Jumping rope, Red Rover, Hide and seek.
 

Did you play in the street, the alley or on a vacant lot??? Tell us about playing when you were a kid.

Do you remember the rhymes we said when we jumped rope? Did you choose up teams for stick ball? I was always the last chosen. I know why now. How many skinned knees did you get? I was too chicken to fall out of a tree.

I played roly poly on the sidewalk. Never played hop scotch. Of course we played football, baseball, and basketball also. We played stoop ball where you throw a rubber ball against porch stairs and try to hit the point of the stairs. Another game we played was stick ball where a rectangle was drawn on the school building wall and you would bat using a broom handle and the pitcher would throw a ball and try to hit the rectangle for a strike. When we played we pretended to be a major league team and had to bat either right or left depending on the major league lineup.

John

I didn't do the jump rope thing,...that was for girls! We dug fox holes, played army, blew up our GI Joe's with firecrackers, built tree houses in the woods, played in the stream until we had leaches hanging off our legs,..... walked the railroad tracks picking elderberries, then we'd sell them to the neighbor ladies. We rode mini bikes, made go carts and actually coasted them down the same street that cars went on,...(lucky we didn't get killed).....all in the great State of Ohio! :icon_wink:

In addition to playing all the games that John mentioned, we also played johnnie on the pony, box baseball, chinese handball, off the wall (where one person throws a spaulding or pensie pinkie against the wall and his opponent tries to catch it on the fly), touch football in the street (go out to the chevy and cut left), and a strange game called three feet off to germany. I grew up in Brooklyn, Queens, and New Hyde Park, LI.

Oh, ...and I forgot "Kick the Can" ! A type of after dark hide and seek where the can set in the yard was "home base" ....

yup.

Had to yell "all ee all ee in free" when it was time to gather everyone back.

Have not heard of some of your games. Names are interesting...

but Graytop. GIJoe was not even a gleam in Mr. Mattel's eye when I was a kid. My boy cousin had a metal army jeep toy that he plowed through the sandbox with.

I remember playing tetherball and "four square" when I was in elementary school.

Used to play "army" in a sandbox with some friends - we made homemade rubber band 'guns' and would shoot at the other person's toy soldiers in the sandbox. A hit counted as a point.

Also made a homemade skateboard out of an old disassembled "shoe skate" (the metal ones that clamped to your shoes.....with the 'key' to tighten them!) Nailed the two halves to the bottom of a board and away I went. Lots of fun til I hit a big crack in a downhill sidewalk - crashed and burned big time! Still have the scar on my elbow.......

Bill :)

If I tried to list everything I did as a kid I would ruin several years of therapy, but I'll try to list a few.

Besides the usual items like baseball, football, basketball and walking the railroad tracks, l can remember using a sandbox and building castles where we would hide a king (stick) within what we built. There were two castles facing each other built by two different teams. With a medium-small stone we would then take turns tossing the stone at each others castle trying to bury their king. The first to bury the others king was the winner.

I also played golf using a bow and arrow. I'd place a hoola hoop on the ground, move a distance away as far as safely possible, then I'd see how many shots it took to make it into the hoop! Never joined the PAGA (Pro-Archery Golf Association) though!

Anybody ever shoot baseball cards against a wall, closest to wall took all the cards? That was fun... mostly when you were winning!

We lived where the Erie Canal began off of the Hudson River and the locks had what's called spillways to serve the movement of water in and out of the locks. We used to like going skinny dipping in the spillway, and being young the only worry we had when doing so is that the eels in the water might go looking for a meal of worms... if ya know what I mean!

I loved climbing trees & jungle bars back then, the higher the better; should have been born a monkey. I had three favorite trees to climb and sit in for give or take about 20 minutes when things were slow. One of the trees, overlooking the Hudson River, was my most favorite.

And yes Gracie, I too was frequently picked last, but that was only when I was the only one playing... usually! :1rotfl:

You made this post while I was preparing my post. Funny that we came up with the sandbox thing at the same time. Anyway, did you call truces occasionally to have a popcorn snack then resume? :icon_wink:

Too bad we didn't know we both did this back then. It would have been fun to travel to each others venue for competition! :shocked:
:popcorn:

In the streets. In addition, we played stick ball when a pitch was thrown on a bounce to the hitter. We used a broom handle with the Spaulding ball. We should have had shares in Spaulding as we hit many balls into area's where they were unretrievable especially the sewers. I slid into second base on concrete. How that for dedication and or stupidity?

Also Johnny Rides the Pony buit not too many times a it got a little rough. Hide and seek.

Football was go long or cut to the left towards the Buick and I'll throw it you you.

There was also a punch ball league that was played in the back of P.S 18.
A Spaulding ball that was throw one a bounce above the shoulder and was punched. It was interesting as this school had many windows and crevices where crazy bounces would result.

We had a building where we used the point with the other building 30 feet away. One time, someone really hit the point with the Spaulding really good and it went to the third floor through an open window that was opened slightly. We thought we lost the ball as a usually mean Jenny C. would never give it back to us. We started to scatter and then Jenny open the window and was laughing. She threw the ball back to us and explained the ball came through the window and bounce into her husbands bowl of salad. First and only time I remember her laughing. Obviously, she thought it was hysterical. :)

During recess at school we would play Hop Scotch and of course jump rope to....MI crooked letter, crooked letter, i, crooked letter, crooked letter, i, hump-back, hump-back, i......ie. Mississippi and can't remember the name of the 'song' but it went like 1st floor stop....2nd floor stop.... At home in the neighborhood,we would play hide n' seek and have many softball games in the middle of the street, using cars as the bases.....that is until the street lights went on.....then we all went home. Oh such good memories. Wonder where all the kids are that I played with at school and at home?

And for girls games
 

we played games Dodge ball, alleys, double dutch and sardines. This last one was always fun to play with the boys as we had to get into cramped spaces. The main trouble with it was that if it were played in a large space and it got dark, sometimes one of us would fall asleep and not know the game was over! Then we would have to have a search party and yell for the missing kid. Then as we grew older the hoola hoop came along and that was another era of all different games!

I find it sooooo sad that kids don't get out and get dirty. I think some of the problems labeled 'ADD and ADHD' can be contributed to kids not getting rid of all the energy that comes with being a kid. It's great that everywhere you look (not just TV) you see nicely manicured lawns but when we were kids, you played on the lawn...the folks didn't care because the hadn't spent tons of money making it perfect. There is no place to get dirty, we built forts out of wood stacked behind the garage, played softball, converted an old shed into our 'fort'. Now parents are afraid to let the kids out of their sight...I absolutely HATE it when my grandkids spend their entire days playing video games and texting. They really, really do not know how to play outside, if they do play, it's an organized sport, not a bad thing but just not the same. So sad :(

We played Red Light Green Light, Duck Duck Goose and Simon Says as younger kids. As I got older we played Army and I was Sgt. Saunders from the TV show Combat. What other TV shows influenced the way you played as kids?

.....but I wasn't born until 1958,...I grew up in the 60's with GI Joe, and an army green Tonka jeep, one that was still made out of metal with rubber wheels! :)

Bill,...today the PC crowd wouldn't let their kids play with that stuff,..."it's too dangerous" (said in a whiney voice) .......we had 12 kids in my family,...when I think of some of the stuff we did as kids it's a wonder we all survived, but we did.:icon_wink:

school games
 

As a teenager we played two hand touch at night. Used a white football in the school yard. Just had the lights in the street next to the school.
Alos play hockey at night but used a dead spalding ball and we did not wear skates. When our sticks broke we taped with metal to support the broken blade. We enjoyed watching the sparks fly!

One other game, a version of hide and seek. It ws calll ring-a-levio. Have no idea how to spell it. There were two teams of about 10 and one team had to hide (generally in bushes) Lot's of fun when guys were tackled when found.

How about playing hardball on a softball asphalt field.

Played punchball but the "hitter" threw the ball up to himself.
My secret was to place my thumb in my fist. 350 CCs of power!

Lastly, did anyone play skelly? Hitting a soda cap on the floor to numbered boxes in a square. We also used tops of jars as well.

:agree::clap2:

:agree: I am saddened by the fact of today's kids are not thrown outside and free to roam the neighborhood as we did. It's a sign of the times that did not change for the better. :(

I did fall out of a tree...I don't recommend it!
My sister, brother and I grew up at the coast and the beach played an important part of our "play time." Swimming, row boating, fishing, floating on innertubes, were things that we did...as well as bicycling, rollerskating, sledding and ice skating in winter (little swamp "lakes" near the shore froze early and solidly). I do remember playing cowboys and each of us would have a small piece of rope in our hands...they were the reins of our horses. Games of jump rope, red rover, etc, were played more at school than at home....at home we were more on the go than not.

The song
 

I used to sing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall..." while riding on the school bus. Felt a little more macho than singing "Three Blind Mice."

Gene

That's one song that you don't encourage your kids to sing when you take a long road trip....by the time you get to 'seventy-five bottles of beer on the wall' you throw the kids out of the car!!! (hey, maybe it IS a good thing...they'd be forced to play outside!!) :coolsmiley:

OH! I almost forgot one - 'Spin the Bottle'...................... :coolsmiley:

:popcorn:

Bill :)

and the more advanced version.....7 minutes in heaven

Much of this sounds very familiar to me since I grew up at Pensacola Bay and Pensacola Beach. Lots of beach and boating stuff along with canoes. It helped that I was in the Sea Explorer Scouts. Got a speedometer for the bike and put over 1,000 miles on it. Only time I saw snow was once in the early 50's (pretty rare in Florida) until I was an adult.
When younger we'd jump off the garage roof and pretend it was parachuting. Never fell out of a tree but climbed many. Played cowboys. Also in playing army we'd throw D cell batteries at each other as hand grenades (we at least had enough sense to wear real helmets!).

games
 

Never played those games outside. :coolsmiley:

In the city we played wiffle ball, half ball (broomstick handle and half of a dimpled hollow rubber ball which we purchased at the corner store), shot bottlecaps in the street and also marbles, hopscotch, jacks, and my favorite flipping baseball cards against a wall. In the burbs we played capture the flag, dodge ball, kickball (I guess because there was more room to run around), osage orange fights (boy did it hurt when you got hit with one of those), baseball and of course sledding, ice skating and snowball fights in the winter. I also remember playing 1 2 3 red light, mother may I? and Simon Says. Hubby and I taught our kids all those games. In the summertime my husband would line our yard with chalk to make a baseball diamond and every kid in the neighborhood (girls and boys) would play baseball all day, everyday in our yard. I always knew where my kids were! Ah the good old days!

How about Jacks??? I know, it was a girl thing but I spent many hours trying to perfect my skill. When I showed it to my daughters they just rolled their eyes (oh well, their loss!)

I'll bet that was a blast especially when coupled with spin the bottle! http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/smileys/smiley18.gif

Simon says
Mother May I?
Spin the bottle,my fav
Crack the whip (on snow sleds)
Mock army battles in the woods ala "Combat" the television show each played a character I was ALWAYS Sgt Saunders
"Doctor"
Red Rover
dodge ball
kick ball

Oh those were the days......................

"Gracie and Sweetie,
Sittin' in the tree.
K I SS I N G.
First came love,
Then came marriage,
Then came Helene in the baby carriage!"

Or...my all-time favorite:

"My mommy told me,
If I was goody,
That she would buy me
a rubber dolly.
My aunty told her
I kissed a soldier.
Now she won't buy me
A rubber dolly.
3, 6, 9 the goose drank wine,
The monkey chewed tobacco
on a street car line.
The line broke,
The monkey got choked,
and they all went to heaven
in a little rowboat...ah huh."
:a040::a040::a040: :a040::a040::a040:
(How come I can remember all that...and now I'm looking all over for my glasses?):shocked:

I also remember playing Chinese Jump Rope (with the rubber bands around our ankles...ouch!) and "pitch a milk cap" with my dad. :ho:

Cinderella, dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella...how many kisses did she receive? one...two...three...............

Ah, to be able to jump rope like that again.

Tag you're it
 

Tag you're it!,

One More game we played
 

After dinner everyone came to our back yard and player "Evening Games" We played tag, spud, kick the can and that all time favorite "Pussy Wants a Corner." I swear that is really a game. At least it was a game in the East side of Cincinnati. :icon_twisted: :crap2:

When I was very small,in Virginia, I played with the little black kids down the road. They had the best games. But when school started, no more black kids. Different schools. I never saw a black kid again, not even in college.

Remember the Jingle Jump?

We also would stand around in a circle with our fists out to see who was IT...one potato, two potato, three potato four...and another... my mother punched your mother right in the nose what color was the blood?...and eenie, meenie, minee, moe...