PLAY SWAP faced the early (8am!) morning rain on East Street today for the first incarnation of the PLAY SWAP market stall: selling nothing, and instead collecting street games from passers by. These games are added to the collection so far creating a vast array of 'local games from around the world' - from Iraq to Nigeria, Antigua to Germany.
Having had a stall rolled over for me to set up the PLAY SWAP pitch just next to the entrance to Nursery Row Park, I dreaded the day to come as the rain poured down and I was left tarpaulin-less, knowing my main materials of felt tip pens and paper would not survive. Luckily, the market opened for trading, and with it exchanged the heavy clouds for stunning sunshine.
I displayed a book of some games collected so far - from 5 year olds playing Hide and Seek and Mums and Dads, to 71 year olds remembering Kiss Chase and Alleygobs. But we needed more. Aided by my trusty assistant Nick, we were soon collecting games from East Street customers and learning about local and world history in the process.
Bringing people together through play is the aim of this project, and today certainly proved it can be done. As I was gathering a huge list of games from one local man, he encouraged another man passing by to share his memories with us as they were of a similar age. Indeed, they had played the same games which they reminisced about with great joy, between stories of one's time in the Falklands and the other's path to becoming a born-again Christian.
Local women shared hopping and grid games they learnt as children on the streets of Nigeria, to the point where others coming to talk to us could be shown the previous person's diagrams to explain the game. Two new versions of Hopscotch were also revealed - one called Eye-Die (as you throw the stone onto the grid behind you with your eyes closed) from Antigua, and the other known as Heaven and Hell (as you work your way up to 'heaven' at the top of the grid, and go back down to 'hell' if you get 'out') from Germany.
Charlie Chaplin was making his way in and out of the stalls, happily dancing to the reggae being blasted out of the stall next to ours. He too shared a game from his childhood, called 'Blockey 1, 2, 3', one which I too learnt as a child and had not heard anyone use the same name for it until now. He revealed that he grew up in my home town of St. Albans - a lovely feeling for me to find my own game matched!
I hope to continue using PLAY SWAP to create links between people, giving them an instant common ground and talking point, building up trust and prompting exchange between local people. Perhaps a regular PLAY SWAP stall would encourage and support this. Food for thought.
Eleanor Shipman
Pembroke People
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