Children had plenty of opportunity to enjoy life with their friends, indoors and outdoors in halls and playgrounds.
Oxford Mail photographers were often on hand to capture those magic moments in youngsters’ early years.
Picture 1 shows one of those occasions when photographer Susie Barker spotted a happy trio at the Lake Street community centre in Oxford in 1989.
READ MORE: Oxford University closes Elon Musk institute
With their puppets are, left to right, Phoebe Hurrell, five, Bridie Aston, six, and Elizabeth O’Connor, seven.
Members of the playgroup and toddler group were invited to bring along their own puppets as they enjoyed a performance by Punch and Judy, alias Ben and Tim Abbott, from Wheatley.
In Picture 2, we see Wendy Tatham, eight, left, and Mary Espiritusanto, nine, who enjoyed face painting fun at West Oxford community centre in Binsey Lane in 1989.
They and their friends turned themselves into clowns, pirates and pussycats during a morning of fun.
Barnaby, the white rabbit in Picture 3, was a great hit with children when he turned up at Botley pre-school playgroup in Oxford in 1989.
Barnaby cuddled the youngsters and allowed them to climb all over him, much to everyone’s delight.
It wasn’t quite such a happy occasion at the Regal community centre in East Oxford, in Picture 4 in 1989.
The playgroup there had been reduced to six and there were fears it could close.
With seven in the picture, it looks as if there was an early recruit, but we know the names of only the original six - Sabrina Abbasi, Rajesh Singh, Paul Kajoo, Gurpreet Chand, Kevin Church and Rajendar Singh.
Supervisor Jeanette Gill said: “We don’t know why parents are not taking up places. Maybe it’s simply because they don’t know we exist.”
Children in Picture 5 who attended the playgroup in the Wood Farm area of Oxford were presented with a new paddling pool in 1971. Mothers organised jumble sales and coffee mornings and raised £34 to buy it.
The Oxford Mail ran the story and picture with the headline, A Dip in a Downpour. Children at Cutteslowe in North Oxford in Picture 6 were delighted when their play leader, Mary Gill, unveiled the cartoon she had drawn of them all in 1995.
Help support trusted local news
Sign up for a digital subscription now: oxfordmail.co.uk/subscribe
As a digital subscriber you will get:
- Unlimited access to the Oxford Mail website
- Advert-light access
- Reader rewards
- Full access to our app
About the author
Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here.
He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.
His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning.
You can also read his weekly Traffic and Transport newsletter.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here