Games we used to play

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I had a dream last night that got me to thinking about games I played as a kid that I haven'e seennor heard of in decades:

Marbles

Jacks

Mumbly peg

Dodge ball

Hop scotch

Anything on a jungle gym

Musical chairs

Hide and seek

Penny pitch

Tug rope

 

Are these still played and am I just out of touch or are they no longer known to our kids?

 

Add to the list because there are many more

[Cypress Sun]

 

I think that kids still play:

Hide and seek

Hop scotch

Musical chairs

Tug rope

 

They probably aren't permitted to play: 

Dodge ball (too violent...sob, sob)

Play on the jungle gym (I haven't seen one in years in any parks or the few playgrounds that I've seen...probably too many lawsuits)

Mumbly peg (are you kidding....knives? Johnny was playing with knives today, we'll have to get him to counselling to eliminate these violent tendencies.)

 

 

All of those activities take more than one person, except the jungle gym. They don't want to interact with other kids except on their damn cell phones. I've said it often, I wish the damn things had never been invented, they (and computers) have ruined the world and the worlds societies. Of course, I'm saying this with a computer though.

 

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

 

You forgot the most important one.

Playing COWBOY

 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

10 minutes ago, Father Kit Cool Gun Garth said:

 

You forgot the most important one.

Playing COWBOY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cowboys AND Indians!!!!

[Imis Twohofon,SASS # 46646]

Pushing toy cars and trucks around in the dirt. Looks like that lasts until school age and dies now.

 

Imis

[Blackwater 53393]

Kids don’t play “army” anymore!  Their folks would likely be jailed for promoting militias!!  

[Rye Miles #13621]

How about Fort Apache?? You know those little indians and army guys fighting?? Hours of enjoyment on a rainy day!

 

[Cypress Sun]

20 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

How about Fort Apache?? You know those little indians and army guys fighting?? Hours of enjoyment on a rainy day!

 

 

Or the plastic Army men. We'd set up our Army in opposing sides and then get one shot each with a BB gun until there were none left standing or laying on their belly (prone). Last kid with men standing won. Note: no one ever got their eye put out except plastic Army men.

[Pat Riot]

Dodge ball was always played at school in the gym, for me. 
 

Kick ball was an elementary school game that wasn’t on Forty’s list. 
 

1 hour ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Marbles

Jacks

Mumbly peg

Dodge ball

Hop scotch

Anything on a jungle gym

Musical chairs

Hide and seek

Penny pitch

Tug rope

From Forty’s list and using my grandson and his friends as test subjects here are the games from the list he played:

Marbles - No

Jacks - No

Mumbly peg - No 

Dodge ball - Yes, in school

Hop scotch - Definitely No “It’s a girl’s game”.

Anything on a jungle gym - Yes

Musical chairs - Yes in elementary school 

Hide and seek - Yes

Penny pitch - No

Tug rope - Yes, in school “Tug of War” (never understood that name, weird)

 

Games we played that haven’t been mentioned:

Tag and Freeze Tag

Gray Wolf

Snipe Hunts (on the initiated l)

The ground is boiling lava, lake full of piranhas, vat of acid... (Played on porch or patio)

Red Rover

Kill the Qu*** (with the ball)

HORSE - need a basketball net

Thump - thump or whack each others knuckles flicking their knuckles as hard as you can with a flick of your middle finger. 

[Tell Sackett SASS 18436]

1 hour ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

Kids don’t play “army” anymore!  Their folks would likely be jailed for promoting militias!!  

My favorite!!!

We played “war games” that ranged over several blocks!

[Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381]

Freeze tag, Red Rover, Pick-up-sticks, merry-go-round...

[Rye Miles #13621]

How about jacks? My mom was great at that game. Also Dominos!

[Blackwater 53393]

6 minutes ago, Tell Sackett SASS 18436 said:

My favorite!!!

We played “war games” that ranged over several blocks!

EXACTLY!!  We sometimes played over several blocks and even captured the houses of some kids whose moms went along with our exploits! 
 

We often “commandeered” a snack while “occupying” a residence!  
 

There were “stick guns” for kids who didn’t have a toy gun and pine cones served as grenades! We even took sections of discarded pipes and used ‘em as cannon!

 

Sometimes it was 19th century warfare and others it was 20th with the occasional Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon scifi battle thrown in!!

 

The town that I lived in for much of my grade school time was small in area and every kid walked to school.

 

Some “wars” covered half the town on a long weekend with different “divisions” operating all over!!

 

 

[Choctaw Jack]

How about Tether Ball ( at school )

and kick the can, usually after dark, played in front of someone's house that had A very bright porch light.

[Pat Riot]

3 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

EXACTLY!!  We sometimes played over several blocks and even captured the houses of some kids whose moms went along with our exploits! 
 

We often “commandeered” a snack while “occupying” a residence!  
 

There were “stick guns” for kids who didn’t have a toy gun and pine cones served as grenades! We even took sections of discarded pipes and used ‘em as cannon!

 

Sometimes it was 19th century warfare and others it was 20th with the occasional Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon scifi battle thrown in!!

 

The town that I lived in for much of my grade school time was small in area and every kid walked to school.

 

Some “wars” covered half the town on a long weekend with different “divisions” operating all over!!

 

 

We also had some epic “Army” games / fun. 
I remember my side captured a few of our opponents and they were imprisoned at our fort (under the back porch stairs). My Mom brought our prisoners PB&J sandwiches. 

That started a mass surrender of the rest of the enemy. 
 

We also played Cops & Robbers. I convinced all the kids in my neighborhood to buy these cap guns that looked like police revolvers. They had the red plastic caps that were much louder than regular cap guns. If a kid didn’t have a “police revolver” they could use a regular cap gun. 
My favorite was a revolver that looked like a Colt Detective Special. 
 

My cap gun looked like this, but with brown plastic grips. It was an 8 shooter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225971340166?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=DxGKCpmsQuK&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=bC8RdwrNQg-&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

 

Might be why I love this gun so much: 

S&W 327 Night Guard 8-shot .357 Magnum 

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

Boy we must have been BAD boys when my brother and I were growing up.
When we played "army" we filled empty coke bottles with dusty sand, stuffed the hole with a tissue and threw them at the "enemy" which was something hard enough to break the bottle and the exploding cloud of dust simulated the bomb blast effectively.
As for weapons, our go to firearm was the always reliable...

 

 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

4-square under the street lights till a parent would come to front door and yell at us it was time to come in

[Wyatt Earp SASS#1628L]

My all time favorite was Spin the Bottle.

[Tell Sackett SASS 18436]

4 hours ago, Wyatt Earp SASS#1628L said:

My all time favorite was Spin the Bottle.

I never got to play that one!

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

4 hours ago, Wyatt Earp SASS#1628L said:

My all time favorite was Spin the Bottle.

Didn't that get old playing by yourself?

[Texas Lizard]

5 minutes ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

Didn't that get old playing by yourself?

Only when you started to go blind....

 

Texas Lizard

[Pat Riot]

5 hours ago, Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L said:

4-square under the street lights till a parent would come to front door and yell at us it was time to come in

I forgot about that one. 4 square, I mean.  
 

My brother and I would throw football by streetlight on our street after dark. 

[Pat Riot]

We also used to play “curb ball”. You take a racquet ball or any bouncy rubber ball and throw it at the curb. The goal is to hit the street then the curb and make the ball bounce back. 
Strange…I forgot how the rest of it worked. We had a point system but I can’t think of how it worked right now. 
 

Anyway, we had fun and spent a lot of time doing it. 

[sassnetguy50]

Lawn darts and horse shoes

[Black Angus McPherson]

"Indian Ball" 

I know different places had different names.  Baseball, sort of.  3-5 guys.  Playing field was long with edges (foul) marked with t-shirts or extra gloves or rocks...  One batter.  Maybe a pitcher if there were enough players. Slow pitch.  No strike outs.  Otherwise you would "pitch" to yourself.  The "outfield" were the players in a front to back line.  If the ball was caught on the fly, it was an out.  If the first fielder in line stopped/caught the ball before it got past him, you were out.  Outside the side markers was a foul ball.  Four fouls was an out.  If the ball got past the first fielder it was a single.  If it went over the first fielder's head, or got past the second fielder, it was a double.  If it went over the second fielder's head or got past the third fielder (If there was one) it was a triple.  Over the last fielder's head was a home run.  Each player was his own team and "base runners" automatically advanced as appropriate for the last hit.  A player would usually bat until he got 6 outs (two innings) then everybody would rotate positions.  My friends and I would play that for HOURS.  Often there were only 3 of us, 1 batter and 2 fielders.  I don't think we ever had more than 6 players.

Man, I used to love that game.

 

My Dad's game was Cork ball.  I'm not sure but what that might have been a St. Louis thing.  Mini-baseball a little larger than a golf ball and a bat that looked barely larger than a broomstick.  I think the rules were similar to Indian ball, but they had a pitcher and would, sometimes, use the side of a brick building in lieu of a catcher.  Fast pitch.  I used to have a cork ball bat, ball, and catcher's mask (Extra small face grid so the small ball couldn't get thru).  I kind of wish I had them now.  They'd look cool as a wall display.

 

Great memories.

 

Angus

[Lone Spur Jake SASS #7728]

And in high school we played "Skirt Chasing."

Best game we ever played even if we didn't win.

[sassnetguy50]

1 hour ago, Lone Spur Jake SASS #7728 said:

And in high school we played "Skirt Chasing."

Best game we ever played even if we didn't win.

We played "dress up" day.

[Rye Miles #13621]

My friend got a croquet set and we’d play in his backyard for hours. Sometimes our parents would join in. 
We also played bocci ball , an Italian game. 

[Imis Twohofon,SASS # 46646]

Ongoing Monopoly games that lasted all summer.

 

Imis

[Tex Wilson]

21 hours ago, Lone Spur Jake SASS #7728 said:

And in high school we played "Skirt Chasing."

Best game we ever played even if we didn't win.

That was my favorite one !!!

[The Shoer 27979]

I was told by a friend of mine who was a teacher now retired that picking penny's is gambling  and will get you suspended

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

On 2/2/2024 at 8:34 AM, Tell Sackett SASS 18436 said:

My favorite!!!

We played “war games” that ranged over several blocks!

War surplus helmets and liners; clothes; canteens cups and covers; gas mask carriers and back packs; rifle stocks; holsters and slings; bayonets and sheathes; compasses; mess kits and accessories; canned heat; aviator helmets; patches, badges, medals, and insignia; first aid kits; and much, much more.  

 

Those were the good old days... and almost no one ever turned to a life of crime or shot anyone (until we went the 'Nam and other evil places).