I hope some of you can help me, but even if no one can, that still kind of does.
When I was a boy, we used to play a game called “shoot my pin”, and I’m wondering if it was a local game, or if other kids played it. And also where the name came from.
It was a kind of hide-and-seek, always played outside. You didn’t have to tag anyone, which meant kids could hide in trees or conduits and such. If you were it, when you spotted a kid, you said “Shoot my pin on (whoever) in (wherever they were)”, like “Shoot my pin on Matt in the magnolia”.
Last one caught got to “hunt” the next round.
Anyone else every play that game? If you did, was it called that, and did you say the same thing?
I think it might have been totally local. And I think now I know where the name might have come from.
One of the families that lived there was in the surveying business. And in surveying (I’ve just had to have some land surveyed, is how I discovered this), when you go out and locate the buried rebar marking the corners of a lot, and you survey them for a plat, it’s called “shooting the pins”. So it would make sense that the same term might be used by kids for spotting a hidden playmate.
Anyway, just something I’m interested in. Hope y’all can help. Thanks.
I played that game, only it was called “Bang” and the shout-out was “Bang on (whoever) in/on/under/behind (whatever).” Everyone who was caught had to return to “base” and anyone who was still free could free someone else by tagging them and both players getting out of sight before whoever was it saw them.
The alternative was “Kick the Can”, which was played exactly the same way, except you had to call out the player’s name and location and then run back to base and step on the can set up there. Free players could free everyone caught by kicking the can; a player whose name had just been called was considered free until the can was stepped on and could free him/herself and all caught players if they beat “It” back to the can.