I would like to hear from anyone about the games they played as children. Did you play the same or similar games as myself. Games such as kick the can, where the object is to place a can in the middle of the street. The first person to kick the can wins the game. However, the person who is on, or elected chief, has to run to the middle of the street and grab the can. He or she then has to bang the can on the ground twice, in order to knock that person out. There is safe zones such as the street corner or a neighbours car. If no one can reach their safe zone they can be knocked out. Other games we used to play was kiss chasing. Obviously the object here is for the boy to catch the girl or vice versa, depending on who is on. Another game we played was spin the bottle. Whoever the bottle lands on, he or she has to answer a truth or dare question. The person can either choose to tell us some truth about themselves or answer a dare question. Here they will have to do something daring such as strip down to their underwear, kiss one of the other boys if it was a boy. One of our gang were even dared to run around the street naked. She did it but got grounded for it. Her brother who dared her got his hide tanned. He too was also grounded. Other games we played were relavio. The object here was to tip one of the others on the shoulder, then they are on. Another one is footsie. here we blindfolded someone, then we would foot sweep them on their back. This person would then have three chancesto guess who swept them off their feet. Assassins Creed
I think this should be in the Lounge, but I'll reply anyway. As I child, I never played any of those games. Not even Spin the Bottle, which seems to be a classic! Games I did play: tag (freeze, toilet, regular), hide and go seek, cops and robbers, four square. We also build forts when it snowed and had snowball fights. That's about it, if you don't count skipping and biking.
We had our own version of "Kick the can". One person was "it", and had to count to whatever # we chose, and we would all go hiding. After the person finishes the count, they go in search of everyone, but he had to make sure that he could have easy access to the can in case someone came nearby. If someone kicks the can before he gets to it, the game is over and he, as the "It" person has to undergo some form of batsu, or punishment, like buying everyone snacks or cleaning up. If he finds anyone, they're made prisoner, until the last person can somehow kick the can to rescue them. If everyone is caught, I suppose he chooses the victim. Something like that >_>;; We also used to play this Chinese Zodiac Game thing also. We'd have this cardboard printout of the characters and dices with those animals on them. We'd place our candies on whichever animal, and whoever won after the dice rolled, would divide the spoils. We were a bunch of little, greedy gamblers, lol. We'd also play shiritori. It's a bit difficult to explain. It's sort of like, the "replace one letter" game with have here, except it's more like replace the "kana". Sort of like this : sakura (さくら)-> rajio (ラジオ)-> onigiri (おにぎり)-> risu (りす)-> sumou (すもう) -> udon (うどん) We'd make rules, like we could only use words in a certain genre - say - animals, or something. We also played rock paper scissors a lot.
Spin the bottle, hide and seek, and tag are all classics that marked my early childhood. Manhunt was also a good game. For those who don't know, it's kinda like violent team tag. One person starts off as "it", and every person he tags joins him on the "hunt". It can get kinda violent, usually because it's played outdoors and only the person who is "it" can tag other players. So, a lot of time, one person is holding another person down until the person who is "it" can tag him. Let's see... another game we played was called -- actually, it didn't have a name. We just used to bounce a ball once against the ground so that it hits a wall and bounces back. Then, before the ball touched the ground, we had to jump, catch it in mid-air, spin, and throw it at a target/target zone for points. We took turns one by one, and the winner was the one who had reached the set amount of points first.
I never really had friends to hang out with so I had to play things by myself. I didn't really have "games." I tended to just pretend a lot. I would pretend to be different magical animals, or characters from my stories, or I would play with my toy animals (both little plastic figurines, and bigger stuffed ones) and create entire stories for them. I would draw and make paper animals. And write stories, that too. Even in school on the playground, I didn't like the regular games like jump rope and marbles (I wasn't coordinated enough for the former, didn't see the point of the latter) and would mostly pretend I was something else. Pretty much the only things one can do to fill the void when they're alone. I still have no friends and still do this, just in my head and on the computer screen now.
i was a child in the 40's, so some of the games we played may have been forgotten... here's the ones i remember: ball... bouncing a pink rubber 'Spaulding' alone, to an alphabet chant [A, my name is Alice and i come from Alabama, and my mother's name is.....'] dodge ball... one stands between 2 or more other players and has to avoid getting hit... hide and seek jacks... metal thingies you toss on the ground and then have to pick up in sequence, while bouncing the little rubber ball... paddle ball... small rubber ball attached by a long, skinny rubber band to a wooden paddle... object is to keep bouncing it... hopscotch checkers cowboys and indians cops and robbers pick-up sticks jump rope marbles chinese checkers parcheesi roller skating on the street/sidewalk... the best of all was the slate sidewalks... made a totally awesome sort of echo-y sound, with nifty loud 'pops' when crossing the 'cracks'... i even used to skate on errands down to the bakery and other stores... listening to the radio: the shadow; the lone ranger; the green hornet; inner sanctum; adventurers' club; the railroad hour [operettas]; bob and ray; boston blackie; death valley days; bulldog drummond; dick tracy; the fat man; the life of riley; lux radio theater (popular movies turned into radio shows, with major stars doing their parts); i love a mystery; the halls of ivy; gang busters; grand central station; sam spade (i fell in love with howard duff at the tender age of 8, met him 20 years later and spent the weekend with him at a celeb tennis tournament!... and stupidly said, 'i'd love to, but no thanks' just so i wouldn't be a 'typical' fan/star-you-know-what-er!... tonto/jay silverheels was with him the night we met, too!... the list of mega-stars we hung out with that weekend would blow your mind)... ...i know there were more, but that's all that comes to mind right now...
I played (and still do sometimes ): hide and go seek freeze tag (and the other versions too), sardines (so- fun!) card games(big 2, war, ...) the abc game (When in the car (long car rides), I'd look outside for signs/license plates. When I saw 'A' in a word, I'd yell 'A' and start looking for 'B' and so on... this game also works with numbers, another abc game. (Need: a piece of paper and a pen/pencil. Look outside (at home/outdoors/long car rides work well too) . Start with the letter 'A', find something that begins with the letter 'a', write it down. And go to the next letter... Have to go in order. [Give or take some of the rules]) board games (life, monopoly, sorry, ...)
@ Last1Left We played a game like the one you talked about and called it "wall ball" I am a military brat so forgive me Hide and go get it - Yeah its true being around soldiers messes children up it would be boys on girls and you had to chase the girls and grab there chests, Wait the ant bites lol. And girls would grab boys between the legs. I know. Parachute - You would swing as high as you could and jump. who ever landed the furthest after two tries won. Smear the queer(I feel bad) - we would start by throwing a football in the air. You had to run grab it and score a touch down on our field while everybody else tried to dog pile you and punch and kick, girls played to. If you were dogpiled you through the ball in the air and could not catch it and joined in the stomping fun. Horse - classic All varieties of tag DodgeBall Marbles Get like me - (We sucked) You would toss a quarter on the ground. Then the next guy would. If his face was the same as yours he got your quarter. If it was not then the first guy got the quarter. War - Boys and Girls wear white tees(We were 10)fill super soakers with cold water and red dye and kill each other Dive Bomb - In a pool jump in and see who could make the most splash. King of the hill I feel horrible. we were bad kids
Hmmm...this sort of thread is popular but I like them and I will respond to this one as I did the other. My favorites... Red Rover Duck Duck Goose Doggy Doggy...One of my faves. Hop Scotch Jump Rope...I was quite good and loved doubles!
knicky knicky nine door. fox and goose. seven up. yogi kick the can. road hockey war winter and summer. the same ones that maia listed. I was born in the 50's inside games poor puss. heads up seven up. I wrote a letter. musical chairs.
We used to have neighborhood-wide games of Hide And Seek. The best places to hide, coincidentally, were in the yard of the one lady in the neighborhood who wouldn't let us play in her yard. I don't remember a whole lot else...I spent a lot of my childhood reading...
There were so many! Ahh, memories... -Hide and seek -Freeze tag (One of my favorites... I was the best out of my friends) -Chinese Jump Rope (Another favorite) -Four Square -Tetherball -Lava Monster (lol, a game in 1st grade where we would climb to the top of the jungle gym to avoid the "lava monster") -Dodgeball -Handball (Another fav, I was really good, aha) -Cops and Robbers (this I played with my brother, my nephew, and my neighbor, we had super soakers as our 'guns') -Pogs -MASH -Sailor Moon (we would be Sailor Scouts vs. the villains. I was always Sailor Moon. I was bossy as a kid!) -Power Rangers (kind of like Sailor Moon. I was always the Pink Ranger) -Red Rover -Musical Chairs -I Spy -7 Up (we used to always play this on rainy days inside class, sooo much fun) ....and many more. Those are the main ones I played, though.
Mistressoftheflies,Stillife and Last1left, thank you for your replies. Other games that are coming to mind courtesy of these replies are: I spy musical chairs Rounders Tag Believe it or not I even managed to play British Bulldog. It may sound strange an Irishman playing British Bulldog - in his own town of all places- but I did. As it was thirty years ago I cannot remember much about it, perhaps Lucy will be a darling and explain the game to again. How I managed to play it was through a neighbour of mine. His two cousins Sarah and Tracey who were from Birmingham, visited Ireland two years in a row while on summer holidays. They introduced the game British Bulldog to us while they were here.
Tehuti88 thanks for your reply. In a sense I should feel sorry for you not having friends to be able to play games. On the other hand with you playing with your dolls, toys etc. and reading and creating stories I believe was the making of you, well done. Maia, thanks also for your reply. Hide and seek also used to be a favourite game of ours. Sometimes when one of the lads on, the smart a** of the pack, we used to go into our houses for a bite to eat. We would come out after about 15 minutes after stuffing our faces with sandwiches. He on the other hand would be still searching for us and when the game was over he would want to go home, to get something to eat and play something else. We however would say we are all hungry but, as we want to continue playing games we would wait until we were called in for our tea. This used to annoy him but in the end he would agree to stay out with us and play. Ungood, I have never heard of "kick the fire ant mound. Can you explain it to us, as I'm sure others have not heard of it and would like to know more about it. Hello Kylie, thank you for playing along. I have not heard of "sardines" either. Would you be able to tell me more about it?
-Tag (freeze, tv, toilet tag) -Dodgeball -Foursquare -King of the Hill -Video Games (especially Pokemon) -Swordfighting (with wooden swords) -Spray each other with hoses.
Lucy and Twinpanther13, thank you also for playing along. As I already mentioned Lucy I played British Bulldogs too when I was a kid, only briefly. It was so long ago I forget how you play it. As mentioned earlier it was a neighbours two cousins from Birmingham who introduced it to us in Ireland, when they came over for the holidays two years running. The funny thing is I remember more about the girls than I do the game. TwinPanther13, as you were in a military school the games you played were limited to what was being played there. So you probably didn't get the chance to play the other games such as sardines and kick the fire ant mound, like your patriots. All the same I bet you had some fun playing your war games with the girls. One game that comes to mind that I sampled from another neighbours cousin was AIR RAID. It was similar to hide and seek but, you had to dive for cover in a barn/shed or tent, with a girl. There would be an odd number of people playing the game, with the boys having one more than the girls. This way the last boy who did not manage to dive for cover with a girl was eliminated, until there was only one boy left in the game. This boy was the lucky one, as he got to snog all the girls when the game was over. Although some of the girls didn't want to play because they did't fancy any of the boys - you can't blame them- they bowed to pier pressure and went along with it.
Chimmey Bear, Lessa and Freshmaker, thank you for joining in. It is interesting to see such a diverse range of games we all played as children. It is also interesting to see similar games we played too. Chimmy Bear as far as the jump rope goes you are a show off I'm only saying this because I was never any good at it. Anyhow any of the boys who participated in it were called sissys. We classed jump rope as a girls game back then and if we were seen by any of the other boys playing with the girls they would get their sisters dolls and give them to us - so we would feel at home with the girls. Freshmaker for a 22 year old I'm surprized that you don't remember anything else. Anyway hide and seek was a great game. Another great game that comes to mind is Knock the Bocker This I would say is probably similar to lessas knicky knicky nine door. Where the object was to knock on your neighbours door and run away as fast as you can. Hide and watch them answer the door. There was this old lady, when I say old I mean she was in her 30s. As we were 7 & 8 years old then thats the way we saw it.Anyway we would constantly knock on her door, annoying the hell out of her because she always had something bad to say about us. It was only when she started mouthing off calling us pups, little tinkers and spoilt brats we decided to knock on her door. Otherwise we would have left her alone. One time she caught one of the girls knocking on her door and she gave her such a clout on the head, knocking her to the ground and out cold. The parents of the girl called the police and told them what happened. As we were children, back then we were not believed. When we told them what had happened, they said we must be mistaken and only seen her fall to the ground. Inkslinger and Kratos thank you for joining in. Inkslinger, I see you also had a variety of games that you played like myself. Such as cops and robbers, hide and seek and handball. Kratos what can I say man. Like yourself we (the lads) loved playing swordfighting would always go home with bruised arms and legs. On two occasions one of the girls joined in with us and beat the hell out of our neighbour. He was boasting that he will beat her in thirty seconds. It turned out that she beat him in that time. None of us knew at the time that she was studying fencing in the local club up the road. This is where she honed her skills to beat all the lads at our own game. At the time while we knew nothing of her fencing, all the lads including myself, challanged her and we were slaughtered by her. When we gave up we asked her how she was so good at it. She then told us that she had been doing it since she was five years old.
Hey, someone else who played yogi! All the girls at my school played yogi when I was a kid. Even some of the boys. We also played Red Rover (which I always ended up hurting myself playing), and Kings Court. It's a four square game with a ball. If the ball hits you, you had to go to the square with the lowest number or the end of the line if tehre were more than , and everyone behind you moved up.
you are definetly from southern ont. only place I have ever heard it called yogi. other places played it but either called it by a different name or had no name for it at all.
Hello Rei thank you for replying. What a lovely name, is that your real name or is it a pen name? As I am from Ireland I have not heard of yogi before. Would you care to enlighten me on what it is? Again Rei thank you for participating. With everyone who has responded so far I thank you. It's refreshing to see so many varieties of games out there around the world and also, how similar a lot of them are all be it under different names. Did anyone else ever hear of AIR RAID and if so did you play it, more to the point did you enjoy it?
yogi is played with a large elastic. you have to make your own from sewing elastic. you tie the two ends together. you have to have at least 4 players. two people put the elastic around their ankles and the others in turns have to put their leg over one side of the elastic. you stretch the elastic over the other side and back again. then another player mimics your moves. as the game progresses you move the elastic further up your body. knees hips waist and when someone fails they have to take over being the support for the elastic. as you go higher it gets a lot harder. I never made it past the waist but a friend of mine in gymnastics made it to the fingers with the people holding the elastic over their heads. I think that is still the record for the school and I was 9 and now 53. They still play that game at recess. The moves can get kind of complicated or they can stay fairly simple. depending on your skill level.
Its amazing to me how so many games are so similar across regions and cultures. I sit back and think about stuff like that sometimes. Who came up with these games, and how old are they? Games like hide and seek and tag are two that i am sure kids have played all over. Who came up with the rules that are so universal. Sometimes I wonder if these games are centuries old. Oh yeah and we fought swords to. We would also use sawed off brooms as staves or saw those in half to make kali stick
