Climbing Up Trees

[Dunder Ed]

I've been recently wondering that in the 60s and 70s many of the main characters of the Dandy and Beano have been show to climb up trees and steal apples from an orchard or private piece of land. Did this ever happen in real life, would children grab an apple from a tree and have to escape form the parkie, or was it just some comic fiction?

[Digifiend]

Hmm, this topic isn't Dandy specific - should've posted it in General Comics Discussion, I reckon.

Anyway, yes, kids really did do that.
http://thinkwebworks.com/ao/Columns.asp?ID=104

[colcool007]

Post moved. And yes I have climbed a tree or three in my time to go scrumping...

[felneymike]

I suppose it was more common in the Austerity days, when food was hard to come by and working class people in cities had concrete yards, rather than gardens in which to grow trees. In times before and after it may also have been done as a form of dare, or simply to get the owner of the tree angry

[McSCOTTYS GHOST]

Yep I can also agree as a kid in the 60s that I (and my pals) also regularly climbed trees to get apples , conkers etc just something kids did then and there seemed to be more forests around near towns/cities than now.

[matrix]

Yep I can also agree as a kid in the 60s that I (and my pals) also regularly climbed trees to get apples , conkers etc just something kids did then and there seemed to be more forests around near towns/cities than now.

Same, plums as well. They were not in short supply, as some were on the ground, there was also the dare element to it as well!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Yes I definitely done this a few times, and I'm not proud of it---this is where you learn that apples and pears are brick-hard when taken fresh off the tree, and only soften up by the time they reach the shops.

[matrix]

Can't say I'm proud of it either, but it was fun at the time! Almost like being in your own movie, climb on to the garage roof, up a fence, then the tree, friends watching out for you, like escaping from colditz!

And to help with the guilt! It was an era where we would give up our seat for the elderly on the bus, helped them across the road etc. I once found a wallet containing a full weeks pay (before digital money) which I handed in.

[philcom55]

On the other hand I can't remember those awfully-well-brought-up children in Enid Blyton's books doing that sort of thing.

(Well, maybe Noddy...!)

- Phil Rushton

[DJDogfart]

I too am not proud, but I went 'Scrumping' in the early 80's.
I remember one time in particular, taking a liking to a blokes strawberries with a friend and the chap chasing me up his garden, getting to within an inch of us! Looking back on it now it was a mean thing to do, I would be livid if i caught anybody in my garden!!!!

[felneymike]

Hmm, I can't remember ever doing it myself, but I do once remember "helping to demolish" some guy's crumbling wall up the road. When he came out to "have a word" it suddenly didn't seem like such a good idea. Later we crept back to see if the coast was clear, when one of us suddenly stood up and broke into a freestyle rap, the opening line of which was "Big fat, Pig fat...". The guy chased us again but we escaped.

Later, in a twist right out of an old Dennis The Menace story, the man turned out to be my dad's boss, and a fwightful thwashin' was received. The other 2/3 of us, who didn't have dads that worked there, got off scot free, which I thought was a bit unfair.