Anyone recognize this children's game?

Factual Questions
1

When I was little I watched some older kids playing a game which I have never seen since. Can anyone identify it from my description?

Most of the children stood in a grid, arms outstretched, fingertip to fingertip, dividing the grid into rows. Inside the grid, one kid chased another through the rows, trying to tag him. Every once in a while someone would call out a command and the kids with their arms out would turn 90 degrees, changing the rows to columns, then back to rows, and so forth. I assume the grid switches were to frustrate the chaser.

Sound familiar?

2

Streets and Alleys, we called it.

3

I remember playing this in kindergarten. I don’t remember what we called it.

4

We called it Cops and Robbers. It’s a great game for children who aren’t very good at running because the game can turn around very quickly to their advantage anyway.

ETA: It could just as easily be called “Cat and Mouse” or something funnier.

5

Thank you. This sounds exactly like what I remember.

6

Which is what we called it at school :slight_smile:

7

I’ve never heard of this in my life, but just this weekend I saw the movie THX 1138 for the first time and there’s a quick scene with kids doing this. I thought it was made up for the movie, just an odd “game” that would go with the formalized life and limited space of the society in the film. Ignorance fought!