When We Used to Play Outside

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I and a friend of mine used to play “The Most Dangerous Game.” He had seen the movie on late-night TV and we started re-enacting it: one of us would be the deranged ex-Nazi, the other the poor schlep trying to get his freedom. The ex-Nazi started with two guns and would place one in the middle of the field behind our house; the poor schlep had to run out into the field and grab the gun, then make his way to some pre-arranged ‘helipad’ so he could escape, all the while pursued by the ex-Nazi.

Yeah, we were weird kids, but we had a lot of fun.

42

In my neighborhood in Queens, we had garden apartments–two story red brick apartment buildings attached in groups, separated by small parking lots with garages, and connected by short tunnels at basement level (now closed up–too dangerous I guess) :frowning:

We’d play an elaborate Hide and Seek game where we’d split into two teams and take off through the labyrinth of tunnels, hide up on garage roofs, under bushes, etc. If you were tagged by the other team, you switched teams and since everyone was separated, no one knew if you had been switched and were now the enemy. There was no good ending to the game, but it lasted for hours. I can’t believe some of the places I climbed to to hide–garage roofs were the best.

I really miss those tunnels.

Hey Satan, where in Queens did you grow up? I was in the Bellerose side of Glen Oaks Village.

43

The usuals - Kick the Can, Kickball, Red Rover. Lots of bike riding. Pogo sticks and stilts. Riding ponies. Skating and sledding and snowball fights/snow forts in the winter. Hide & Seek in the neighbor’s cornfield (extra points if you could sneak up and pelt someone with rotten tomatoes or eggs). Forts and fishing and hiking and frog/crawdad/snake catching. Catching fireflys. Red Light/Green Light. HORSE. Whacking a tennis ball against the carriage house. Good times.

44

In second grade we played a game we called Kickball, but it was not related to baseball at all.

Each classroom had a small arsenal of playground equipment: basketballs, red rubber balls (used in dodgeball), softballs, bats. Somedays, everyone who got a hold of the red rubber balls (RRBs) would gather at this slight hill on the playground, half at the top, half at the bottom. Then we’d just kick our ball to the other side, and also try to catch the incoming ones from the others.

Another game involving the RRBs: We had a set of monkey bars at school that consisted of two sets of arches three across that intersected at the top, leaving 4 open corner areas. Four kids would hang at the open areas, and as many kids as could fit their legs through the rungs would. Then we’d throw one or two RRBs into the center and just kick the bejesus out of it. Sometimes the corner kids would get bonked in the head, they’d sub out if they were wusses. Other times the ball would sail out of an unoccupied rung.

Neither games was terribly involved, but we only had 10 minute recesses (besides lunch).

45

We were all skinny and suntanned, in great health from running wild through the miles of wild woods, playing in the then clean running, deep drainage ditches, building forts in the palmettos, climbing every possible tree that could be climbed and having dirt bomb wars.

Friends who lived in the nearby city or local developments liked to come visit at my house because the area was so wild and adventure filled (for kids, anyhow). We caught minnows in the ditch and kept them in bottles or aquariums, found cabbage palms, cut them down and enjoyed the soft, tasty interior, feasted on wild raspberries and Fox Grapes and occasionally raided the nearby groves for some citrus.

We explored ‘trackless’ lands to our hearts content, swam in fresh water lakes, played cowboys and Indians, combat, space explorers and Davie Crockett. We rode our bikes for miles, always delightedly found new, unexplored areas and marveled over the profusion of wild life. We had ‘secret’ spots in the woods, dug fox holes and pits – often just to see what was there.

We played with toy cars and trucks and ships and airplanes in the ditch and on the little used sandy roads and in sandy clearings in the woods. We walked down empty roads in the evening or during the approach of thunder storms and got deliciously frightened by the tall, gloomy pines and thick dark underbrush. We chased fireflies, played with the many turtles, learned about wild life and insects.

Life was wonderful then.

Now, most of the woods are gone, plowed under for houses, so are most of the animals, the ditch is dirty and full of murky, slimy water, most dirt roads have been paved under and the cabbage palm is protected. (Unless you buy the land. Then you can freely cut them all down and turn them into mulch – which is what most people do, apparently not knowing of the delicious core.) The big citrus grove is now an upscale, high end housing community and people crowd the whole area.

(Sigh) The loss of childhood and the end of innocence is sad.

46

I played the following games:

STOOP BALL - You throw the ball against a stoop. Catch the botom step at just the right angle and you get a majestic blast of McGuirian proportions.

STICK BALL - Didn’t play this as much as you’d xpect, but it was still a fun game.

TACKLE FOOTBALL IN THE STREET - The cars were in bounds.

And now, a game I barely remember - Maybe someone can help me?

We played a gale I recall being called “Scully” which involved having a large bottle cap of some sort - juice container lids were best - filled with wax to weigh them down. We then, in a game which was somewhat like marbles, slid them onto a chalked-in area on the concrete to get points.

Anyone remember ANYTHING about this game? Or were my friends and I just really creative?

Yer pal,
Satan

I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
One month, one week, one day, 13 hours, 43 minutes and 41 seconds.
1542 cigarettes not smoked, saving $192.86.
Life saved: 5 days, 8 hours, 30 minutes.

47

SPUD RULES!!!

Other neighborhood biggies were freeze tag, hide and seek, red light green light, and mother may I. In the alleys we played bounce or fly and 500 with a 16" softball (Guess where I’m from!) At school it was fast pitch or pinners.

Today I live in the burbs. My 3 kids aren’t into any of the sports leagues. But behind our house a street deadends. When the weather warms and the evenings lengthen, I love to sit on my back deck and hear the kids playing sardines, spud, ghost in the graveyard, etc. And they keep going until their respective parents give a holler. For me, that’s as good as it gets.

IMO, that type of play, where the kids have to agree on what to play, and resolve differences themselves, has a lot more going for it than dressing up in a uniform, showing up when and where the schedule tells you to, and doing what the adults say.

48

“Sardines,” and (when we were younger) “Witch In The Well.”

Sardines was great! Our favorite sets of cousins were a family with 10 kids, plus another family of 8 kids, which meant at holidays my sister and I had a good number of kids our own ages to play with. We also played this game called “Jump the Hedges” which was kinda stupid. It involved taking flying leaps at the neighbor’s box hedges. It was fun 'til we got shot at!

49

Ahhh the memories!

Anyone ever play Blindman’d Bluff? I loved this game - one person was blindfolded and stumbled around trying to find the other players, who were allowed to lightly hit (yeah right) the blind person. Whoever got tagged was the new blindman. Seriously,we played that for hours!

Another popular but short-lived game was “hide from cars.” It involved hiding from cars when they rode down our street.

I grew up in the city, so there weren’t a lot of sports games, but Cartoom Tag was popular, you had to squat and yell out a cartoon character if you were about to be tagged. We all had ataris and later, nintendos, but this was much much more fun. We played the Colored Egg game, red rover (one time my cousin Barbie bit an entire chunk of her tongue off playing that!), 7-up, four squares, around the world, and flashlight tag.

Hide-n-go-seek was popular when we were older, like 14, we’d play it at night, dressed all in black. The funny thing was my brother, who was all ninja supreme - I’d be it, walking past a porch, and he would swoop down in front of me and yell, so that I’d pmp and run screaming instead of tagging him. He would be pressed against an alley wall and I’d walk by clueless, or he’d hide on top of shed roofs. We had so much fun!

This isn’t a game, but when it would rain, all the neighborhood kids would put on bathing suits and we’d play as long as it lasted, splashing around and goofing off. We ever had a pool, so it was so incredible to us.

I especially remember this one time, I must have been 7 or 8, and it was 8:45, getting dark, and my mom should have called is in, but my aunt stopped by so she let us stay our until almost 10. It was so much fun - we played tag in the dark and goofed off. One of my favorite memories.

Wow, nostalgia! That was only 12 years ago! :slight_smile:

50

I remember a rather sadistic little game from my childhood in Mexico. One kid would hide his belt somewhere while the other kids huddled in a circle, not letting each other peek. Once the kid yelled out that the belt was hidden, a frantic search for it would ensue. Whoever found the belt would then chase after the other kids, whipping as many people as possible with it! Of course, everyone wanted to be the all-powerful belt-wielder. I wonder how some of my little neighbors turned out.

51

This was a small town in Texas. We played Blind Man’s Bluff, Hide 'n Go Seek, Red Rover, Kick the Can and a lot of Cowboys and Indians. We played with stilts quite a lot. Easy access to the woods and water. We did a lot of fishing, crawfishing, and snake catching. In the mid to late 40s we played war a lot. Dug a lot of fox holes in the peach orchard.

Great life with no worries.

Did any of you guys ever play with Rubber Guns? No, not guns made out of rubber.

52

Well all righty then! Let’s see what I can remember…

“Buttball” was called “Butts Up” in the small NH town where I came from. I distinctly remember the day it got banned from our middle school playground - someone hit a plate glass window and destroyed the mofo. The sound was pretty cool, and we got a good laugh from the vice principal saying “butts” over the intercom.

Summers weren’t all that involved; we lived on an island formed by an oxbow and we never really left it except to go get superlarge soft-serve cones right at the exit on the access road. We’d swim at the beach, play King of the Raft on the raft one of the dads had built, play in what woods there were, have bike races around the neighbor’s yard, play war with the forts some of the kids built, swing off ropes tied to tree branches and let go over the water. It was all right but nothing to write home about. Probably 'cos I was the geeky kid and didn’t get asked to play a whole lot. Oh yeah, kickball (the baseball-based kind) on the blacktop at the beach. OK, the beach was cool 'cos it was our own - everyone who lived on the street got to use it. Had a blacktop and basketball court (which served as the bus stop during the school year) and if we weren’t playing in the woods we were hanging out there.

So anyway… gimme the rules to Spud! And Scully, if anyone remembers it.

53

Kick the Can was a biggie.

Played a lot of ‘war’ out it in the woods, too. (Those opening kid scenes in the movie “Born on the Fourth of July” really hit home with me.) We were kinda poor, so when I didn’t have a toy rifle, a rifle-sized stick would always do as a facsimile.

Lots of sports-related stuff too. Impromptu baseball, softball and football games with the neighborhood kids.

Remember Smear-the-Queer? (It was a more politically incorrect time.) Simple game. Whoever had the football was tackled and hounded mercilessly, until someone else came up with it, then you went after them.

We used to get all fired up when it was wet and muddy down at the playground near my house, to play Mud-Bowl football. You’d slide like 8 feet on a tackle, and water and mud would splash up everywhere. (My poor mother.)

We’d pretend we were at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field or Detroit’s Tiger Stadium (where, if you’ll recall, the Lions used to play) or even those Buccaneer games from Tampa Stadium played in the torrential rain that you can remember from the old NFL Films.

When we didn’t have enough people for a baseball game, we’d play Pitch-Hit-Catch. One guy lobbing them in to another guy at bat, one guy out in the outfield. Ten hits, then you rotate.

‘500’ was another big baseball-related game. Can’t remember the scoring breakdown for home runs, hits off the fence, pop flies, grounders, etc., but as soon as you got to 500, you switched.

I did a column once in a newspaper I worked for on how parents today seem to be overdosing their children on structured activities. One kid to T-ball, the other to gymnastics, the other to the swim team. The Blues against the Reds, the Ladybugs against the Giants, etc.

What happened to just going outside and playing, letting your imagination decide what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it? Not some coach saying, “No, that’s not the right way.”

54

How did I miss this the first time around?

All the kids in my neighborhood used to get together with their vehicle of choice (bike (with or without cards in the spokes,) skate board, Honda “Kick and Go,” BigWheel, etc) then take chalk and draw complex street and city systems along the sidewalks and driveways of the whole block. We’d “drive” around obeying traffic rules and getting in traffic jams and wrecks. Sometimes we’d go to the gas station or the car wash if it was nice out, lol. Someone always got to be the cop and pull people over.

Believe it of not I invented a “game” that kept my brother and I entertained for hours. It was cleverly named “Find the nail in the tree” and involved one of us wedging a brown nail into the bark of a massive tree in our yard and the other trying to find it.

I also loved my sandbox, probably because my mom had donated several sets of outdated plastic dishes and cooking utensils so I had some SERIOUS mudpie production going on.

Speaking of mud. The most outrageously fun thing I ever did was when my cousin Brian and I dumped his wading pool into the top of this little gully thing that ran downhill in his yard. We then spent the entire day careening down this massive mudslide we created. Oh lord that was hilarious. You should’ve seen the look on my aunt’s face when she called us for lunch and we came to the door covered in mud. “::sigh:: Oh, you guys!” LOL!

55

The official rules of Spud. (As declared by Dinsdale. I’m sure my kids will correct me over the dinner table tonight.)

Equipment needed: one big ball (not so big that you can’t throw it, but not so hard that it hurts too much to get hit.)

The players count off, and are each assigned that number.

Whoever is it throws the ball in the air and calls out a number. All of the kids run away, except fot the one whse number was called. He has to catch the ball. Upon catching the ball, they holler “Spud!”, at which time everyone has to freeze. The kid with the ball gets to take 4 steps towards any of the other kids, and hurls the ball at them.

Gee, sounds pretty stupid written down. But we sure had fun playing it.

Milossarian, I totally agree with your observation concerning excessive structured activities. How often do you see kids playing just a pickup game of baseball or football, instead of the league play? I really get a kick out of telling my kids, “Go out and play. Be a kid.”

Ooh, I remembered some more. I have to mention Bombardment. Although played in gym class, it was one of the highlights of my grade school years. Wasn’t it great when you got a substitute gym teacher who screwed up and used the hard volleyballs instead of the mushy ones?

Anyone else play PomPom? One kid in the middle of a field, all the others on on end. The kid in the middle calls “PomPom,” and all the kids run from one end of the field to the other, while the kid who is it has to tackle as many as he can. The next time, there are 2 or more kids in the middle of the field trying to tackle the runners. Gets pretty intense when you only have a couple of runners trying to avoid a whole mess o tacklers.

Which reminded me of running bases. A favorite for the sidewalk in front of the house. Makes me realize how we played certain games in different places. Red Rover, for example, was strictly played on the playground.

We called Smear the Queer, Fumble Rumble.

56

My sister, cousin and I used to play a game we called, "Hiding G.I. Joes’.

Three guesses as to how you play it.

57

Right Arm, Brother!

My personal recollections of Little League baseball all involve getting yelled at by the coach for some screw-up. That’s all I remember. But we used to play 500 all the time – that was fun! Catching a fly ball one-handed was 200 pts, 100 pts if you used two hands, one-hop was 75 pts, two-hops was 50 and anything else was 25.

58

My brother and I played chicken with pocket knives in which you had to move your foot where the knife was thrown. I think that’s how I learned to do the splits. We also played something called “Grey wolf must be found”. I haven’t seen it mentioned, though, so maybe we made that one up. It had a countdown like hide and seek, but you counted by 1:00, 2:00, etc. till you got to midnight.

In the game “Colored Eggs”…isn’t there a rhyme that goes with it, something like “wash your hands in dirty water, read the bible upside down”

Thanks for the memories

59

Okay, here’s the various games we played back in MN:

Annie, Annie, Over
Duck, Duck, Gray Duck
Capt’n May I?
Freeze Tag
Red Light, Green Light
Hide and Seek
Hop Scotch
Jacks
Jump Rope (group, not individual)
Simon Says
Red Rover
Statue
Cowboys-n-Indians, and of course, Army. The girls always had the role of squaw or nurse. “Army” was particularily fun because we tore up old sheets for bandages and grabbed our moms little red cinnamon candies for “pills”. I still remember the day that one of the girls got a spanking because the sheet we tore up wasn’t an old one.

We also put on carnivals, plays, and talent shows. Mom’s clothes lines were great for hanging blankets, sheets, or bedspreads for the backdrops. Setting up KoolAid or lemonade stands was also something we occasionally did.

As someone else already mentioned, children back then were tanned, healthy, slimmer, and slept well at night. There was no need for drugs such as Ritalin.

60

Man, these are great!

What’s SPUD? I know I played it but I can’t remember. Also, what’s Green Ghost?

My neighbor and I played a game called “Digging to China” which involved digging a hole behind a bush in the backyard. We dug all summer and it got to be about three feet wide and six feet deep. Then we got caught and had to quit.