Another thing we did was collecting wood to be used on "bommie night" (bonfire night 5th November). It was all hands on deck for months and loads of kudos earned by the most enterprising gangs who brought the most wood back on wooden go karts. (We didn't know what a mobile phone, tablet or pc was - it was networking - old school style).
Throwing arrows we used to call them, I saved my pocket money and bought a blowgun mail order from America, took forever to arrive, didn't last long as I stuck my sisters trainer to her foot then I made an atlatl
the run up to bonfire night seemed to last for weeks in Brum when i was a kid. Always plenty of bangers.