Games we played as youngsters....

Jeez, I'm on a roll . . .

Howzabout skipping stones? Now, you lake, river and creek rock tossers certainly have your place but it takes a real expert to skip stones in the ocean. I'm not talking a placid, still, flat day. I'm challenging you to skip rocks across rockin' and rollin' pumped up beach breakin' waves. Timing is of the essence. Have actually skipped 'em into a wave, up it's face and across it. Ahem (koff koff) . . .
 

That Guy said:
We used to play tag with the ocean. After a wave rushes up the beach you have to run down with it as it recedes while getting as close as possible to its ebb and run back up the beach infront of the next wave without getting wet. Great fun. Actually introduced two non-surfing adult friends to it and we laughed ourselves silly. Actually, I sat on the rocks laughing at them getting soaked...
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We use to play wave tag down at Pismo Beach while I was in the service. In Florida, we have these little birds with long legs that do the same thing. I think they are feeding on whatever comes in on waves. Very comical to watch.
 
We used to build cubby houses out of old blankets, boxes, chairs, anything we could find. The downside was when Mum made us clean it all up before the end of the day.
Swap cards, jacks, hoola hoops, skippy, hopscotch, footy and cricket were popular in the 50's.
 

That Guy said:
We used to play tag with the ocean. After a wave rushes up the beach you have to run down with it as it recedes while getting as close as possible to its ebb and run back up the beach infront of the next wave without getting wet. Great fun. Actually introduced two non-surfing adult friends to it and we laughed ourselves silly. Actually, I sat on the rocks laughing at them getting soaked...
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We used to do the same at the ocean, fun to watch the foam come towards you, and run backwards to avoid it...we all laughed too, great fun! :highly_amused:
 
That could be a variation I suppose, but no.

We used a cricket bat if someone owned one but any piece of wood would do. The batter stands facing the bowler full on with feet together and the bat/wood held in front of the legs. The bowler lobs a tennis ball at the batter from any angle trying to hit the legs. The batter must stand still and use the bat to deflect the ball and score runs if safe to do so. The batter is out if caught on the full, run out or if the ball hits the legs. It was a good game for little kids to manage.
 
Yeah, see, cricket is like rocket science to us Colonists. I've tried watching it and it's just confusing - much as I'm sure our baseball is a total enigma to many.

All I remember about watching cricket is from the old BBC series The Prisoner, one of my favorites shows ever, in an episode called The Girl Who Was Death. They were playing cricket and the bad guys substituted an explosive ball for the regular one. :playful:

 
much as I'm sure our baseball is a total enigma to many.
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We know baseball. My husband's elder brother played amateur baseball.
It's just not a major sport over here.

Children at school are usually introduced to soft ball at some stage.
Rounders is a game that children organise for themselves.
It's like softball without most of the rules.
 
Warrigal said:
We know baseball. My husband's elder brother played amateur baseball.
It's just not a major sport over here.

Children at school are usually introduced to soft ball at some stage.
Rounders is a game that children organise for themselves.
It's like softball without most of the rules.
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Here it seems like football - un partido de futbol Americano :p - is the reigning sport in high school and college. We're not quite as passionate as the Latin countries are with their soccer, but it still approaches religious levels.

Baseball might be our "national sport" but football brings in the money, and of course THAT is why it's turned into a cult.

Bee said:
Not just to you Sifuphil, I don't understand cricket either, I wouldn't waste my time watching it.:)
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Well, I wouldn't say it's a waste of time ...

... that would be watching golf. Better than taking Lunesta. :playful:
 
Our population is 23 million and we have four strong football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union and Australian rules. All are played professionally. Although it never appears on TV, we do have some American football which is known locally as gridiron.

Gridiron in Australia
Australia consists of six States (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania) and two Territories (Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory) and American Football is played in each of them.

Football has been played in Australia since 1983 and is commonly referred to as "gridiron" to distinguish it from the other football codes played here. There is no uniform American football season in Australia. The various State and Territory bodies all play at different times of the year. For example, the competition in South Australia runs from September to March, whilst the competition in New South Wales runs from September to December.

There are currently 73 teams playing football in Australia.

http://www.gridironaustralia.org.au/site/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_main&OrgID=885
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You all pretty much named most of the games I played as well, those were some fun games, the outdoor and indoors ones our time was constantly filled with fun games of all kinds. Later on badminton was a favorite of mine, one of my kiddie favorites was candy land and this one game I can never remember the name of, you would push this plastic thing which contained dice it sat in the center of the board and it would give you the number of moves to make, that silly game, I would probably still enjoy playing it to this day. monopoly, scrabble generally go without saying.

Like others:
Hopscotch, jump rope, tag, green/red light, may I, simon says and lots of card games and of course doctor patient, teacher students.
 
We also caught fireflies in jars -- there were zillions of them where my grandparents lived in Arkansas and I thought they were pretty magical. (I also learned about chiggers in Arkansas. Not a fun thing at all). We played Red Rover, dodgeball, hopscotch, baseball in the street, and anything else we could think of. Tetherball (my dad put one up in our backyard), cowboys & indians, jumprope, etc.

Kids don't play outdoor games anymore, it seems. My childhood was much richer for the outdoor games we played.

We played endless games of Monopoly on rainy days.
 
I love to play Canasta but never played it as a child. We played Red Rover, which involved holding hands in a big circle and singing "Red Rover, Red Rover send "a kids name" right over". Then the child would run over and try to break through the weakest link in the chain of hands. That's about all I recall of that game. I am old enough to remember being excited about playing checkers. :) What I remember the most fondly is playing Hide and Go Seek near dark with my brothers and kids in the neighborhood. I loved those times!

 
We used to play a game (I don't remember it actually having a name) where two kids would stand about 4 feet apart and facing each other with legs closed. Next, the person who won a coin toss would start by throwing a knife to one side or the other of his opponent. If the knife stuck in the ground he had to move the nearest foot to that point and take his turn at throwing. You could also throw the knife between the other's legs which forced him to turn around but still keeping his feet where they were. This continued until someone fell over.
 
Rob said:
We used to play a game (I don't remember it actually having a name) where two kids would stand about 4 feet apart and facing each other with legs closed. Next, the person who won a coin toss would start by throwing a knife to one side or the other of his opponent. If the knife stuck in the ground he had to move the nearest foot to that point and take his turn at throwing. You could also throw the knife between the other's legs which forced him to turn around but still keeping his feet where they were. This continued until someone fell over.
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Isn't that called Mumblety Peg? (or something like that - not sue of the spelling)
 
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