Even here in the UK the call of Roy Rodgers and John Wayne was strong enough for us to play cowboys and indians:-) More often though we would play 'war' with the bad guys being the 'Germans'. This was in the 1950's and none of us had any real idea who the Germans were or why we should fight them apart from what our Dads had told us! They were the same weapons though - Cap guns and plastic rifles. Did you have the cap 'bombs' over there in the US? Metal or plastic 'rockets' where you inserted a cap (or more often half a dozen!) under a plunger. When thrown or dropped against something hard the cap(s) would explode.

We also made our own weapons 'Gat' guns (gat being short for catapult) made out of wood and strong elastic (old bicycle innertubes were great) that could fire stones realy quite accurately. 'French Arrows' - About a yard of bamboo with flights made from cardboard and weighted at the end with anything sticky - usualy tar off the road surface. They were launched by hand, holding near the tip and using a piece of string held taut by a clever loop around the flights end. Not a good description I know but they were also known as 'throwing arrows' - I'm sure someone will know them. They seemed to sail in a huge arc, landing hundreds of feet away. Maybe it wasn't that far realy;-)

We would charge around the 'croft' for hours on end making up all sorts of games, usualy involving attacking the other local 'gangs' (There's another word that has been hijacked!) In the wet when we couldn't go out we would sit for hours gazing sadly out of the window until the rain eased enough to commence hostilities once more:-)

Don't care whether anyone will class this as just nostalgia or whether I am looking through rose coloured goggles but it did seem a simpler and happier childhood than some of the kids get now.

Thanks for bringing it all back.

Dave