'When I was young'

in the 1940s and 1950s,
children had the right to roam. 
They played football in the street
(while I slunk past on my two left feet).

My friends and I explored
bombed houses and houses being built
to replace them.  We went off on bicycles
to pick blackberries or swim in the sea.

Our house was never locked (and upholding
a tradition, my own house here
in rural France is never locked, nor is my car).

Here, as elsewhere, no kids play in streets,
no kids are seen alone.
There is a children's Leisure Centre, highly supervised,
which has a locked door with a code and speakerphone.

Belfast 1950s

I used to play 'conkers'.

There were hopscotch and skipping etcetera
This is one of the few pictures showing middle-class children
(as I was) but it was taken in America.*

*BritIrish boys had to wear short pants until they were twelve,
and there was hardly any person of colour in the whole of Ireland.