# Games we played as youngsters....



## Pappy

I'll start off will Chinese Checkers. One of grandpas favorite games as well as Canasta. Many hours spent, before TV was popular, playing these games.


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## rkunsaw

We still play Chinese checkers.

As a youngster one of my favorite games was *kick the can*. Do kids play this anymore?

Next


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## JustBonee

Outdoor game ... we would go out in the evenings, in the summer, and see who could catch the most fireflies in jars we poked holes in.. did that often out on the farm.   Are there fireflies anymore?

Enjoyed going on trips as a kid and playing 'Guess the make of car' as cars went by.  That game really worked back then, since car models actually _looked different_... hehe      And then we also played who could get the most cars in the color we chose to be.   
Sure was a different world back then.


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## TICA

Hop Scotch, double dutch, domino, chess, checkers, scrabble, monopoly, crib for hours and hours!   We spent the summer with my Grandmother by the ocean and had no TV so board games were always great.  We spent hours doing paint by numbers and jig saw puzzles.  I  still love doing the puzzles but have to be careful because I have a hard time walking away from them and then nothing else gets done.  We would also collect shells and then get a good sized rock and put putty all over it - stick the shells on and call them "door stops".  Every one of them was a masterpiece!!  lol


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## janfromflorida

At recess we would do Fox & Geese or Three Billy Goats gruff.  At home I loved Monopoly and checkers.  We sold 15 puzzles in our restaurant, so I became expert with them.


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## janfromflorida

janfromflorida said:


> At recess we would do Fox & Geese or Three Billy Goats gruff.  At home I loved Monopoly and checkers.  We sold 15 puzzles in our restaurant, so I became expert with them.


That was 15-puzzles not 15 puzzles, if you know what I mean.  It was hand held and had numbers that slid around.


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## That Guy

I cannot remember ever finishing a game of Monopoly but we played for days on end.  Also, cannot ever remember winning a game of Checkers.  Of course, we played card games like War and Go Fish.  My grandma and aunt and mom and sister played a lot of Canasta but I never got the hang of it.  Hearts is a great card game!  Scrabble and Dominos were always fun.  Oh, and Tiddlywinks was a big one!  Pachisi was fun.  Shoots and Ladders.  Candyland.  To this day, I love a game where you just roll the dice and move your marker along without much strategy.  Heavy thinking reduces the relaxation factor. Yahtzee was fun.  Rummy 500.  So many . . . I'm sure they'll be popping into my head now for days.

Outside, we played Hide 'n' Seek, of course.  Well, we played that inside, too.  Moving around in a military family I noticed that at different schools different games were popular.  At one school boys did NOT play Hopscotch.  But in the same year at a different school it was all the rage.  Four Square and if it was just me and the kid across the street, Two Square.  Kick the Can.  Red Rover.  Red Light/Green Light.  Freeze Tag and just regular ol' Tag.  Cowboys and Indians and WAR...

Also, I'm strangely proud, as an adult to remember when Pong arrived on the scene.  It was all down hill from there on out . . .


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## SeaBreeze

We played red light/green light, monopoly, checkers, Chinese checkers, cowboys and indians, etc. too.  Outdoors was popular for jump rope, regular, Chinese, double dutch, etc.  Also played a lot with the pink Spalding balls, handball, stoop ball, ace, king, queen, hit the stick, and plain old catch.  Bad minton and tennis sometimes.


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## That Guy

Here's one that I'm sure is the root of rugby:  Smear the Queer or more politically correct, Kill the Guy with the Ball!  A bunch of kids would just run around with a ball, usually a football but it didn't matter, while everybody tried to tackle him.  The longer you could avoid being tackled the better you were, I guess.  At the last minute, you were supposed to toss the ball to anyone up for catching it and running like hell.  Sometimes, the runner would just let himself get tackled for a good old fashioned pile on.  We had a blast and I don't remember anyone ever getting hurt.  It was also a universal game that everywhere my family moved the kids would play.


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## That Guy

I told you these things would be popping into my head for days.  Tether Ball!!!  We mostly played at school.  But, some kids had a set-up in their backyard.  Pick-up football, basketball and baseball was always popular. Word of warning: NEVER join in a game of Hawaiian Basketball.  Those guys play rough and will actually push, punch and tackle you.  No fun...


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## R. Zimm

We used to play a card game called "War." Very simple (it may go by other names) but basically you split a deck (after shuffling) equally and then each turn would have each player put a card down face up. Whoever had the highest took both and put them face down in a winnings pile. Any turn resulting in the same card values resulted in both players putting three cards face down and a fourth face up to see who won the whole bunch (10 cards).

This would go back and forth until one player had all the cards. We used to play this with four decks and it would take days! Recently on a flight to HI I taught this game to a Japanese teen (female) who was sitting next to who spoke zero English (ditto with my Japanese). She picked it up quickly and we played several games. when her tour leader came by before landing I was able to thank her for the games.


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## Pappy

I remember playing "Punch-a-Bug. On road trips Everytime you saw a Volkswagon you punched your partner.

one time my step-dad said, "there are 547 cows in that field." I replied, " how do you know that?"

He said," I counted their legs and divided by 4."


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## SifuPhil

We played "War" as well, and something I think was called "500 Rummy" (?) - and yes, those games would go on forever.

_Monopoly_ for the family and _Risk_ for me and my brothers - we took it seriously. 

Outdoors was more free-form stuff - soldiers, tag, bike races, roller-skating races. I grew up after the Kick The Can era so it was never one of our "sports". We went in more for street football and stick-ball. 

Not much at checkers but learned chess from my older brother at a young age - I always lost. 

Making plastic models, slot-cars, HO trains - stuff more from the '60's, I suppose, which fit into my generation.

But it was all good.


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## SeaBreeze

We also played pick-up sticks, and cowboys and Indians, I liked our cap-guns, so much fun!  Remembered also playing 'Go Fish' with cards.  Also remember my brother catching fireflies in jars, amazingly cool at the time. :sentimental:


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## JustBonee

Ozarkgal said:


> *Boo's Mom...*we caught fireflies in mason jars, also.  Yes, there are still fireflies.  Here in the summer sometimes there are so many it looks like mini fireworks up in the sky.  I was so thrilled to see them when we moved here. It had been years since I had seen any.



So glad to hear that .. had thought they had gone the way of the dinosaur.  But not too surprised, as stars are non-existent in the evening sky down here.  And I think stars still exist..   Well rarely there is a sighting of a few.

Another outdoor game,  when there were enough kids around, we played Red Rover, or some form of it back then.


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## Happyflowerlady

There are a lot of the games mentioned here, that I remember hearing about, but didn't play . I tried red rover, and kick the can, but I was never a very good runner, so I usually didn't do well in those kinds of games. 

My favorite, of course, was some kind of cowboys, and pretend horses ( mine whinnied a lot, too, Ozark) and I always wanted to be Roy Rogers, so I could ride Trigger, but often had to "settle for" Rex Allen or Lash LaRue. I had several nice sets of gun and holsters that the other kids wanted to borrow , so I did have some good bargaining points.

My folks played pinochle, and after that, canasta, in the winter . I was an only child, so house time was usually spent either reading (Walter Farleys Black Stallion series was a favorite ), or drawing the illustrations of the horses. 
I did the clip-clopping with jar lids, as well, but I did it with my hands and not with  my bare feet.


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## Pappy

Mother May I, was always a favorite.

i use to line up the kitchen chairs, in a row, and make believe it was a train or semi. Or, build a secret hideout with a blanket over some chairs.


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## SifuPhil

They _still_ play "*How Many Steps Before The Queen?*" in NYC's Greenwich Village, but of course they're all adults and they're all queens ...


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## That Guy

HFL mentioning playing pretend horses reminded me of running around with our arms out playing airplanes.  One of the guys my dad flew with had a son and we played together a lot.  We would set two chairs next to each other and play pilots.  We even had make believe names.  One of us was Scott and the other was . . .   Ah, the years have passed and I've forgotten.  Will probably come to me out of the blue eventually...


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## Happyflowerlady

That Guy, you might have missed all the innovative horse whinnying, but the playing airplane with your arms out for wings would have been great for not only airplane sound effects, but swooping and diving your plane as well, and hopefully you didn't "crash"too often. 
I think that Special Effects has to be one of the greatest things about whatever we did as children. It was great for developing our imagination, since they were usually very realistic and creative. Sometimes , I think it is too bad that we tend to lose a lot of that when we grow up, and have to keep our conversations more conventional.


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## Pappy

Tried this a couple times as a youngster. I was quite shy as a kid so wasn't my favorite game.


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## SifuPhil

We tried playing "Airplane" as well, but since we lived within an hour's drive of several airports and had watched the traffic many times we chose to stand motionless in a field with our arms outstretched for several hours.

We called it "Delayed"


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## TICA




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## Pricklypear

I remember a  ball game called 7_up that we played as a kid.  You tossed a tennis ball against a wall 7 times and caught it.  Then there were other moves. Examples: toss the ball  against the wall, let it bounce once, and caught it 7 times.  Toss the ball as in the example, spin yourself around and catch the ball, 7 times.  There were many moves.  You kept going until you dropped the ball.  

Hmmm.  Wonder if I should take up that game again for improving gross motor coordination?  Well, I'd probably spin myself around, trip and throw my knee out again. Darn-it.  I loved that game whether I played it alone or competed with friends against the school house wall.


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## SifuPhil

Frisbee. Originally pie plates from the Frisbie Pie Company (according to urban legend, anyway). 

Loved it from an early age, so much so that I was the NYC Freestyle Champion in '75 and '76. I slept with the things so I'd never be too far from one should the urge to throw come upon me. We'd have all-day marathon sessions starting at 8am and going 12 hours just throwing and catching, throwing and catching.

We used to move something like this, but didn't use the terms "Dude" or "Bro" quite so liberally ...


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## JustBonee

> We'd have all-day marathon sessions starting at 8am and going 12 hours just throwing and catching, throwing and catching.


Boy!  My Boo could handle a life like that!   :woohoo:


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## SeaBreeze

My brother and I would line up the kitchen chairs in the kitchen and play choo choo train.  I think we even had boxes of Good and Plenty, like choo choo Charlie on the TV commercials.


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## That Guy

Frisbee on, SifuPhil!  Started flip them things in the late fifties.  Usually, there was no one to play with and got very good at boomaranging it back to myself.  Great fun.


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## SifuPhil

That Guy said:


> Frisbee on, SifuPhil!  Started flip them things in the late fifties.  Usually, there was no one to play with and got very good at boomaranging it back to myself.  Great fun.



Coolness. I didn't get started until the mid-'60's, but I did it with a vengeance. 

I used to walk around the halls of my high-school and later the NYU campus spinning a disc on my fingernail. I carried a can of WD-40 and a bandana in my bookbag at all times to lube up the bottom of the disc so it would spin easier. 

Also a goodly supply of Band-aids, gauze, bee-sting kits and spare lighters (for the pipe). 

Then when I was studying martial arts one of my first thoughts when learning a new move would be "How can I use this with the 'Bee?"


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## That Guy

OH, Oh, Oh!!!  Just remembered tossing the disc around on our breaks many, many years ago.  We would play in the street and became wiseasses pretty quickly; playing with the air eddies around passing cars, bouncing it off roofs and windshields, bouncing under cars.  One time, UPS guy came by.  I tossed it into his cab hoping it would go through but he caught it and kept driving.  On his return back down our little side street, he tossed it back to us.  Cool!


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## Happyflowerlady

That sounds like you guys had a lot of fun with the Frisbee thing. I remember trying it, but my dog was too old to chase it, and just throwing it by myself was not any good. My coordination and balance have both always been awful, so when the other kids were throwing and catching it, I couldn't run fast enough, and I ducked n stead of catching it. (Frisbee was not for me...)

I do remember the Hula Hoop craze though, and I was always pretty good at that one, and could keep it swinging around me for a long time, and enjoyed it a lot. Since I was pretty much a loner when I was a kid, the Hula Hoop was great, it didn't require anyone else to do it, and it was even better when I had the radio on, and did it with music.


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## SeaBreeze

I like the hula hoop too Happyflowerlady.   They had some at the gym I belonged to for awhile, and I tried it again after all these years, did it just for a couple of minutes...still fun!


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## That Guy




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## SifuPhil

That Guy said:


> OH, Oh, Oh!!!  Just remembered tossing the disc around on our breaks many, many years ago.  We would play in the street and became wiseasses pretty quickly; playing with the air eddies around passing cars, bouncing it off roofs and windshields, bouncing under cars.  One time, UPS guy came by.  I tossed it into his cab hoping it would go through but he caught it and kept driving.  On his return back down our little side street, he tossed it back to us.  Cool!



The "air bounce" - yes, they were always impressive when you could pull them off.

We used to get a lot of tourists in Washington Square Park in NYC where I practiced. It became a game to first spot them (fairly easy at the time) and then to terrify them by throwing the disc as close as possible to them. Bonus points for women shrieking and men cowering. 



Happyflowerlady said:


> That sounds like you guys had a lot of fun with the Frisbee thing. I remember trying it, but my dog was too old to chase it, and just throwing it by myself was not any good. My coordination and balance have both always been awful, so when the other kids were throwing and catching it, I couldn't run fast enough, and I ducked n stead of catching it. (Frisbee was not for me...) ...



You might actually have saved yourself a lot of cuts, scrapes and bruises. When you start to play "professionally" you end up with a lot of sprained wrists and fingers, muscle pulls, etc. It might not seem like it, but Frisbee can be a real contact sport. layful:

One of our crowd, Crazy Andy, used to catch it in his teeth just like a dog.


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## Pappy

The Wii fitness program has a hula hoop section that the wifey and I use. You have to twirl your hips just like the real thing to keep it going on the screen.

If anyone could see us, at our age, try to do this, it would be a riot. We get to giggling like a couple of kids.

Pictured is a less physical exercise we might try next.....


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## Bee

I remember skipping and two balls.


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## SeaBreeze

A lot of us skipped around, lots of fun and good exercise too!


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## That Guy

SeaBreeze said:


> A lot of us skipped around, lots of fun and good exercise too!



When was the last time you saw kids skipping and laughing?  Oh, that's right, they aren't allowed without a helmet and parental supervision...


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## Pappy

That Guy said:


> When was the last time you saw kids skipping and laughing?  Oh, that's right, they aren't allowed without a helmet and parental supervision...



Mommy, the kids want me to play hid and seek outside.
Honey, you will have to wait until I can find you a chaperone.

That Guy.....you nailed it.


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## mamacathie

Yes, but I think I called them slider puzzles.  I remember having the little hand-0hel square and moving those little tiles around and around trying to make a puzzle.  They were so much fun but some were very challenging.


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## mamacathie

Jump rope and red light/green light and Mother May I?  Those were the games we played and when I was inside I played secretary.  I had my desk and all my papers and things I needed to be a secretary.  I was an only child so I loved playing this secretary and office by myself.


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## Happyflowerlady

Everything had to be horses with me. I put the dog leash around Bonzos nose, and of course, I tried to ride him, but he would just lay down, which was very frustrating to me. Finally, after being told by my mother that I was too heavy to ride poor Bonzo, I got Suzannah, my biggest doll, and let her ride instead. Bonzo did better with this, plus I could hold onto the leash better so he couldn't lie down as easily.
Instead of the skipping, I galloped around neighing loudly and enthusiastically.  I used to have a sore throat by evening sometimes. And of course, there was the clopping around with the tuna fish cans or soup cans on my hands.

In the winter, we had a great time though. The snow in north Idaho was often over top of the cars,  especially ones that were not being driven, and it could pile up on them.  We used to climb up on top of the snow covered car, and then sled down off of the car and out into the street. I was never very good at the trick where you run with your sled, and then throw yourself down on top of it, and see how far you can slide that way, but the boys seemed to be really good at doing that.
We also built snow forts, and had snowball fights from our forts, and if the snow was fluffy, we built huge snowmen.


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## Pam

Hopscotch, skipping, hide and seek, the usual games. Taught my grandson how to play hopscotch last year.  We've also got a hula hoop  each... I'm not very good at either of those things now.


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## Bee

Oh! yes, I had forgotten about hopscotch.


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## Pappy

Remember after you ate a box of candy, like Milk Duds, you could blow in the open end and make a noise like a sick monkey?

My buddies and I almost got thrown out of the movies once because of doing this.


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## That Guy

mamacathie said:


> Yes, but I think I called them slider puzzles.  I remember having the little hand-0hel square and moving those little tiles around and around trying to make a puzzle.  They were so much fun but some were very challenging.



Oh how those things were frustrating.  But, I worked and worked and worked on them.  Think I was successful, once.  Saw one online but just not the same.


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## That Guy

Bee said:


> I remember skipping and two balls.



Uhm . . . two balls???  Dare I ask?


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## That Guy

mamacathie said:


> when I was inside I played secretary.  I had my desk and all my papers and things I needed to be a secretary.  I was an only child so I loved playing this secretary and office by myself.



Very creative and it sounds like fun.  My older sister liked to play school where she was the teacher and our pets and I were the students.  I loved it and she actually grew up to become a great teacher.


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## That Guy

Pappy said:


> Remember after you ate a box of candy, like Milk Duds, you could blow in the open end and make a noise like a sick monkey?
> 
> My buddies and I almost got thrown out of the movies once because of doing this.



YES!  I was right there with you, Pappy!!!


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## That Guy

We used to play tag with the ocean.  After a wave rushes up the beach you have to run down with it as it recedes while getting as close as possible to its ebb and run back up the beach infront of the next wave without getting wet.  Great fun.  Actually introduced two non-surfing adult friends to it and we laughed ourselves silly.  Actually, I sat on the rocks laughing at them getting soaked...


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## That Guy

Jeez, I'm on a roll . . .

Howzabout skipping stones?  Now, you lake, river and creek rock tossers certainly have your place but it takes a real expert to skip stones in the ocean.  I'm not talking a placid, still, flat day.  I'm challenging you to skip rocks across rockin' and rollin' pumped up beach breakin' waves.  Timing is of the essence.  Have actually skipped 'em into a wave, up it's face and across it.  Ahem (koff koff) . . .


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## Pappy

That Guy said:


> We used to play tag with the ocean.  After a wave rushes up the beach you have to run down with it as it recedes while getting as close as possible to its ebb and run back up the beach infront of the next wave without getting wet.  Great fun.  Actually introduced two non-surfing adult friends to it and we laughed ourselves silly.  Actually, I sat on the rocks laughing at them getting soaked...



We use to play wave tag down at Pismo Beach while I was in the service. In Florida, we have these little birds with long legs that do the same thing. I think they are feeding on whatever comes in on waves. Very comical to watch.


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## Moggy

We used to build cubby houses out of old blankets, boxes, chairs, anything we could find. The downside was when Mum made us clean it all up before the end of the day.
Swap cards, jacks, hoola hoops, skippy, hopscotch, footy and cricket were popular in the 50's.


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## Warrigal

We played on the road. We learned to look, listen and make a dash for the gutter.
We jumped rope, played hopscotch, countries, fly, rounders and French cricket.


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## Bee

That Guy said:


> Uhm . . . two balls???  Dare I ask?



Just noticed this TG................ eerrrr some things are best left unsaid.


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## SeaBreeze

That Guy said:


> We used to play tag with the ocean.  After a wave rushes up the beach you have to run down with it as it recedes while getting as close as possible to its ebb and run back up the beach infront of the next wave without getting wet.  Great fun.  Actually introduced two non-surfing adult friends to it and we laughed ourselves silly.  Actually, I sat on the rocks laughing at them getting soaked...



We used to do the same at the ocean, fun to watch the foam come towards you, and run backwards to avoid it...we all laughed too, great fun! :highly_amused:


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## SifuPhil

Warrigal said:


> We played on the road. We learned to look, listen and make a dash for the gutter.
> We jumped rope, played hopscotch, countries, fly, rounders and French cricket.



French cricket ... is that where you run away whenever the opposition goes on the offense? layful:


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## Warrigal

That could be a variation I suppose, but no.

We used a cricket bat if someone owned one but any piece of wood would do. The batter stands facing the bowler full on with feet together and the bat/wood held in front of the legs. The bowler lobs a tennis ball at the  batter from any angle trying to hit the legs. The batter must stand still and use the bat to deflect the ball and score runs if safe to do so. The batter is out if caught on the full, run out or if the ball hits the legs. It was a good game for little kids to manage.


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## SifuPhil

Yeah, see, cricket is like rocket science to us Colonists. I've tried watching it and it's just confusing - much as I'm sure our baseball is a total enigma to many.

All I remember about watching cricket is from the old BBC series _The Prisoner_, one of my favorites shows ever, in an episode called _The Girl Who Was Death_. They were playing cricket and the bad guys substituted an explosive ball for the regular one. layful:


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## Warrigal

> much as I'm sure our baseball is a total enigma to many.


We know baseball. My husband's elder brother played amateur baseball.
It's just not a major sport over here.

Children at school are usually introduced to soft ball at some stage.
Rounders is a game that children organise for themselves.
It's like softball without most of the rules.


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## Bee

SifuPhil said:


> Yeah, see, cricket is like rocket science to us Colonists. I've tried watching it and it's just confusing



Not just to you Sifuphil, I don't understand cricket either, I wouldn't waste my time watching it.


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## SifuPhil

Warrigal said:


> We know baseball. My husband's elder brother played amateur baseball.
> It's just not a major sport over here.
> 
> Children at school are usually introduced to soft ball at some stage.
> Rounders is a game that children organise for themselves.
> It's like softball without most of the rules.



Here it seems like football - _un partido de futbol Americano_  - is the reigning sport in high school and college. We're not quite as passionate as the Latin countries are with their soccer, but it still approaches religious levels.  

Baseball might be our "national sport" but football brings in the money, and of course THAT is why it's turned into a cult.



Bee said:


> Not just to you Sifuphil, I don't understand cricket either, I wouldn't waste my time watching it.



Well, I wouldn't say it's a waste of time ...

... _that_ would be watching _golf_. Better than taking Lunesta. layful:


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## Warrigal

Our population is 23 million and we have four strong football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union and Australian rules. All are played professionally. Although it never appears on TV, we do have some American football which is known locally as gridiron.



> Gridiron in Australia
> Australia consists of six States (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania) and two Territories (Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory) and American Football is played in each of them.
> 
> Football has been played in Australia since 1983 and is commonly referred to as "gridiron" to distinguish it from the other football codes played here. There is no uniform American football season in Australia. The various State and Territory bodies all play at different times of the year. For example, the competition in South Australia runs from September to March, whilst the competition in New South Wales runs from September to December.
> 
> There are currently 73 teams playing football in Australia.
> 
> http://www.gridironaustralia.org.au/site/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_main&OrgID=885


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## Pam

....... I don't like cricket... I love it.... :cool-new::cool-new:

http://youtu.be/PbdCvzF4qqw


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## SeaBreeze

I remember having a Cootie game.


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## AprilT

You all pretty much named most of the games I played as well, those were some fun games, the outdoor and indoors ones our time was constantly filled with fun games of all kinds.  Later on badminton was a favorite of mine, one of my kiddie favorites was candy land and this one game I can never remember the name of, you would push this plastic thing which contained dice it sat in the center of the board and it would give you the number of moves to make, that silly game, I would probably still enjoy playing it to this day.  monopoly, scrabble generally go without saying.  

Like others:
Hopscotch, jump rope, tag, green/red light, may I, simon says and lots of card games and of course doctor patient, teacher students.


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## Butterfly

We also caught fireflies in jars -- there were zillions of them where my grandparents lived in Arkansas and I thought they were pretty magical.  (I also learned about chiggers in Arkansas.  Not a fun thing at all).   We played Red Rover, dodgeball, hopscotch, baseball in the street, and anything else we could think of.  Tetherball (my dad put one up in our backyard), cowboys & indians, jumprope, etc.  

Kids don't play outdoor games anymore, it seems.  My childhood was much richer for the outdoor games we played.

We played endless games of Monopoly on rainy days.


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## Linda

I love to play Canasta but never played it as a child.  We played Red Rover, which involved holding hands in a big circle and singing "Red Rover, Red Rover send "a kids name" right over".  Then the child would run over and try to break through the weakest link in the chain of hands.  That's about all I recall of that game.  I am old enough to remember being excited about playing checkers.  What I remember the most fondly is playing Hide and Go Seek near dark with my brothers and kids in the neighborhood.  I loved those times!


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## Rob

We used to play a game (I don't remember it actually having a name) where two kids would stand about 4 feet apart and facing each other with legs closed. Next, the person who won a coin toss would start by throwing a knife to one side or the other of his opponent. If the knife stuck in the ground he had to move the nearest foot to that point and take his turn at throwing. You could also throw the knife between the other's legs which forced him to turn around but still keeping his feet where they were. This continued until someone fell over.


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## Pappy

Remember when you walked on a sidewalk and wasn't suspose to step on a crack?  " Step on a crack and break your mothers back."


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## SifuPhil

Rob said:


> We used to play a game (I don't remember it actually having a name) where two kids would stand about 4 feet apart and facing each other with legs closed. Next, the person who won a coin toss would start by throwing a knife to one side or the other of his opponent. If the knife stuck in the ground he had to move the nearest foot to that point and take his turn at throwing. You could also throw the knife between the other's legs which forced him to turn around but still keeping his feet where they were. This continued until someone fell over.



Isn't that called Mumblety Peg? (or something like that - not sue of the spelling)


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## Pappy

SifuPhil said:


> Isn't that called Mumblety Peg? (or something like that - not sue of the spelling)



Yes Phil. It was. Not to be played with sandles  on.


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## SifuPhil

Pappy said:


> Yes Phil. It was. Not to be played with sandles  on.



LOL - I only remembered the name because my older brother almost lost a toe playing it.


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## Rob

SifuPhil said:


> Isn't that called Mumblety Peg? (or something like that - not sue of the spelling)



Well Phil, I've heard of that but hadn't associated it with the game. It was just called ... 'that game where you chuck knives at each other'


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## Pappy

We even played it at school recess. Can you imagine carrying a jackknife to school these days? :shussh:


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## AprilT

Pappy said:


> Remember when you walked on a sidewalk and wasn't suspose to step on a crack?  " Step on a crack and break your mothers back."




Yep, I remember that one too.


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## oakapple

Hop scotch, rounders, hula hoop, skipping rope, whip and tops,marbles, jacks, tig (tag). Hide and seek and a game for girls called two ball.Inside the house,we played tea parties with dolls and teddies, monopoly, all sorts of card games, snap, happy families etc.jigsaws, painting and colouring in, plasticine, those metal puzzles that you always got at Christmas, and games on paper like hangman and naughts and crosses.


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## JaniceM

oakapple said:


> Hop scotch, rounders, hula hoop, skipping rope, whip and tops,marbles, jacks, tig (tag). Hide and seek and a game for girls called two ball.Inside the house,we played tea parties with dolls and teddies, monopoly, all sorts of card games, snap, happy families etc.jigsaws, painting and colouring in, plasticine, those metal puzzles that you always got at Christmas, and games on paper like hangman and *naughts and crosses.*



Just guessing, but is that what Americans call Tic-tac-toe?


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## helenbacque

Very timely.  Just today I was explaining to my grandson about Jacks and Hopscotch.  

Also, jump rope both single and double dutch


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## jujube

Hide and seek, lots of hide and seek.  Good way to get rid of a pesky younger sibling.....just don't go looking for them.  In fact, I don't think I've seen my youngest sister since 1959 when I told her to "hide really good".


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## RadishRose

jujube said:


> Hide and seek, lots of hide and seek.  Good way to get rid of a pesky younger sibling.....just don't go looking for them.  In fact, I don't think I've seen my youngest sister since 1959 when I told her to "hide really good".



:lofl:


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## Aunt Bea

I remember that we used to play fox and geese out in the snow.


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## Falcon

It's no fun if you have to keep checking the  rule book  all the time.


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## JaniceM

jujube said:


> Hide and seek, lots of hide and seek. * Good way to get rid of a pesky younger sibling*.....just don't go looking for them.  In fact, I don't think I've seen my youngest sister since 1959 when I told her to "hide really good".



Reminds me of a game my older brothers occasionally played with _this _"pesky younger sibling"-  it was called Monkey in the Middle.  
Actually it was more along the line of _they _played, _I _mostly jumped up and down trying to get the ball-  unsuccessfully.  
In other words, guess who was always 'the monkey.'


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## CeeCee

JaniceM said:


> Reminds me of a game my older brothers occasionally played with _this _"pesky younger sibling"-  it was called Monkey in the Middle.
> Actually it was more along the line of _they _played, _I _mostly jumped up and down trying to get the ball-  unsuccessfully.
> In other words, guess who was always 'the monkey.'



We played that also, JaniceM...sometimes we called it "keep away".


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## Pappy

Remember asking mom or dad for a couple nickels so you could go “digging?”


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