WITH reference to the centre spread by Matt Clark emphasising the art of keeping boredom at bay to amuse this generation of little darlings (The Press, August 13).

One can be rest assured that for my generation of the wild bunch during and after the Second World War summer holidays meant Enid Blyton’s Famous Five.

We were in our element with not enough time in the day to allow our imagination to run wild.

Outdoor games consisted of whip and top made from worn-out shoelaces and the top of a screwdown lemonade bottle with money back on the empty.

Cricket bats and stilts manufactured from remnants of wood, hop scotch marked with a broken tile, also acting as a kick slate in the appointed place.

Street football with coats acting as goalposts and the football a worn-out rubber ball supported by old socks. The Charlton brothers will lay testimony to back street wall to wall games.

After the Regent Cinema matinee Cowboys and Indians, there were hostages and the girls waited to be rescued.

Scruffy we may have been but, apart from cuts and bruises, we got plenty of fresh air and exercise until returning to the inkwell and desk at school.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York