# As a kid, did you used to "call out" your friends to get them to come outside? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 27, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258 "2011-08-27T02:44:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/1 "2011-08-27T02:44:36Z")
I have no idea how widespread this was - and I’m certain it’s now gone the way of the wooly mammoth - so I’m curious. As a youngster, if I felt like hanging out with Jimmy, I’d ride my bike over to his house, stand outside the side door, and “call him out”. It was always the same sing-song voice: “JIIIIIIII-MYYYYYYyyyyyyyy”. You’d call a couple of times, and if no response, you’d pedal away to another friend’s house and call him out. We never knocked on a door. We certainly never called on the phone. It was always the call out. Anyone else? mmm ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/2 "2011-08-27T02:53:04Z")
Never. Just wasn’t done where I grew up (West Texas). ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/3 "2011-08-27T03:46:51Z")
No, I just went over and asked if they could come out and play. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/4 "2011-08-27T03:49:38Z")
The only time I did this was when I was really young (around four or five). I had a friend who lived down the block but across the street. I was allowed to walk down the block by myself but not to cross the street. So I’d walk down the street and yell for him from my side of the street. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/5 "2011-08-27T03:51:22Z")
_CHUCKY MARGOLIS!_ Actually, I’d knock on the door and say, ‘Mrs.Bobby’s Grandmother, can Bobby come out to play?’ ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/6 "2011-08-27T04:09:46Z")
Used to do that all the time. Grew up in NYC and talking about the early 50’s. We’d say “I’ll call for you after school”. Most of my friend lived in apartment buildings. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/7 "2011-08-27T04:14:04Z")
Egads no. We knocked on doors lest their moms come out and clap us on the ears for interrupting their TV dinners and after-work tonics. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/8 "2011-08-27T10:53:06Z")
Never bothered to call out. Just rode my bike around our tiny town to see who was already out. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/9 "2011-08-27T13:00:49Z")
Absolutely! I’d forgotten all about that, but in my neighborhood in Worcester, Mass. in the '40s and '50s that’s what you did until you were 11 or 12. After that age you just went to the place where your friends were usually hanging out. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/10 "2011-08-27T13:19:21Z")
No. Lived in an apartment complex as a kid; “calling someone out” would have meant disturbing 12+ households at a time. We knocked on the door, and asked the person at the door if so-and-so could come out to play. (Though far more often, we just went outside for most of the day, and it was expected that all of the other kids would do so, too. So we rarely went to fetch each other, and just assumed that we’d eventually see our friends.) My friends who lived in houses lived in big houses (a few of which would be McMansion in size by today’s standards), and shouting to them fro outside would be completely ineffective. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/11 "2011-08-27T13:38:07Z")
No, never did that. The closest thing I had to that was back in high school. I was good friends with the person that lived behind me. We never did anything ‘socially’ but we usually got home from being out around the same time and would normally hang out for an hour or so before bed. Normally, when I’d get home I’d whistle a couple times and if he heard me he’d whistle back. If not, I hopped the fence and looked in his living room window. If he was watching TV, I’d knock on the window to get his attention and flick my lighter a few times so he would know it was me. But I never went down the street as a kid yelling people’s names out. Just knocked on their doors. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/14 "2011-08-27T13:50:14Z")
Knocked. In a few cases just let myself in. Never yelled outside, that’s how the parents got kids to come back in. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/15 "2011-08-27T14:10:20Z")
Nope. Didn’t call out - I always went to the back door, though. It would never have occurred to me to go to the front door of a friend’s house. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/16 "2011-08-27T14:12:13Z")
Spam reported. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/17 "2011-08-27T16:12:32Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Absolutely! I’d forgotten all about that, but in my neighborhood in Worcester, Mass. in the '40s and '50s that’s what you did until you were 11 or 12. After that age you just went to the place where your friends were usually hanging out. 1950’s in Mass. Yep. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/18 "2011-08-27T16:15:39Z")
In my town if you called someone out, it meant you wanted to have a fight with them. ---
**Author:** ![branjon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@branjon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/branjon)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/19 "2011-08-27T16:30:25Z")
I definitely did “the call out” as a kid in the late-80s. And I definitely got yelled at by my parents/my friends’ parents most every time. It always looks so cute in old tv shows, with a little boy on a too-big bike yelling up at his buddy’s bedroom window. In reality it was my sister and I screaming bloody-murder at houses from the middle of the street. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/20 "2011-08-27T16:34:37Z")
Me and my best friend both had bells by our window and fine nylon wire that went down to the yard. Seemed like a good idea at the time. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/21 "2011-08-27T18:17:17Z")
No. You either ring the buzzer or have the doorman call up. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258/22 "2011-08-27T20:59:43Z")
Growing up in the 80s in England I would generally knock on the door and ask if they could come out. My best friend lived in a bungalow and his bedroom window faced onto the driveway so I would often just knock on his window instead. For other friends we’d sometimes throw bits of gravel at their windows, but I think that’s just cos we’d seen it done on TV shows and it looked cool. It never really worked in real life… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-a-kid-did-you-used-to-call-out-your-friends-to-get-them-to-come-outside/594258.md?page=2)