# Anyone recognize this children's game? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-recognize-this-childrens-game/509495 "2009-09-10T00:18:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-recognize-this-childrens-game/509495/1 "2009-09-10T00:18:29Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![ReuvenB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-recognize-this-childrens-game/509495/2 "2009-09-10T01:09:00Z")
Streets and Alleys, we called it. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-recognize-this-childrens-game/509495/3 "2009-09-10T02:55:01Z")
I remember playing this in kindergarten. I don’t remember what we called it. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-recognize-this-childrens-game/509495/4 "2009-09-10T05:25:39Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-recognize-this-childrens-game/509495/5 "2009-09-10T05:50:46Z")
> [@XWalrus2](#): > > Streets and Alleys, we called it. Thank you. This sounds exactly like what I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-recognize-this-childrens-game/509495/6 "2009-09-10T11:46:29Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > ETA: It could just as easily be called “Cat and Mouse” or something funnier. Which is what we called it at school 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-recognize-this-childrens-game/509495/7 "2009-09-10T17:28:20Z")
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!