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Monday, August 9, 2010

That's Child's Play


It is one of the hottest summers I can ever remember here in good ol' Florida! I was thinking about all the time we used to spend outside playing games and how, as an adult- I really hate being outside (unless it's nice cool weather). But it made me think about the old time games me and my sisters used to play (and a couple of kids from the neighborhood).

Ever heard of TV Tag? Freeze Tag? Ghost in the Graveyard (not one of my favorites)? Sardines?

The rules of the games were so silly, but as a kid- boy did we sure have a lot of fun!

With Freeze Tag one person was "IT" and the other people had to do their best to keep away from the person who was "IT". If you got tagged by "IT" then you froze with your legs a little more than shoulder length apart and you waited until someone else came and crawled through your legs before you could move again. If I remember correctly if you got "frozen" 3 times, you became "IT".

Like Freeze Tag, TV Tag had the same rules, except you had a safety net. If you were close to being tagged by "IT" then you would shout out a TV show as quickly as you could and you would be safe from being tagged- But don't EVEN try to call out the same TV show more than once, you will LOSE! :) I can remember shouting out on several occasions "Dukes Of Hazard" (oh, yeah! Bo and Luke Duke were quite the hit when we were kids) :)

Now, Sardines was like the opposite of Hide and Seek... if that makes any sense. Instead of everyone hiding and one person trying to find them, one person hides while everyone else counts to 20. Then the seeking begins, but when you find the hider, instead of chasing them back to base, you hide with them. Obviously the Loser is the one who is the last to find all the people hiding. I remember playing this one time at a park my Aunt used to take us to (one of the very few parks that had see-saws and a merry-go-round) and the oak trees were MASSIVE and made perfect hiding spots!

What kind of games did you play as a child? I can't wait until Joshua is old enough to start playing games like tag and hide and seek! Right now it's just hide and go peek-a-boo!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

SARDINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had forgotten all about Sardines! Wow, that was a really awesome game! Great memories! Thank you for reminding me!

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Dani said...

We played freeze tag differently, but oh I loved Sardines. I had some friends in college and we would play at night on campus, haha. Good times!

Anonymous said...

Steal The Bacon: Especially after one of Floridas afternoon thunderstorms. You Placed the bacon (football, baseball, or even a stick) in the middle of a puddle. Opposing team members would line up on either side of the puddle and the first person to pick up the bacon and return to their teams side without getting tackled in the mud wins a point. 10 points per game. Half the fun was slipping and slidding in the mud. I can't wait for Joshua to get old enough to play steal the Bacon.

Poppa

His Mercy Endureth Forever said...

Charades with you was always the most fun! "Two syllables...th-u"! Fun times!

Kelly Spezzano said...

Mimmy- :) Really great memories, for sure!

Dani- how did you guys play freeze tag?

Poppa- Ummm, I don't think Joshua will like that game, he gets upset when he has cookie crumbs on his hands... what would he do if he had mud on him? LOL :)

Kerry- Grrr... I had to make the game more challenging for you all... ya'll were just too good, so I threw a couple extra syllables into the word "the"--- :)

Brittany said...

One of my favorites was duck...duck...goose! It's expecially fun if adults and kids play! The adults think "I got this" but here comes to the little ones around the corner to WIN!

Kelly Spezzano said...

Brit, that is def. a good one! We used to make up all kinds of substitutions for "Duck and Goose" like "Peanut Butter for Duck and Jelly for Goose" good memories!