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Shrapnel became integral to the lively economic market of the school playground with elaborate networks of alliances, swaps, barter, bribes, theft, and fraud. Akin to other collectables and currencies, shrapnel pieces were relative in value based on aesthetic and sensorial qualities, conferring varying degrees of \u2018kudos\u2019 and (playground) market value. Keith Robinson recounts the \u2018great rivalry\u2019 among children to obtain warm shrapnel fragments \u2013 symbols of having \u2018been there\u2019 during the height of an air raid \u2013 with some reportedly heating old pieces in the oven before coming into school in efforts to gain optimal \u2018kudos\u2019 and maximise market value. Furthermore, while the collection and associated practices involving shrapnel facilitated the rise of playground barons and fraudulent behaviour, it also afforded wartime children a rudimentary way of \u2018mastering\u2019 the outside world. Archaeologist, Gabriel Moshenska contends that the collection and \u2018domestication\u2019 of shrapnel functioned as a coping mechanism for disenfranchised \u2018sub-adults\u2019. Beyond the straightforward fun afforded by shrapnel, by integrating and thus \u2018domesticating\u2019 violent objects into various playful practices, children gained a sense of control amid a time where the circumstances of their lives were determined by adults at war and the metal which fell from the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Berry Pillot de Chenecey<\/strong>\u00a0(she\/her) is an MA Public History student at UCL and award-winning graduate from King\u2019s College London where she studied BA Liberal Arts with a Major in History. Berry continues to use children as a category of analysis in her research, particularly in contexts of conflict.\u00a0Her current research explores the civic instruction of 21st-century British children through public history practices concerning the Second World War.\u00a0This blog post is based on ongoing research that is currently being developed into an article. You can contact her via email berangere.chenecey.24@ucl.ac.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the Second World War, the material worlds and realities of children were transformed entirely, from the everyday spaces they occupied to the objects they encountered on their way to school. Although the Luftwaffe\u2019s aerial bombing campaign destroyed many pre-war fixed playgrounds and precluded opportunities for organised recreation, wartime children persisted in their play, gamifying and incorporating the material culture of war into various playful practices. Among the various souvenirs of war, the most popular in children\u2019s accounts were shrapnel fragments produced by high-altitude explosions of anti-aircraft shells. The morning after an air raid, the streets were swarmed by magpie-esque<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childish-things"],"yoast_head":"\n
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