Artistic Discoveries in European Schoolyards

I remember the long sunny playtimes...

STUART CHILDS Visual Artist, United Kingdom

I remember the long sunny playtimes at school best. We would often play games of football with 20 or more people in each team, it was chaos. Sometimes the ball would go on to the roof of the school and we would have to get one of the dinner ladies to ask the grumpy caretaker to get it down. We would also play hide and seek and other similar games, it was usually great fun and we were sad to hear the bell that indicated the end of play.
On our playing fields there was a small grassy hill that we used to roll down over and over again to make ourselves dizzy. I remember the smell of the cut grass so well, and how it used to get all over our clothes as we rolled down the hill. I imagine our teachers and parents weren’t so amused but we loved it.
The imagination we had seems so incredible now that I think about it. I’m sure that we invented (or maybe reinvented) so many different games to play and keep our- selves occupied during school break times. It was always a disappointment when the weather was too bad to play out and we had to stay inside. Rubbish.
I remember we always used to eat our lunch as quickly as possible so that we could play outside for longer. It is funny to think how we used to act when we were young