The People in the Playground

by Iona Opie

For nearly forty years Iona Opie worked with her husband, Peter, on a notable series of books on the traditional lore of childhood, among them Children's Games in Street and Playground , The Singing Game , and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren . As part of her fieldwork, she visited a local
school playground every week, where she would write down events exactly as they happened, and conversations exactly as they were spoken. The result of these many years of observation, The People in the Playground is a startlingly honest portrait of children at play, at once charming and hilarious,
alarming and poignant, and full of infectious vitality.
Here we meet the children of the Junior School playground in Liss--their favorite games, their silliest jokes, their engaging personalities. Opie provides much insight into children's play and human why crazes begin and stop so suddenly; the reasons for popularity and unpopularity;
the ways in which new lore arrives on the playground; the unconcerned killing in the perennial game of "War"; or the tender commiseration for a friend who has stubbed his toe. She follows individual children week by the bully and his victim; the intellectual who would rather read Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland than join in the games himself; the girl whose tragic home life can be forgotten as she plays a ring game; or the boy who is obsessed with gorillas. A group of boys offer Opie their version of tag ("There's someone got hayfever, right? He catches another one and they get
hayfever. And they get tagged by someone who's free and they're all right.") A young girl asks why Opie is writing everything down, and then presents her own rendition of "Popeye the Sailors Man" for the record. And on a rainy day unsuitable for their regular games, a vivacious child offers her
very best "I'm the one who tells you jokes--ta ra! Here's another one. What's the most unfortunate letter in the alphabet? Will you write it down, please. I like you writing them down," she says to Opie and continues, "The letter U--because whenever there's trouble you always find U in the
middle of it."
No one has previously attempted to describe and record life in a playground while it is actually happening. In these pages are rich and startling portraits of children at their art of storytelling, the friendships and enmities, the excited interest in sex, the diversity of characters, and
above all, the hilarity which pervades the playground, creating entertainment out of trivialities.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Parenting, Anthropology

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Iona Margaret Balfour Archibald was born in Colchester, Essex, England. She was a researcher and writer on folklore and children's street culture. She is considered an authority on children's rhymes, street and playground games and the Mother Goose tradition. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1998 and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1999.

The couple met during World War II and married on 2 September 1943. The couple worked together closely, from their home near Farnham, Surrey, conducting primary fieldwork, library research, and interviews of thousands of children. In pursuing the folklore of contemporary childhood they directly recorded rhymes and games in real time as they were being sung, chanted, or played. Working from their home in Alton, Hampshire they collaborated on several celebrated books and produced over 30 works. The couple were jointly awarded the Coote Lake Medal in 1960. The medal is awarded by The Folklore Society "for outstanding research and scholarship".

Speaking in 2010, Iona speaks of working with her husband as being "like two of us in a very small boat and each had an oar and we were trying to row across the Atlantic." and that "[W]e would never discuss ideas verbally except very late at night."

Iona Opie died in 2017.

Reviews

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had a copy of Opie's "The Lore & Language of Schoolchildren" for nigh on forty years & always loved reading of the similarities & discrepancies in children's games & rhymes up & down the country. This differs in that the book revolves around the children in one particular school playground covering the school years January 1978 through to summer 1980. My own time in infant & junior school was late 1960s, early 1970s so I was looking forward to see if the games were much different a decade on.

The blurb tells you all you need to know about the content & format....& it literally is Opie writing everything down that she sees & hears. This diary-style writing came over flat & uninspiring to my mind, the noise, the clamour & general hurly-burley I'd associate with playgrounds was lacking.

Many of the clapping & skipping games, & some of the rhymes I remembered but they didn't invoke the nostalgia I expected. I found some of the footnotes a bit odd but then the references they related to were well known to me &,I suspect, to almost everyone of my generation. While I can see that those of a younger age or indeed a different nationality might find them useful, I can't see this book having much appeal to them in the first place.

Overall, a reasonable read for those, that like me, were at school around this time but a monotonous & rather dry recounting means it lacks the charm it could have had.

[JB · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual read, as it presents Iona Opie's field notes from her research into children's folklore and games from 1978 to 1980. The weekly vignettes track the shifting fashions and crazes in the playground over seasons and years, embellished with occasional references to the Opies' other works as a way of illustrating the pedigree of some of the games. It was fascinating to figure out that these notes are from a time when I was in primary school, and so the people in the playground would be my contemporaries.

Occasional references to outside social events sneak in from time to time, sometimes as asides and sometimes to make sense of some aspect of a game or chant. Each entry starts with a comment about the weather, and it becomes clear as you read through that changes of season and variations in weather are significant influences in the playing of games. It is delightful to read Opie's genuine pleasure in her fieldwork, especially her enthusiastic descriptions of conker season and pleasure at encountering a chant or game not seen for a number of years that has been rediscovered.

Opie comments that children don't refer to each other as children - they are people, as in 'you need X number of people to play this game.' This captures the tenor of her approach to this fieldwork. Another insight useful to anyone interested in doing research with children is the manner in which she approaches talking with children. She takes up a 'least adult' position, probably years before this was described in research literature, and reaps the rewards in the stories and comments that the people in the playground share. This includes confidences, rude rhymes and jokes, and other commentary that would not usually be shared with an adult. It is fascinating to read her observations on responses to questions that appear to be 'too adult': "I have never yet had a real answer from a child to the question 'why do you like such-and-such a game?' Either they invent what they think is a suitable answer, or they shelve the question altogether." (p.176)

In context of the broader project of her and husband Peter Opie's research, this book offers insight into their research methods as well as a gentle illustration of the ways that children's culture is shared and passed on between children - from older siblings, from friends, from children moving from other schools, and through inventing or embellishing established games.

It can be a challenge to get into at times, and may be best read like a diary or journal, a piece at a time. Keeping in mind that these are field notes and not expecting an overall narrative or plot may help as well. To paraphrase the invitation at the end of her introduction, Opie invites the reader to step into the playground and allow themselves to be enveloped in the 'defiant light-heartedness' of play where things are just for fun.

[Emma]

DNF and don't think it's fair to rate. This is one on the books that, with the benefit of hindsight, helps us see how even when the researcher is trying to be objective their observations are necesarily taintaed by their own culture and assumptions.

[cubbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

i had no idea what i was getting into with this book, and at first i found it a little tedious and boring, but eventually i got into it.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny, charming, honest portrait of children at play in the 1970s.

[Whole And · Rating 3 out of 5]

A difficult read for me to get through.
Useful at times.