As the weather turns warm in Chicago, and I see kids flocking to ice cream trucks like moths to a light, I can't help but notice that I don't see kids playing the way we used to when I was their age. Sure, there are games of basketball and soccer going on, and the park swing sets and slides are employed in mindless repetition.
But what I mean are the pre-teen classics - the ones that required cunning and creative-thinking, where alliances were formed and dissolved for self-preservation - skills that every kid should learn for use in Corporate America later in life.
Now, I'm sure that some of these games were regional in their genesis, so exact names and rules may vary, but I mean games like "Red Rover", "Spud", "Mother-May-I?", "Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light", and "Frozen Tag", to name a few. For my money, the best was "Kick the Can".
The game was simple enough - put an empty can in the middle of the sidewalk, and designate one player as "It". Other players would hide and "It" would have to find them, run back to the can, and tap it while declaring the name and location of a discovered hiding player, thus transferring "It" status for the next round. If "It" strayed too far away from the can and one of the hiders was able emerge and kick the can before being detected, "It" remained "It" for another round. Being "It" sucked.
The hiders would conspire to either "out" other hiders (through "It"-Hider alliances), or to work as a team to keep one person "It" for as long as possible (I vaguely recall my little sister being "It" from 1976-1978, aka "The Golden Years").
However, the TRUE creativity came in deciding who was "It" to begin each game. All players would put their foot into a circle. Someone would begin touching toes around the circle while reciting some form of a ritualistic poem, moving from foot to foot with each syllable. The poems usually had to do with catching something by a toe or an in-depth analysis of a fist-fight between mothers hanging up clothes. (I'm still convinced that this method is used by the Bears to make some of their draft choices, but I digress).
As narrator, the goal was to get the poem to end on the foot of who you wanted to be "It", so syllable control was essential; nothing short of an art form . It was imperative to keep alliances with the master toe-tappers on the block and stave off "It" status as much as possible. Because being "It" sucked.
As senseless as these games may seem, they did have some lessons to be learned - teamwork, creative thinking, etc., and (especially when being "It"), learning that not everything will go your way, and you still have to play within the rules even when everyone seems to be against you.
In the game of Corporate America, anyone else feel like they are "It"? Being "It" sucks.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Being "It" did and does suck.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid one of my favorite games was playing "Black Tom".
Basically, we had a long field like a football field. All of the players except one "It" stood in the end zones which was a safe zone. In the middle of the field "It" would take his place, and cry out "Black Tom! Black Tom! Black Tom!", and the other players would all rush across to the opposite end of the field, being chased by the center player, "It", who would catch any that he could. Any one so caught joined him in being it.
The unique characteristic of the game was the fact that "It", instead of saying "Black Tom," may trick the runners by crying out "Slack Tom," or "Blue Tom," or "Crack Tom," or anything else that he chooses. Any player who starts to run upon such a false alarm is considered captive and must join the players in the center. This is also true for any player who starts before the third repetition of "Black Tom."
Another way of giving a false alarm is for any one of the center players except the original "It" to give the signal for running. Any runner starting in response to such a signal from any of the chasers, except the original It, thereby becomes captive and must join the players in the center.
The first one to be caught was "It" for the next game.
We eventually were forced to stop this game because the nuns at the Church had a fit because they were sure that Black Tom was a racial slur. We then changed the game to some other name which I don't remember now, and it didn't last long, because the new name just didn't stick.
Being "It" does suck.
Thanks for the laugh Pete. You brought back great memories of kick the can. And yes - being "it" does suck.
ReplyDeleteStephen - we used to play that too in school but we did it with animals. I guess the nuns had already changed the name of the game at our school. :)
Okay, you happened to miss my favorite game of all time - very simplistic but quite barbaric in nature (and was NEVER played by women). That would be "Kill the guy with the ball". This was played with any kind of ball - but normally a football. One guy would pick up the ball and start running, and everyone else would try to tackle him, and then everyone else would pile on top. I am still not sure why, probably boys macho nature, but everyone wanted to be the "guy" and try to stay up and keep going as long as possible before being piled on.
ReplyDeleteAnd one other - Idiot - what was the full contact basketball game we used to play? There was a name for it. Someone would drive to the hoop and everyone else would try to absolutely destroy him.
Now that I am thinking about it, why did I like to hurt others as a child?