Reminiscing: Childhood Games

Pickle

This was my favorite game to play with friends while waiting for the school bus. The basic rules were that you would have two points as designated bases. You would have two kids who would gaurd the bases, who were similar to tag called "it." Other kids, were base runners who would from base to base while trying to not get tagged by the tennis ball that the "its" would toss back and forth (being tagged included being hit by a thrown ball.) The person being tagged takes the "it" place of the person who threw it. Repeat the process over and over until the arrival of the dreaded bus.

Dodgeball

Oh how fun it was on the days we got to play dodgeball in PE (or gym class, whatever you want to call it.) The rules we played by, which I believe to be the classic rules, were as follows: two teams would be divided by the mid-court line of the basketball court; you could not cross the line or you were out; if you were hit by the ball you were out; if your ball is caught before bouncing you are out; team to run out of people loses. Oh how I loved hurling the rubber balls at peoples legs, heads, and backs to limit their ability to catch the ball. And how I loved to encourage the people to throw at me since I was very good at catching the ball.

Broom Hockey or Floorball
While still on PE I loved playing broom hockey, we actually didn't use brooms, but rather had styrofoam hockey sticks with a plastic puck (but wait we did use brooms at church). I was the best goalie, but found it more fun to get out ans score goals.

Kickball and Wiffle-ball

Ahh, kickball and wiffle-ball, so much fun. As I am sure you all know, kickball is baseball played by kicking a big rubber ball instead of hitting a ball with a bat. On variant we played in gym class was when we played indoor if you kicked the ball into the basketball hoop your team would get 10 points, I remember doing it at least once. We did play wiffle-ball (with a bat of course), but we mostly used tennis balls, as you could get a lot more distance.

Flag, Two-hand Touch, and Solo Football

I loved playing neighborhood two-hand touch or PE flag football. In the fall, even when my friends were gone, you could find me in my backyard playing the football. I would through an appropriately arched ball and run and catch it. I would even play two teams, keeping downs and score by myself; each dropped ball would be a down and I designated certain points like a tree for a first down or touchdown. I would imagine winning the Super Bowl or winning the Heisman Trophy. Of course playing with friends was much more fun. (I also would pretend I was in the Olympics and would do events such as the standing long-jump in my living room...heavily influenced by Carl Lewis.)

Paper Football

Paper football deserves its own category as it is a little more unique. Starting in elementry school, the boys would fold paper into triangles that would serve as footballs. We would use a desk or lunch table as the field. You would first kick off by flicking the paper, and you would then have four tries to flick or shuffle the "ball" so that it would hang over the edge of your opponents side, thus scoring a touchdown, if it fell off the edge it was no good. After scoring a touchdown your opponent would hold up his fingers for a goal post and you would try to flick the "ball" across for an extra point. I made paper footballs to represent all NFL teams, coloring them to match helmet designs.

Quarter Basketball

This I am sure developed out of the paper football game. You would first spin a quarter and try to trap it in between your two thumbs, without letting it fall. You would of course try to spin the quarter so that it would get as close to your opponent, who would have his hands rounded into a basket, as possible. If distant you would launch the quarter into the air trying to make it into your opponent's basket hand. If closer you could do a slam dunk. Later as the game developed further, you could do fancy slam dunks by grabbing the quarter with a ring finger and pinky while not letting the thumbs to separate and then slamming the quarter into your opponents basket. This was another lunch time favorite, that lasted into the early years of high school.

Pencil Break

This favorite among elementry boys did not last long as parents complained to the school about all of the broken pencils they found in school bags...the school "cracked" down. How was it played? Well one boy would hold their pencil in between their hands and the opponent would snap their pencil as hard as they could on the held pencil. Each would take turns until one of the pencil's broke. Of course you tried to land the metal eraser holder part of the pencil on your opponent's to increase your chances of victory. The best pencils were the compressed wood that had enough glue to give the pencil extra elasticity. I believe the Eberhard Faber were the best. This game of course developed from stick break (which of course was the same game using sticks), which we still played, but less often.