Kick the Can

Kick the Can

I was 10 years going on 11 years when my mind exploded and I discovered that girls did more that play skipping ropes & peever, there was one, no !! two girls I was in love with, one from 4 Irwin St, the only trouble was, she didn’t like me, so it went like this “ Will you be my girl-friend“ and she would reply “ Shove off “, there was another beautiful lass from 1 Smillie St, “ Will you be my girl friend “ Sure “ she said, so I was made up

Now about 10 to 15 of us would play Kick the Can, when it was dark, no good during daylight, all we needed was one empty can, no problem, everybody stand up against the wall, and one of us would choose, “ eeny, meeny, manny, mo, iccy, picky, Julio, ricky, umpum, pine, ease, and so on till the end Tea sugar and marmalade, tea sugar your out

So he was the searcher, the can was placed in the middle of the street between 2 & 4 Irwin Street, the object of the game, the can was tossed as far away as possible, every one ran to find a hiding spot. Whilst the searcher went to get the can and place it in the street, he would go and hunt for everyone, if he caught you, it was your turn to be searcher, everyone headed for the Middens, now a Midden was part of the houses, big enough for 2 dust- bins side by side, enough room either side and at the back, about 4 or 5 feet high, now these 2 dust bins served 6 houses, everyone had a fire, so there were ashes in plenty plus house hold rubbish, I told the story, when I had a drink or two

Mother…” Billy Sinclair, what are you doing in that midden “

Me…” I’m doing dirty things to wee Maggie from number 6 Mammy “

Mother…! “ That’s all right son, I thought you were smoking “

only trouble was my wee sister was repeating my story to someone in a pub in Dereham, and the woman's sister was standing beside her, only trouble was she named the lass, embarrassed, serves her rightYou could be in those Middens, for ages, and if you were with your girl friend, you didn’t want to be found, if all were occupied around Irwin, you might find a vacant one in Landsbury Street, I think that was where I learned to kiss. WOW, brilliant