Schoolyard Games

[trampledamage]

Did anyone here play Elastics? I belive this game is/was known as Chinese Jump Rope in the USA.

Photos of the game being played

This game was extremely popular when I was growing up. It was almost alway only played by girls.

I used to practice the game at home by putting my elastics over and between two chairs.

We played elastics all the time. And I too practiced with two chairs

I never played Mr Wolf when I was a kid, I had to have the rules explained to me when my daughter started swimming lessons because they played it then. Same with Duck, Duck, Goose.

 

[Rii]

The other I remember was called four square, but I totally forgot how to play it.

I played handball, which doesn't match anything referred to as such on Wikipedia but does get a mention as an Australian variation on Four Square, played with a tennis ball and by somewhat different handling rules.

 

[Kestra]

I pretty much chased boys around and made them cry. That was the extent of it.

 

[TwoTailedFox]

Pogs?

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

^ A pimple ball?

Maybe they don't make them anymore, or they're called something else now. This was back in the 60s. They were kind of red with little bumps all over them like pimples, and they bounced pretty high.

That sounds familiar. I had just never heard that name for them.

Just don't squeeze it.

We played 500 which involved a football or kickball. One kid would be it and would kick the ball high into the air. The object was to catch the ball in flight. If you did that, you got 100 points. Catch it on one bounce and it was 50 points. First to 500 points was the next kicker.

 

[Sledder]

Yes we played "What time is it Mr Wolf" here in Canada, mostly very young children played it.

Also played Red Ass, British Bulldog, Red Rover, Four Square and games like those.

I doubt they allow kids to play most of those games anymore because they are too violent which is a shame because we managed just fine. Sure there was the odd bloody nose or broken glasses but that's the risk you take.

In Red Ass we used to form a giant paddy wack machine that they would have to crawl through for punishment, you would have to crawl through on your hands and knees. To keep people from wimping out we made the rule that if you "fell" or otherwise stopped going through the machine people were allowed to start kicking you. Now this didn't come into play, it was just to keep people moving through the machine.

Oh ya we also played a game called "Salade" which involved squishing a pop can into a little puck, then it would be kicked around in a group of kids. If it went through someone legs everyone got to kick them in the rear until they touched home base which could be a wall or a poll or something. Then the game would restart. Many a sore bum from that game.

 

[cultcross]

Pogs?

good times.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Oh man I LOVED Sardines! I had forgotten about that game. It was so much fun. Capture the Flag was another favorite.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Oh man I LOVED Sardines! I had forgotten about that game. It was so much fun. Capture the Flag was another favorite.

What was Sardines? All I think about when I hear that is a game it would be highly inappropriate for grade school children to play.

 

[thestrangequark]

Oh man I LOVED Sardines! I had forgotten about that game. It was so much fun. Capture the Flag was another favorite.

What was Sardines? All I think about when I hear that is a game it would be highly inappropriate for grade school children to play.

Sardines is the best! It's a game of hide and seek, preferably played in the woods (and even better in the dark), though I played it in the city as a child before (not something most parents would allow, I think -- mine didn't know). You need a lot of people, at least 6 or 7, but 20 or so is best. One person hides, and everyone else seeks. If you find the person hiding, you have to hide with them. Eventually, everyone is hiding together, crammed in some tight spot like sardines, and the last member of the group to find them is the next hider.

 

[Naira]

I used to play Mr.Wolf here in Greece when I was a kid. I don't remember what we used to call that game though...

I used to play elastics all the time as well.

 

[ByrdMan]

The rules for Mr. Wolf sound pretty familiar, but I don't think we called it that. Otherwise, we played a lot of freeze tag, TV tag, Statue Maker, Kick the Can, etc..

We used to play "Smear the Queer" when we weren't playing dodgeball or kickball. Everyone would run after and tackle the person with the ball (with us we usually used a football). I remember once trying to tackle this big kid by myself and getting kicked in the mouth with his heel. Ouch.

We called that one "Annihilation" around the grownups. I broke my arm pretty badly playing that one!