As a child, what kind of games did you play?

This is a really interesting post. My work involves being with kids in school all day/every day and they surely do spend a lot of time in front of a computer or game.... which obviously has both good and bad effects... At the same time, they LOVE running and jumping and whizzing around, riding their bikes in the alley, playing on the playground, throwing the football, playing basketball. I think they are happier, feel better and behave better when they have different outlets for their energies. Playing together builds friendships and memories that are sustaining over a long time and I see that SORELY lacking for the children I know. These are city kids so they have to be alot more inventive (not to mention a LOT more careful) than I ever had to be. In my school, recess has been eliminated and PE is once a week and I think it is very unfortunate.

As for games in my childhood... wow. To think about it, it seems like all I did was play with my friends (I learned to do my chores superfast first!). Red Rover (OUCH), Freeze-tag (where you had to stand still if you were tagged until someone on your team unfroze you), DODGEBALL (I was good at that one!), S-P-U-D, which we used to play in the yard of the convent (???), kickball, hopscotch, oh, and jumprope, gosh many others too. Duck, Duck, Goose was fun... We made up a lot of games too -- I remember riding my bike with my best friend and making up scenes -- we loved pretending we were Spies. We played in the woods or the water all the time, even when we weren't supposed to, pretending we were Pioneer Girls... When we were a little older we all played "Chicken" in the water -- one person would get on the shoulders of another and then try to knock off the person on the other's back (maybe like Frank's Piggyback game). Inside, we hardly EVER played a board game, but would make up dances to songs from musicals and put on "shows," and play "dress-ups." I had the same core group of friends from Kindergarten to High school, boys and girls both.

And by the way, "Girl-tag" sounds hilarious, as well as "Corn-fights.." And like Glenda, I'm still friends with some of my childhood pals too and we can still laugh and play like children, just slower, and no Chicken...!

A fun and thought provoking post, Captain Kirk.

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Daisybeans/MaryAnn

"Once the relation between poetry and the soil is well established in the mind, all growing things are endowed with more than material beauty." -Elizabeth Lawrence

WOW! From reading these posts I am remembering more games we played. Most of them made up by us. We used to have corn cob fights too, Gunz. The only reason we used corn cobs was that they didn't hurt as much as rocks! We used to play back in the woods and we would each "hunt" the other. We used "One way boomarangs" also called sticks. We would through them at each other. Mostly it was just me and my 2 brothers. But I did have one friend that lived about 3 miles from me. We used to ride our bikes to each others house and would be gone all day long. We were fast buddies ever since 1st grade. We still see each other 3 days a week. The only problem is that it is at "exercise" after having cardiac bypass done! But we talk about the days when we were young and carefree, or should I say careless.

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I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.