# Anyone Remember This Children's Game?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [March 24, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539 "2009-03-24T01:25:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/1 "2009-03-24T01:25:48Z")
I have a vague memory of playing a game as a child that involved pencil & paper and, maybe, dice. The idea was that you were managing a lemonade stand, and each cycle of the game was a “day” of selling lemonade. You then had to figure out how to allocate your profits and plan for the next day, etc.
Is this ringing a bell for anyone?
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/2 "2009-03-24T01:30:02Z")
I remember playing Lemonade Stand on the Apple ][.
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### Author:  [@RogueAOV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueAOV)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/3 "2009-03-24T04:37:58Z")
Heres a online version for you.
[Lemonade](http://www.coolmath-games.com/lemonade/)
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### Author:  [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/4 "2009-03-24T11:49:02Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> I remember playing Lemonade Stand on the Apple ][.
Yeah, but the programmers were lazy.
If it was a 50% chance of rain, it never rained.
If it was a 30% chance of rain it always rained.
Those were the only two rain stats, and the percentages themselves were never used.
It was the first time I ever played that game (4th grade). Later incarnations/variations actually implemented real statistics.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/5 "2009-03-24T12:49:42Z")
Never heard of the OP game, but since this is the Game Room and since the title asked for a children’s game, and the OP mentions pencil & paper, one I do remember is how we killed time in church when we weren’t seeing how long we could hold our breath.
Pig in a Pen. Ring a bell for anybody? May have other names, but you made a grid-type layout of dots in a rectangle, as many as you felt would last until the sermon was over. Then you’d take turns connecting pairs of dots with lines. When your line formed the fourth side of a square you got to put your initial in that square and make another line connecting two more dots. If that line also completed a square you kept going until your line didn’t finish a square.
Tons of fun.
As best I can recall we didn’t have dice in church because they would have made too much noise, but we did like to fart as loud as we could using the pew for reverb. Good old days.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/6 "2009-03-24T13:29:46Z")
How is the pencil-and-paper version played?
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/7 "2009-03-24T14:44:15Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> How is the pencil-and-paper version played?
Of what? Pig in a Pen? If that’s the one you mean, it’s all pencil and paper. Backs of offering envelopes and those little eraserless pencils like they use at Putt-Putt.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/8 "2009-03-24T14:55:19Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> Pig in a Pen. Ring a bell for anybody? May have other names, but you made a grid-type layout of dots in a rectangle, as many as you felt would last until the sermon was over. Then you’d take turns connecting pairs of dots with lines. When your line formed the fourth side of a square you got to put your initial in that square and make another line connecting two more dots. If that line also completed a square you kept going until your line didn’t finish a square.
Yes, I remember that! It had an addictive quality, because in the end stages of the game, you’d complete long stretches of boxes.
Googling DOTS GAME turns up several online versions.
> [@](#):
>
> As best I can recall we didn’t have dice in church because they would have made too much noise, but we did like to fart as loud as we could using the pew for reverb. Good old days.
Confucius say: Man who fart in church, sit in own pew.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/9 "2009-03-24T14:59:27Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Yes, I remember that! It had an addictive quality, because in the end stages of the game, you’d complete long stretches of boxes.
>
> Googling DOTS GAME turns up several online versions.
> Confucius say: Man who fart in church, sit in own pew.
So glad you caught that pun-able offense. 😃
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/10 "2009-03-24T16:51:40Z")
We call it Dots, and my boys and I often play it. We usually do a grid that’s 10x10 or so, but you can go bigger.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/11 "2009-03-24T18:14:45Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> Of what? Pig in a Pen?
No, the lemonade game I mentioned.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/12 "2009-03-24T18:27:21Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> No, the lemonade game I mentioned.
Cool. I didn’t think you meant my sidetrack, but answered as if you had. I’ve honestly never heard of your OP game. Sorry.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/13 "2009-03-24T19:14:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Pig in a Pen. Ring a bell for anybody? May have other names, but you made a grid-type layout of dots in a rectangle, as many as you felt would last until the sermon was over. Then you’d take turns connecting pairs of dots with lines. When your line formed the fourth side of a square you got to put your initial in that square and make another line connecting two more dots. If that line also completed a square you kept going until your line didn’t finish a square.
>
> Tons of fun.
Fun game. It was always great if you got the chance to make that play where you’d rack up a line of squares in a series.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/14 "2009-03-24T22:46:07Z")
We had the Apple ][e version of the Lemonade Stand game when I was a kid-- We inherited all our games from a retiring teacher, so almost everything we had was educational. There were actually three or four different games of varying complexities on the disk: In the first one, you were selling apples, and could harvest an unlimited number of apples from your tree every day, and the only variable was price (the lower the price, the more apples you sold, but the less profit you made on each). In the second one, you were selling tomato plants your class had grown as a science project, and could vary the price and also put up advertisements: The more advertisements, the more you sold, but each ad had a price. Finally, there was the lemonade stand, which incorporated all sorts of things: A weather forecast (temperature and chance of rain), road construction, costs of raw materials (at one point your mom stops giving you free sugar, so your costs go up), etc., and at the beginning of each day, you have to decide not only what price to charge and how much to advertise, but also how much lemonade to make (unsold lemonade still costs you raw materials, but goes to waste, and if you run out, you can’t sell any more).
> [@](#):
>
> Yeah, but the programmers were lazy.
>
> If it was a 50% chance of rain, it never rained.
>
> If it was a 30% chance of rain it always rained.
I must have had an updated version, because I remember the chance of rain making at least some sense (when it listed a higher chance, it really did rain more often), and I’m pretty sure I also remember some days with a 5% or 95% chance.
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### Author:  [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/15 "2009-03-27T14:15:11Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#):
>
> I have a vague memory of playing a game as a child that involved pencil & paper and, maybe, dice. The idea was that you were managing a lemonade stand, …
That’s a mighty odd role playing game, the only kind of game with pencil, paper and dice I can recall playing in my youth. I wonder if [GURPS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS) would cover it?
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### Author:  [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-childrens-game/490539/16 "2009-03-27T16:45:19Z")
I remember that game from second grade on an Apple II. Must have been '95 or so.