One of our youthful pass times in the winter months when the nights were dark was to go back nacking (sp)
This was done by finding a long row of houses and starting at one end make your way through the rear gardens commando style.

The objective was to complete the course without getting caught.

Garden ponds and washing lines were always troublesome.

One time we were creeping across a lawn when the room light came on an elderly gentleman appeared at the door and let two Jack russels out into the garden. As the dogs were relieving themselves we dare not even breath and had all on not to give the game away when the old man broke wind.
He called the dogs back in and we carried on with the task.

happy days

Aye, we used to do the entire block where we lived as a kid - we even drew maps to plan our operations :)

We called it Cat Creeping.

As a miserable old git -I've recently re-wired the privet after we had a couple of incursions....

Also as a kid we had an alternative called Grand National - which was done at high speed by a whole bunch of us along a row of front gardens in the early evenings with the outcome of getting chased by the residents on a regular basis.

:D

Once hedge hopped a house in Dinnington & landed on the rusty skeleton of a burned out mattress ripping my trousers & nearly tearing myself a new jaxxi. :o :rant: ooo it hurt!

school road in crookes, was great for this, start at the top after the church work your way down

remember getting bitten by a dog

Aye, great pastime. We too had a Grand National, it's was Riverlin Street in Walkley. The last house was Martin Flannery's (Labour Candidate for Hillsborough I think)

Grand National through the gardens eh?


I thought that was just us!

I went cat creeping quite a few times, but only ever took part in the Grand National once at Arbourthorne.

I forgot that buried under some of the privett between the houses was the old railings with the semi-circle tops. I got my foot caught in the hoop and went head first into the garden with my other leg flailing all over the place.

Thought I'd broke my leg!

Damkina

Originally posted by blue11265
through the rear gardens commando style.


Why was it important to do it without undergarments?


When I was a lad we did this sort of thing "but fully clothed" we called it gardenhopping. There were some streets which were quite easy because of small walls and some which had 6 foot high fences which we vaulted over.
It was always totally amazing going past windows while a whole family was facing the window with their eyes sucked into the television destroying their souls, and they couldn't even notice us as we made faces at them through their window.

Did any of you do the door knocking game ? Tying thread to the door knocker and scadoodling behind the hedge and tugging- I was the littlest and always got caught. Also my bigger pals got me to pinch 'The old witches" rhubarb thro the hedge which got me a right old wack on the wrist from her walking cane- still hurts in cold weather.

I once went to the back door to let the Jack Russels out to relieve themselves. I thought I heard someone in the back garden but wasn't sure, so I just farted and went back in.

We raced each other on opposite sides of a terraced road at Crookes, sorry to anyone who had plants or hedges broken

We used to knock on doors and run away and I finally gave it up when I ran head first into a metl ashing line pole recieving the largest bump on the head you've ever seen.
Verdon Street, one of the poles still has my head print in it.:shakes:

Again slightly off topic, but more in line with the door knocking and running away prank.

Round where we grew up all the terraced houses had metal drain pipes at the front which carried the rain down from the gutter.

A couple of times I once saw some 'older lads' stuff a rolled up news paper up the spout and set light to it.

Did'nt work every time, but when it did ,the air drawn in by the burning paper would turn the drain pipe into a huge organ pipe and for a few seconds there was this weird howling noise - apparantly the sound inside could be quite frighting.

If memory serves me it was called 'Howling Banshee' or something like that.

Obviously would not work nowadays with all the plastic plumbing.

Originally posted by theviker
school road in crookes, was great for this, start at the top after the church work your way down

remember getting bitten by a dog

Me and my mates used to do that run as well. Sometimes commando style or we used to hurtle across peoples gardens at break-neck speed making a right din.

Sackville Road used to be a good run too.

Of couse now, if some kids rampaged across my back garden, I wouldn't be impressed.:suspect: