Foaming torrents

[Richard Heathfield]

"The very sleepers on which the rails lay were a delightful path to
travel by—just far enough apart to serve as the stepping-stones in a
game of foaming torrents hastily organised by Bobbie." - E Nesbit, "The
Railway Children"

Has anyone heard of "foaming torrents", or perhaps even played it as a
child?

I've tried a Web search but to no avail.

I'm /guessing/ it's a variation on "Stepping Stones", which is a game I
recall only very, very dimly - but I seem to recall that it consists of
jumping from one safe haven to another, and being "out" if you fall in
the "water".

--
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

[John Varela]

On Mon, 20 Nov 2017 16:21:13 UTC, Richard Heathfield
<r...@cpax.org.uk> wrote:

> "The very sleepers on which the rails lay were a delightful path to
> travel by just far enough apart to serve as the stepping-stones in a
> game of foaming torrents hastily organised by Bobbie." - E Nesbit, "The
> Railway Children"
>
> Has anyone heard of "foaming torrents", or perhaps even played it as a
> child?
>
> I've tried a Web search but to no avail.
>
> I'm /guessing/ it's a variation on "Stepping Stones", which is a game I
> recall only very, very dimly - but I seem to recall that it consists of
> jumping from one safe haven to another, and being "out" if you fall in
> the "water".

A variation on "step on a crack and break your mother's back".

--
John Varela

[Whiskers]

On 2017-11-20, Richard Heathfield <r...@cpax.org.uk> wrote:
> "The very sleepers on which the rails lay were a delightful path to
> travel by—just far enough apart to serve as the stepping-stones in a
> game of foaming torrents hastily organised by Bobbie." - E Nesbit, "The
> Railway Children"
>
> Has anyone heard of "foaming torrents", or perhaps even played it as a
> child?
>
> I've tried a Web search but to no avail.
>
> I'm /guessing/ it's a variation on "Stepping Stones", which is a game I
> recall only very, very dimly - but I seem to recall that it consists of
> jumping from one safe haven to another, and being "out" if you fall in
> the "water".

I imagine that's what Nesbit had in mind. I've never heard of any games
by either name though - and I would not want to encourage children (no
matter how annoying) to play on railway tracks (which are normally well
fenced in the UK other than at 'level crossings' where there are gates
or barriers).

Abandoned railway lines almost always have the rails and sleepers
removed, although sometimes an industrial tramway may have left its
stone 'sleepers' in situ.


--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

[Sam Plusnet]

Children might invent a game and call it anything which pleases them -
even if it has been invented ten thousand times before.

--
Sam Plusnet