Hide-and-Seek

Cafe Society
1

In Hide-and-Seek, when the ‘it’ found someone and that someone became the next ‘it’, in order to call the remaining hiders in, the old ‘it’ would yell something that sounded like:

“Olly olly ollsen free”.

Now, honestly, I never knew what I was actually supposed to be saying. And thank goodness I had to yell it. That made it easy to act like I was trying to say something meaningful, but it just got mis-enunciated in the act of yelling.

In college, I took some French, so I can imagine the first two words are actually “Allez, allez …” meaning “y’all go, y’all go” or something similar. But I can’t figure the rest of it out.

I’m sure this is on some website somewhere, but this place is a lot more fun.

Can anyone explain to me what I was supposed to be saying (yelling)?

2

Cecil knows, and says there are numerous variations.

3

NO! NO! The idea is to hide long enough until the one who is “it” gets far enough from home base that you make a run for base. Touching it before he touches you. If someone gets tagged, He is “it” on the next game, unless someone else gets tagged after you.

I will now look at Cecil’s column and get whooshed.

4

I was not whooshed. I am puzzled at this variation. As a kid, I could hide incredibly well. Give a big enough area, and a kid may never be found. What kid has the attention span to find ALL the hiding kids. What kid has the attention span to stay hid.

Not saying this variation is bunk, but one I never experienced. Hiding in reasonable proximity to home base, in preparation of making a dash when the opportunity arrived, was always the strategy.

5

I think you’re talking about the same game. The “it” person only has to find one new person, who then becomes “it.” They don’t have to find all of the people hiding. Sure, if you can make a break for it and get to Home without being tagged then that’s a good strategy. But the other way to not be It is to stay hidden and not be found. Once someone has been found, It yells [whatever] to get everyone else out of their hiding spaces.

6

Oh! I see. We played with “last tagged” was it the next round. Either you got tagged or you made it home. If you never got found, I believe we hollered for him to come out or something.