Jacks and 'KP' to the creative games we made up on the spot. 

Whether it was digging out Matchbox cars or simply riding our bikes or skateboards til it was time to come home (before the street lights came on), it was an era worth resetting the flux capacitor for & before gadgets, gizmo's and 'tech'!

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Transcript

00:01

If you're old enough to remember when phones had cords and the only thing that went viral was a cold, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the Big Six-O with Kaylee Harris and Guy Rowlison. Because who better to discuss life's second act than two people who still think mature is a type of cheese?

00:38

Welcome again to the Big Six A, the podcast where we prove that 60 is the new 40, except now we probably need rooting glasses. I'm Guy Rowlison and joining me is my good friend from primary school and someone who used to rock pigtails and bobbles and probably barter scouts, the wonderful Kayleigh Harris. Hey Kayleigh. You know Guy, how are you doing? I'm doing okay. If you're new to the podcast, Guy and I went to primary school together in Sydney. Our very first podcast was about...

01:06

those school days, including some of the games that we played. I remember in the first episode we spoke about Jax and KP and stuff like that. But this podcast, we want to talk about play in general when we were kids. We made our own games, didn't we? We played up a lot. We did. But, but so I guess it comes under the sort of made up our own games, but there were a lot of sort of games, those outside games that we'd play that, you know, it sort of taught.

01:35

social skills and things like that as far as being able to interact with other kids and just have a lot of fun in general really. Yeah exactly and I think one of my earliest memories of play was I grew up I was born in Brisbane and we had we lived in a Queenslander one of those houses that's up on Stiltz and so you had all the underneath the house area and it was fantastic because the the boy next door and I used to get our little matchbox cars and we'd

02:05

build virtual cities underneath the house in the dirt and we would drive our matchbox cars through the through these little dirt tunnels and stuff like that and I and getting a new matchbox car if you were ever fortunate enough to get one once every few weeks it was just like a new little treasure in its box and you didn't want to get it dirty and that's one of my earliest memories of of play. Yeah I used to do the same thing in our house we were our house was built up as well.

02:33

And you'd go into the house and make roads and you'd, I virtually did the same sort of thing and you know, it didn't matter, you'd probably lose a car or two along the way, but I've still got some of those cars, you know, it's tucked away in a box and you know, and, and that was just so much fun, but your imagination used to go sort of off and on tangent, didn't it? You know, whether it was playing cars or

02:57

you know, or whatever it was. And I think it, I think that's the thing that, that we benefited from not having, you know, the technology that's available to kids these days is that, you know, you, we made our own fun, but we also, there were plenty of times we were bored, but that was often when you sort of got the most benefit out of play was when you were bored, right? You would, you would find things to do, whether it was going down to the local creek and finding guppies or yabbies or.

03:25

whatever and just exploring with you know with the other kids in the neighborhood they were like your best friends. Yeah and and it was in a time when you knew all the kids in the street and you'd walk to their house or you know or if mum made you you'd have to ring someone up and say oh do you want to come around and play because you'd get home from school or it's a weekend then it was always a case of like if the sun's shining go outside and play. Yeah. And so you did yeah you

03:54

you know in games or just come up with something because you know otherwise you're kicking stones and you know you're going crazy as a as a ten year old probably. Yeah and I think I I have one memory in Brisbane I would have been about five and there was a there was three kids next door there was Diane, Michael and John and and I had my sister as well but we all and a few other neighbourhood ring in kids came over to to Michael and John Diane's house one day and we were all playing doctors and nurses.

04:22

Now I'm not going to say too much more about that. Yeah. I mean I think about that now and I think how did we come up with that idea to what kind of what, how did we justify that to ourselves that that was even a game? Don't go there, I know you've already gone there but yeah, been there done that and I don't know, I don't know how that came about like all of a sudden yeah I don't know that whole doctors and nurses thing.

04:52

Yeah, because it's not like we were subject to sort of, you know. I mean nothing, nothing, nothing bad happened. If I can just preface by saying nothing bad happened, but you know, it was the, the, whoever was playing the doctor would come over and poke you in the stomach and go, does this hurt? Does this hurt? And you go ouch. And it was like a legitimate game. It wasn't anything rude or anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But how we came up with that concept. I know. And, and

05:20

I was mentioning your social skills. There was a game we used to play as a kid called sardines. I don't know if you remember that. I never heard of that one. What was that? Think, think, think sort of hide and seek, but you know, you might have, and we were fortunate in the street we're in, you know, we had probably, you know, there was six kids next door and then there were two kids next door to them and there was a kid across the road. And so we probably, we had kids on tap and sardines was essentially you play hide and seek. And

05:50

there was one person that would go and look for everyone. But when you found that person, they went and hid with someone else. So eventually everyone was hiding in the one spot and that person that was looking for them actually had to find everyone. But you know, it was, yeah. I mean, there's just stuff that we made up, right? Yeah, that's right. So like you'd have some kid behind a bush and some kid behind a gate and someone and Kayleigh was looking for you. And while Kayleigh wasn't looking, you'd go and hide.

06:19

that kid that's behind the gate. So it was all but it was just stuff that was made up and we called it sardines because eventually all these kids were hiding in this one place. Yeah. And but I don't know where they come from. So yeah it was just one of those things. Or is there anything that you remember making up or playing that you think? Just no not that I can remember making up so much. I think it's you just when you were talking about chasings and

06:46

and it's got different names depending on which state you grow up in right? It was either Chasings or Tag. It had other names as well. Like what are. So long as it wasn't like Boys Germs No Returns. Yeah. There was that as well. Yeah. Yeah. There was that as well. And if you weren't fortunate enough to have a pool and we weren't we I I never had a pool growing up. We weren't rich enough. Only only rich kids had that. Nobody in our street had a pool. You make it with a slip and slide. Oh how good were they? Bit of plastic.

07:14

bit of mum's palm olive detergent, throw it on there and you'd go whizzing off the end. Yeah, or like I did once and yeah, I got a bit of a paddling from dad, I think, because, you know, we had a reasonably big backyard and I thought it was a great idea not to worry about the plastic, but just to put the hose down and just slide along the grass. And so there was just this long track all the way down that was just mud. And I thought...

07:40

and dad loved his lawn. No I didn't see anything too wrong with it because it was a lot of fun but exactly yeah I found that real quick. Mud! How good was mud when you were a kid? I know I know. Mud pies? What about at school? What were the games at school that you sort of liked playing? Well we talked about Elastics which I kind of remember doing something with Elastics and with the girls and but you know KP which was essentially just handball. You talked about in an earlier

08:10

Which I do remember. That was just, that was just a license to, you know, I guess they all had different names, um, but you have like kids on either side of the oval and some kid in the middle. And you just, it was like bull rush. It was like, you know, everyone would run at this kid and this kid would tackle someone and eventually there'd be like 10 kids in the middle and like two kids either side that just knew they were going to get an absolute pummeling. They were ready to jump on you.

08:38

But, you know, but that and like four things back where you just, you're either throw a ball or kick a ball, you know, either side and see how far you could, you know, kick damn football. All those things that, you know, aren't organized, but someone's come up with it and just, you know, it kept you occupied for hours. And do you remember like hide and seek? I can remember being anxious with hide and seek cause it'd be okay. You've got to, there'll be someone there who's got, I'm going to count to 10. You've got.

09:07

accounts tend to go hide and and the anxiety associated with where can I hide? And you just get really stressed out. There was a thing at school and I think I might be the only person that remembered this. If sport wasn't on. Hmm. If sport wasn't on and your heart sank. I mean if you like playing sport and they had this thing called tabloids and I don't know if you remember that. Never heard of that. Well what is that? I must be the only person on the face of the

09:37

Tabloids was basically, they'd set up little stations around the playground because you weren't allowed to go in the oval and it'd be like, um, individual little games that you would play. So it might be, you know, you got your little sack of beans or something and you'd throw it into a hole or something. Or then the next thing would be like hula hoops where you would be doing something. But they called it tabloids. Tabloids? I wonder where they came from? Oh, I got no idea. Is this teacher's making up a name?

10:06

But you'd go from station to station to station and everyone would be 10 minutes and then you'd move on to the next thing. But I hated it. I hated it. It wasn't real sport. It was just, Oh, how are we going to keep the kids occupied for an hour and a half of an afternoon? Which as parents now we understand, don't we? Like, how do I keep those kids occupied for the next hour? But one thing I really loved was marbles. I don't know whether you got into marbles. Oh, I loved marbles.

10:34

I was captivated by some of the marbles and the colours in the marbles and you had the big the bigger sort of jumbo sized ones and you had the little ones but the but how they used to get those colours into the marbles like I couldn't stop looking at them. Oh yeah cat's eyes and all those sort of things yeah yeah and like you had the what are they called tombolas or something and like you had the really big ones and then you had the the bald bearings which apparently were the ants pants and you know.

11:02

And it was, you know, if you got trapped down to the little gutter part of the school where someone, and you had to, you know, hit their marble three times and then you won it. But everyone had their little bag of marbles and you think, oh man. Oh my gosh, it was so simplistic. How much fun was it? Oh, it was fantastic. The other game I remember is, um, and this, you know, we talked earlier about playing with our matchbox cars and trucks and stuff, but for a girl playing with your dolls and playing

11:31

you know, like husband and wives and stuff with your dolls. I had a Barbie, but I never had a Ken doll. I was, I, I, for some reason I wanted a GI Joe. It was all comes back to me liking men in uniform again, but I had this GI Joe and GI Joe and Barbie had a thing. Very innocent thing, but they, I used to make them kiss and I used to call it kissy darlings. So I'd go, well, come on, like Barbie, you've got to give.

11:59

a kiss and I'd go and they'd have little kissy darlings. It was all very naughty. But it's something so innocent, right? So and then I'd maybe you know maybe GI Joe was crossdressing a bit with some of Barbie's frocks. You're unpacking a fair bit here. And it was just it was fun. It was just you know fun games that you played and you know and then Barbie would put on GI Joe's camouflage gear and we'd we'd just

12:27

mix things up a little bit. It was just, am I sharing too much? So Barbie would put on G.I.J.'s camo gear. Yes, yeah a bit Demi Moore-ish you know from... Not Kayleigh, it was Barbie wasn't it? It was Barbie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely, yes. I knew she was whispering something to you about that. I remember as a kid and I gotta say like in the spirit of you know acceptance and equality, I didn't have a Barbie but I did get given like a...

12:55

them, they were man dolls back in the day. It wasn't a G.I. Joe, but it was something called Captain Action. And it was like, it was an action figure thing. Yeah. Then you could change his clothes into Superman, but the premise was the same. Wasn't it? Like, yeah, exactly the same. You had someone there and you took them on adventures or, you know, I'm glad Captain Action and G.I. Joe didn't compare notes because obviously they would afford over Barbie. But of course they fought over Ken. I mean, you know, that was the kind of.

13:23

know you've got to be inclusive these days. I know I know. So. Did you ever hear about a Chrissy doll? No. A Chrissy doll I had a Chrissy doll and every girl a 10 year old girl wanted a Chrissy doll so it was a it was a probably about you know a foot high maybe two foot high doll and she had this long hair but you were her you could push a button on her back and her hair would retract into her head and she'd go from short hair to long hair. Wow. So she could have a short hair do.

13:53

you could pull her hair out and it would be long. It was on some sort of a thing inside of the head. And I'd made this stupid decision one day to um I had her hair in the short position so it was like shoulder length. Then I got the scissors and cut it off and then push the button and they're all disappeared inside of it. And all of a sudden she had no hair. But it was yeah Chrissy Dolls were a thing. It was a real every girl wanted a Chrissy Doll so they could just brush their hair. You know what girls are like with hair?

14:22

Well, girls that don't cut your hair, I mean, I'm surprised you didn't go into a career in hairdressing after that. Oh my goodness. No, I would never have made it. Oh gosh. What about games like board games? Did you play board games as well as a kid? Oh yeah. Before we get to board games, can I just take you back to riding our bikes? Oh yes. Suburbs away. Yes. Suburbs away and you'd be gone all day and you'd only come home at dinner time. As long as you're home before dark, right?

14:50

Well, I wasn't allowed to have a bike until I was 12. I had a scooter. Yeah. Okay. That, that, that wasn't exactly manly. That didn't really pull the chicks, did it? Couldn't go the driving on the scooter there, our guy. No, no, nowhere to hang the speaker. No. But yeah, but even so you would, you would just, you know, and not like today where you needed to photograph yourself every minute of every day to show people where you wanted to find an escape, didn't you? We would go.

15:19

literally suburbs away and and we didn't have helmets. They weren't a thing. Now that's not a good thing. You know can I preface that by saying that you know you absolutely helmets are life saving. And and we should have but they just weren't on our radar at that age. Kids would just go and ride their bikes and

15:37

go for you know packs of kids suburbs away. Yeah the daredevils sort of stuff too because then you'd build ramps if you you know if you didn't have a racing bike but if you had a dragster the three-speed dragster with the sissy bar and the streamers I don't know did you? The Melbourne Roadster. Did you have that? Yeah absolutely. Wow I was besotted by the girl next door I think it was because she had just the coolest dragster oh oh yeah if you had a dragster you were like next level cool. Oh yeah.

16:04

Yeah. But you would, you'd build ramps and you'd jump over them or whatever it was, or, or you'd have your skaty under your arm and you'd go skateboarding as well. Um, I was never cool enough to go skateboarding. I, that was a boys thing. Girls didn't really skateboard when I was young. Yeah. Same girl next door that had the dragster also had a skateboard. So, Oh, see. Yeah. But the Surfer Sam, I don't know if you remember that name, that was the Surfer Sam skateboard, and that was the forerunner to being cool. And then you, then you got all these other, you know,

16:33

Baines Superflex skateboards and all those sort of things that were, you know, cool when we were sort of, you know, early teens and, but yeah, you'd go away. It didn't matter where you went, but provided you were back sort of before it was too late, um, because mom or dad couldn't ring you on your mobile. You know, that's right. Yeah, exactly. And you usually came back cause you are either hungry or, you know, or it's getting dark or it's just getting dark. Yeah. So a hundred percent.

17:01

Let's bring it inside now. Let's bring it into the board games. Obviously, probably the biggest is Monopoly. When Monopoly sort of came into the world, I think in the 70s when it first really appeared in Australia, it was the game. Everyone had to have a Monopoly game. Did you have a favourite piece on the board? Did you have to be a favourite? The dog. You too? Yeah, I loved the dog, but my sister always wanted the dog and I always got relegated the boot.

17:30

I had to have the dog. I had to have the dog. Yeah. Yeah, the dog or the car. They were good weren't they? Well, no one wanted to be the thimble. No. No, no. I thought the boot was pretty close to the bottom, but you're right. The thimble. It was a fun game. Yeah, it was so much fun. And if you want to be the banker, I don't know, I don't know, I never liked being the banker, but I just like to

17:56

get those Park Lane and what was the other Mayfair? Yeah, just had to get Park Lane and Mayfair. No one wanted Old Kent. No, no, Euston Street and Old Kent and whatever they were. I never understood the whole thing with the railway stations. If you got four of those, you got so much more rental. When it started getting into buying houses and hotels, I was really lost with that kind of stuff because I think I was just too young to understand how that worked. I loved me a Monopoly game and I thought, yeah, I could play that all day back in the day.

18:26

Then there was the others, like there was like Battleship. Did you ever, as a girl, did you ever play Battleship? No, I obviously knew of Battleship because all the boys played it all the time, but no, I never got into Battleship. That was one that- It was a bit of a boy thing. Yeah, I really liked it. And things like, made around the corner, up the road. He had really cool games like Cluedo and Masterpiece and all those sort of-

18:49

Oh Masterpiece. Was it Masterpiece or Mastermind? There was two. There was Mastermind and Masterpiece was like yeah all those games about paintings and things like that. But the Mastermind one I remember as well. That was a lot of fun and I had one of my earliest games I had was Kerplunk. Do you remember the premise? Like Kerplunk was like a clear plastic tube with all these holes in the side and you'd put all these sticks through all the holes and it would basically form a bed inside the tube and then you'd put the balls on top.

19:19

And the idea was to slowly pull out the sticks without dropping a ball to the bottom. It was pretty pointless, but God, we played it for hours. It was sort of, it was a, it was a forerunner to a couple of games, but it was similar in nature. Wasn't it? When you had like pickup sticks. Yes. Yeah. Very similar to pick up sticks. Can you still buy those? Cause it was the black one. What was the thing with the, there was a black one, wasn't it? Cause all different colors and you had to move the sticks and you weren't allowed to, how did it work again? I can't remember.

19:49

But I'm sure we could buy it online somewhere to be available to play pick up sticks. We should we should do that one day. That'd be a lot of fun. Someone or someone will remind us on the Facebook page. If you haven't visited us yet, go to the big six. So we're on Facebook. Please tell us the point of that. And what was the point of Maus trap? I just used to watch like how did you win at Maus trap? My the ball would just go down through all this obstacle course, get down the bottom and then the net would fall over the top of the mouse and you go. Yeah, I remember the ads and I just wanted one and I was never lucky enough.

20:19

kids had had it said it used to take longer to set up than it was to actually play. That's all I was going to say it took longer to set up than it did to actually play there was really no point to that. You're talking about your Matchbox cars and under the house um I had the Cheap Man's version of something but there used to be scale-etrics and all those sort of racing you know with the remote controls and yeah oh you know if you had a mate that had one of those how much fun was it? Oh yeah they were next level weren't they? Oh that was next level I had a

20:47

I say to the poor man's version, I think it was called something motorific, racerific or something. And yeah, it was fun. I was fortunate enough to get it. Like, you know, it's one of those sort of things, but if someone had a scale electric saw, Oh yeah, how good was that? Oh yeah. They were the rich kids. Or something, you know, it was great. They were the kids that had the pool as well. Well, we had the dry clad. We had the above ground aluminium one that sort of.

21:10

you have one of those like the clap rubber pool or whatever it was yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah sort of siding and then put the liner in and yeah it was yeah a lot of fun but you know you just walk around and around in circles because that was about yeah then you get out we had a sprinkler when that was all we had was the spring you just run through the sprinkler and try and avoid the bindi patch oh yes the sprinkler ran up and down how good was that but going back to the games i mean we we had things like there was trouble which was like this uh little

21:38

pop-o-matic dice in the middle and you used to move around the outside. And then there were things like just your old school games like Chinese checkers. Did you ever get into that? Yeah I did get into Chinese checkers. Definitely got into that. I remember that well. Chinese checkers and snakes and ladders was another favourite. I love snakes and ladders. These are all games. It's a shame that at some stage...

22:03

something happened where all those sort of things went out the window and I guess technology and sort of what the newest brightest sort of you know flower was in the garden but then there were things that were just you know that you do on your holidays like going to play like the pinnies or you know oh my gosh or and I know you and I have spoken about this before um the going up to the comic shop and getting comics and you know I remember we used to go

22:30

we'd go to the Gold Coast for our holidays to see my grandparents. And my parents wouldn't let us go down to the beach in the hottest part of the day. So between, you know, 12 and two or whatever. I said, well, can I, she goes, you go and have a sleep. And of course you don't want to sleep. She'd say, well, you don't have to sleep, but you have to go and lie down, you know? But she'd let me go and get a Richie Rich comic. Wow. And I'd come back and lie there. And I loved it. And as soon as you finished, you could go back and swap it for another one. You didn't have to buy them. You could, like a library, you could swap over the comics. And

22:59

I get lost in those comics for hours. Yeah, it was so good. And you know, this was sound strange, but in my professional career, comics became something that actually was meaningful because I found out much later that your recognition of colour and the way you can mix colours and all those sort of things was very relevant in comics apparently. And I had this lecturer that said, look, you know, when you're learning how you use colours,

23:28

One of the best things you can look at is a comic book because the way that they sort of drag kids in through the use of colour in those things was way before its time. I thought, wow. And the telling of a story. Yeah. Look, who knew? Who knew? Yeah, whether it was Scrooge McDuck or Richie Rich or whoever it was. Oh, I loved it. Just getting a comic and just, and I don't know if you remember, but a lot of those comics too had those ads where you could

23:55

buy things, you know, online, you know, whether it's a seven C stamp company or a submarine or you can dress up or, or the, or the, or the explaining golf ball or the soap that made your face black or X-ray goggles. It's like ACME stuff again. Oh, those X-ray glasses. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Oh, wow. Didn't I want a pair of those? Cause I thought, oh, you can see through everything. But you know, it was always disappointment if you actually ever ordered something from those comic books and it would come to your house. And you think, right, that's submarine is.

24:25

Oh, it's a cardboard thing. Yeah, it's not a real one. Going back to pinball machines. And you know, when we sort of got to that age, I guess around 13, 14, 15, I don't know, when we were sort of would stick our head in a pinball arcade where all the cool kids were and the only two pinball machines I remember are the kiss one, the band kiss on them and also the, there was a playboy one, which I thought was really naughty.

24:52

but just the noise that they used to make and the flippers when they would flick and hit the ball and you know you'd get right into the whole movement of it wouldn't you? Yeah I know we talked about this a little while ago and yes I went and bought one as a midlife crisis. I have so much more respect for you now. Oh Jesus you set the bar low. You bought a Timbal machine my gosh. And it was so much fun you just relived those teenage years and it had to be as I said it had to be a mechanical uh electro-mechanical one where the

25:21

where the reels would go around you and hear the ching ching ching ching ching ching ching ching ching and it just had the feel and the sound and the smell and the vibe and it was I had it for, it must have been like 15, 20 years and it was, you know, not often would your grown up mates just come around to your house because it was a barbecue. They wanted to come around to play the pinny. Play the pinny. Yeah. Which I think probably most most modern poker machines are based on that sound aren't they? That

25:48

that winning sound that you would hear. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent, you know. And then moving into the digital age, that probably the first digital game that we, that I remember is Hub Pong or Pong. When it was just two little white lines, either side of the screen and a ball going across. And it would gradually get faster and faster. And that was the first, I guess, game, digital game or that we ever really knew.

26:14

Yeah, was it like Atari and you'd have the plug it into the TV and you'd Yes, yeah, ding ding and that's all it did. Yeah. How advanced was that? Yeah. You know, it was until Space Invaders came along. Oh yeah. That was the coolest game I think when I was about 15 with Space Invaders. Space Invaders. There was actually a song in the charts about it. Yeah, it was actually a band called Player One. That's right.

26:41

that had that song and strangely enough as much as we thought the only place it really charted was Australia. Really? Yeah that's another episode altogether. Oh we're gonna do that another time. Whether it was Pac-Man or Space Man. I loved Pac-Man. Oh you're a Pac-Man girl. I loved Pac-Man that was fantastic and if you were and this is another boy thing right um some of the some of your friends who were boys in the neighborhood had soccer tables. Yes. And like that wasn't really a girl thing and I

27:10

didn't really play them very often, didn't really know how they worked. Did you ever get into soccer tables or those sorts of things? A kid across the road had one. Yeah. And like he was a soccer nut. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, yeah. You know, he had one of those tables and it was, you know, it was a whole lot of fun. Yeah. I didn't really get it. It was fun because you were playing with the kid across the road, really. Yeah, exactly. And that was the thing. I was more, you're sort of like, you know, if I was playing.

27:38

I wanted to play outside. I wanted to play sports, all those sort of things, which, you know, boys, you're an outside kid, but there was a game when it came to cricket called Test Match and it, oh, that was legendary. I never played it, but I knew the boys loved it. Look, it was like, it was, you know, you had in the days of eight ball over and you'd bowl the googly and as soon as you got the googly and you're going to get out, you know, it is a legendary game, you know, and yeah.

28:07

Great Aussie game. Oh yeah. Look, I had a really good friend that he came from the bush and he won't mind me telling you this story, but his favorite game is a game called squatter when you talk about a good Aussie game. Oh, squatter. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Another great Aussie game about sheep stations and stuff. That's it. You know, you know, and when people say, Oh, we're not playing for sheep stations. Well, with that game, you actually were. You were. Yeah. That's right. So.

28:33

There was just so many games, but so many things to keep you occupied other than a phone or other than social media, right? Yeah, and we won't even get into things like silkworms and cicadas that the boys used to chase the girls around with cicadas in their hand. I was terrified of them. Black princes and brown bakers and brain grocers and all those sort of things. The kids actually go and pick up cicadas anymore? Yeah, I didn't. I think I was 30 before I realised that they don't actually bite.

29:00

I spent the first 30 years of my life terrified the boys did run around after you with one, try and put it on you and I thought it was going to bite me and it wasn't until years later I realised hang on a minute they don't bite. When you think back and whether it was pick up sticks or kerplunk or mousetrap or tag there was just so much to do, so much we made up. Wasn't it wonderful? Yeah. How much? But there were still times we were bored. Oh yeah. Should we touch on spin the bottle? You've raised it now. We have to go there. All right.

29:30

Go there. Go there. So we played it with, I think I would have been about 12 and we, me and some of the neighborhood kids, including some of the boys, we're all sitting in a circle in the garage where the grownups wouldn't find us. And we decided to play spin the bottle and it landed on this one kid that I was never going to kiss. And I just went and his face lit up when the bottle landed on him. And I said, oh, no, I'm sorry, because.

29:58

I was 11 or 12 and I was like, no, I never kissed a boy before in my life. I had no, and I wasn't going to kiss him. And I look back now and I feel really bad. I haven't got over that. You know that, don't you? Oh, I did. And I remember, I remember it like it was the girl across the road had a party and I, I was just innocent. This was my first party that I'd sort of gone to where I, you know, it wasn't, you know, fairy bread.

30:27

whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I was probably 12, not quite the fairy bread stakes, but I went there and I thought, Oh, and they said, Oh, we're going to place you in the bottle. I had no idea what it was. Absolutely no idea. And I'm sitting there once again in the garage, the lights were off. Yeah, absolutely. And, and they, they spun the bottle and it sort of went to some girl and I won't say her name, but I do remember. But, but, and then it, and I thought, Oh, okay. Well that

30:57

Yeah, what happens? And then it landed on me and I thought, right. What's, what's next. And then I found out and I thought, I'd never kiss this girl. Well, not this girl, but any girl before. And I thought, oh, she's an experienced woman. She might've been 13. I don't know. But then I found out what spin the bottle was. Right. Um, yes. You actually did kiss someone. So you got, we all went further than I did. There was a bit of peer pressure going on.

31:26

Yeah, if there's so much peer pressure we spin the bottle. Oh yeah, so I learnt very quickly and awkwardly what spin the bottle is all about. We learnt everything about life in the playground and in the garage. Or at those parties. Well speaking of life, I think we've probably got a little bit of living to do haven't we? And we've got places to go and I don't know. And I think we should stop here before we get any further.

31:51

We're gonna get into real trouble aren't we? We will. Alright, well hey listen, I'll go, you go, and we might catch up again later. Okay, see you later. Cheers, bye.

32:06

Oh, and before we go, let's give credit where credit is due. Kaylee Harris and I came up with all the genius content for this week's episode. Our producer, Nick Abood, well he keeps the lights on and makes sure we don't accidentally upload a cat video instead of a podcast. So thanks for keeping us on track, Nick. Nick?