Games rarely played today - ahh the memories

[spartacus53]

When I was growing up in the late 50's through the 60's we played so many games that are not familiar with today's youngsters. Although some are still played today, it is rare to see them played as often as we did. These will not include games in the parks like basketball and handball, etc..

Let me know if I left out any good local games you grew up with

Ball games
off the wall 2-3 players a side thrown against wall baseball rules
off the point 2-3 players a side Hit off pointed wall ledge baseball rules
off the curb 8-10 players baseball, hit ball off the pointed curb and run the intersection for bases
slug - like handball, but ball must bounce before wall, boundaries were the sidewalk lines
Sewer to sewer this was a 2 hand touch football game, goal lines were the street sewers.
Stick ball (always illegal in NYC, but we did it anyway) It was always fun when someone spotted the police. All you would hear is "Cheese it, the COPS", broom sticks would fly under parked cars and we would stand around the street with baseball mitts on

Skully (also called skelly, skelsy, skellizes) This was a bottle cap game in the street.

Tag
Roundup - like tagged, once tapped you were also IT, until all players are caught.
Johnny on the Pony 1 boy pillar, the rest are the horse, jump high and hard on to someones back. Once all players were on repeat games name 3 times, then break. If you fail to hold up, you have to be the horse again.
Red Rover
Kick the can

Marbles
Crack tops - playing tops, if you failed to spin, your top was a target of other tops until knocked out of a circle drawn in the street.

Kids today know Playstation 3, X-Box and Guitar Hero

 

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[Excavator]

My Grandmother taught us to play, Tin-Tin and Poor Kitty.

I forget exactly how Tin-Tin goes, but it starts with "Tin-Tin, Come in.. Do you want to buy some tin?" In the next step we were tapping a yardstick on the floor and counting.

With Poor Kitty, one kid out of the group crawls on hands and knees to each player, musters up a pair of sad eyes, and says "meow". Then the player has to say "poor kitty" without laughing or cracking a smile. First person to laugh gets to be the kitty.

We played most of the games listed previously, we played Red Rover after lunch at school.

My Grandkids were amazed when we pulled out the Monopoly game, but they all wanted to play.

 

[Blacksheep]

Tried to explain kick-the-can to my kids, the fun we had playing that game. They just blinked at me....

 

[mamabear]

how about where you string a button on thread & so the thread wraps around a finger on each hand, then you start it twirling til it starts humming loud. I still like doing that, & have showed lots of my daughters friends. & then catching fireflies in a jar & when there are lots releasing them on you so you are all lit up.
both my kids are grown now, but we still play card games, monopoly, scrabble, Yahtzee, & work jigsaw puzzles when they come home. along with the video games. just cuz they are playing vid games doesn't mean you can't join them. I may not be good at them, but it makes them laugh & that is still one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard.
I almost forgot! pick-up sticks. most kids don't know what it is anymore, & it's so much fun introducing them to it.

 

[Ray S S]

Antie-I-over--2 or3 or more kids on opposite sides of house or outbuilding. The ball is thrown over the house and when
someone would catch it (without it hitting ground) all the kids on that side would run around the house from both sides and
the one with the ball would tag as many as he could before they got around the corner. The first team to have all the kids wins.

500--- a ball game when there isn't enough to have a game. One batter with the rest of them in the field. Batter does his own pitching. Kids keep their own score. The first one with 500 points is next batter. Scoreing was like grounders... 25points.
1 bounce...50 points. A Flyball was 100 points. We did a lot of this because we rarely had enough kids around to have a regular game going.

Fox and Geese.. A tag game mostly on ice skates on the lake after snow would come, We would shovel a large ring with spokes
to a center hub. It would look like a large wagon wheel in the snow. to start one kid would be the fox and keep chasing the
geese around the circle or through the spokes. Anyone that was cought had to stand in the center until the amount specified
like 1 or 2 or 3 was caught. Then the first one cought was then the fox to start over. That one was lots of fun. When the snow
got real deep it would make some high snowbanks and by bending over while skating the fox sometimes would have a hard time
seeing just where the geese were atand it kinda added a little extra fun and excitement to the game.

In warm weather sometimes 2 of us would play chicken or sometimes called Stretch. 2 of us would face each other about 3 feet
apart. Using a pocket knife we would throw the knife in the ground by the other guy's foot. It couldn't be over i foot away.
Then he would put his foor against the knife and throw it by the other's foot. The first one that couldn't stretch far enough
to touch the knife was the looser. Back then, most kids would have their own pocket knife by the second or third grade. we
did a lot of whittling and making our own toys with it. When we were older, once in a while we would get into a good fist fight with some one at school, and although every kid had his own knife, no one ever thought of using it in the fight. We'd fight
to see who was toughest and he would win the argument.

That is about all I can think of now that hasn't already been mentioned. I might remember some later
Ray

 

[ivan salis]

---I lived in cheifland , florida for about 1 1/3 years with my ailing grandma ( it was a very very hicktown -- one stop light ----early 1970 games -- marbles (keepies) --- pitch a penny (or nickles to quarters) closeest to the wall wins ---mumbly peg -- flipping a jack knife off ones finger and getting it to stick in the ground -- tobaccer spitting contest (who can spit a stream of tobbaco juice the fartherest) in 7th grade kids there had a bag of redman* in their back pockets at school --and no one said "boo" about it .--- when the local watermelon crop come in --school let out so the kids could be used as "feild laborers" -- for the most part kids saying "no" to this was NOT a option.

 

[Blacksheep]

One game we played as kids was "Daddy-o" (four square), played in four square box with each box labeled A through D. Object was the person in "D" (Daddy-o) to serve the ball by hitting it into one of the other squares where it could bounce no more than once and the player in that square hit to another and so on, until somebody missed a return or served outside the box.

Fast paced game that always drew in a huge line at our local park, that game I miss. Haven't seen a Daddy-o box painted in a park area for at least 20 years.

 

[Excavator]

mamabear, we did the button and string toy too. Burned my tongue once, and got it tangled in my sister's hair once.

Ever tie thread to a June Bug and fly it around?

With two soup cans, two buttons, and string, we made a telephone.

We made spitwad shooters from hogweed. If you do it right, you end up with a sort of piston with a handle. When you hit the handle, the spitwad shoots out. All made with one piece of hogweed.

We played the 'stretch' knife game too, and did Indian leg wrestling in gym class.

 

[spartacus53]

Some really good games are mentioned here for sure and I noticed most were outdoor games like mine. That was also one of the points I was trying to make. Kids today are happy being cooped up in the house, either playing video games, watching TV, and never getting fresh air or exercise.

I also remember Daddy-O, same game but I forgot what we called it. Yes, that was a great little game, along with many others mentioned here like 500, Antie I over, pitching pennies (one of my favorites, introducing a kid to gambling ) We had also flipped baseball cards, and played matching colors too. You needed the good old Topps cards for that game.

There was another game, (no idea of its name) where you stood about 4 squares apart with a an ice cream stick in the middle and you tossed a ball to hit it, getting a point for each hit.

 

[greydigger]

Nobody mentioned "Jacks" where you bounce the ball and try to pick up increasing numbers of things and catch the ball before 2 bounces.

Or "hopscotch" where you bounced on 1 foot along a T shaped pattern.

JumpRope may still exist but am unsure.

WallBall was an early type of racketball.

Tetherball involved a post and a rope held ball.

We also had dirt clod fights where you try and hit the other team like snowball fights.
And sometimes used rotten peaches, what a splat.

Most games were focused on dexterity and physical fitness.
I did play marbles but don't remember how it was done.
Sorta like billiards but in the dirt.

Grey

 

[ivan salis]

what ? marbles is easy to remember -- make a circle --everbody puts the same amount of marbles in the ring --then you take turns shooting them out with your "shooter"--those you knock out you "keep" if playing "keepsies"-- and you shoot till their all out or you miss then the next in line goes till he misses-- you take turns being the first shooter in rotation to be fair -- if there is 4 kids with say 16 marbles each --each kid puts up 4 marbles for 4 games and is first "shooter" once --a full run of say all 16 marbles meant you were a "hustler"

 

[lonesomebob]

I remember a game calle dpom pom pullaway, dont remember how it went, Wish someone would collect all these old games in a book,to keep memories alive. Oh yes hide and seel too. Bob

 

[spartacus53]

We also had dirt clod fights where you try and hit the other team like snowball fights.
And sometimes used rotten peaches, what a splat.

Most games were focused on dexterity and physical fitness.
I did play marbles but don't remember how it was done.
Sorta like billiards but in the dirt.

Grey

I grew up in the Bronx, so we didn't have much dirt. We did however have a place called the "Lot", which actually ran across one of the streets and is still there today! The lot was actually an outcrop of granite rock, perhaps just over a story high and on top there was some soil that we would have dirt fights. (It reminds this this day of the movie "A Christmas Story", don't throw that at each other, you'll take an eye out. So we moved to the next best thing paper clips and rubber bands. I played that version until I got hit in the eye with a clip and spent 2 weeks in the hospital. The lot also had an overhang so you were able to build a fort, or a cave and play in there if it rained. I can't remember playing at home that often, unless there was a severe storm I was outside.

Yes, the most important part was that we were outside getting air and exercise. We even made up our own game I'll call "you can do that". This game was simple, fun and stupid all at once. It would usually start when we couldn't agree on what to play and how many kids were around. We would sit around and talk about different stunts and then more like a challenge someone would say, "you can do that", and sure enough we would give it a try Many a bruise, cut and break came from that game alone

 

[GopherDaGold]

We played a game called 'burnout' or 'running bases'. My brother and I would stand about base distance apart while firing a baseball back and forth as hard as we could. I was looking over at my grandmothers pond one time as my bro fired the ball and cracked me in the jaw. Almost had to get stiches inside my mouth.
Running Bases was the same game but with the addition of a base runner.

 

[Sandman]

It is good to remember these games I used to play. Mumblety-peg could get you expelled from school or worse now. We always carried a jack knife to school.

http://cutlerynewsjournal.com/2010/01/16/knife-game-series-mumblety-peg/

 

[River Rat]

Ahh the memories - a lot was mentioned in the above replies that I was very fond of... can't forget about playing Candy Land board game, Old Maid card game, tic-tac-toe, checkers, scissors/stone/paper. What about sitting in clover patch looking for 4 leaf clover and braiding the clover flowers into necklaces? Catching mosquito hawks with clothes pins?

RR

 

[ashleen]

Simon Says
Red Light
Red Rover
Hopscotch
tug of wars

 

[centfladigger]

spin the bottle or truth or dare . Also being raised up down here in Fl anything to do with hitting a target with oranges

 

[Mark S.]

We were rarely inside during the good weather months. My neighbors large back lawn was the combo baseball, football field. Many nights after the farmers got done with chores there would be a game going on with whoever showed up. My mother (a nurse) patched up many injuries. No one got sued either. We would also go to a local church that had large "sheds". They were (are) large concrete buildings that were used to park the buggies and horses inside during church services. One had a wood floor and baskets installed. It was good for floor hockey and basketball, mostly winter time

One day when not enough showed up for either baseball or football we invented a game. We set up some makeshift goals - simply two posts. We grabbed whatever we could find for a stick. Hockey stick, croquet mallet, broom, baseball bat etc. The ball was whatever we had. Softball, hardball, soccer ball, basketball, croquet ball etc. The rules were simple. the ball had to go thru the goal from the "infield" direction and no out of bounds. When you get 6 plus kids wailing away at a "ball" with their "sticks" there was a bit of pain involved. It was full contact anything goes! We very aptly named it "OUCH"! Rarley made it thru a game with all the sticks and balls intact. We actually played it often instead of baseball or football. How no one ever ended up with broken bones from that one is a miracle.

 

[GopherDaGold]

spin the bottle or truth or dare . Also being raised up down here in Fl anything to do with hitting a target with oranges

Ahhh, so THAT"S why I'm paying eight bucks for a bag of oranges.