Games of yesteryear were not always physical
Buckety Buck, pocketknife baseball, and other games played years ago were often rough or a bit dangerous, but there were plenty of less risky games for kids to play. Republic native Mildred Winterhalter Keppel of Wheeling, W.Va., e-mailed me, “The thing I remember best about games we played is where we played them – in the alley beside the outhouses. The kids who lived in my alley did not have many chances for recreation, although the church in our town tried to help.”
Does the phrase “Mother May I?” spark a memory in any readers?
“One game that we played in the alley was ‘May I?'” Mildred wrote. “The point of the game was to get to the goal line by taking steps when it was your turn. A leader (Mother) would tell you how many steps you could take, but you had to remember to say ‘May I?’ before you moved.” If you forgot to say that, some kids played that you lost your turn; others played that you had to go back to the starting line.
In one variation of “Mother May I,” the steps meted out by “Mother” were expected to imitate animal movements. Mother might assign two “kangaroo steps,” which could produce giant bounds, or perhaps one “snake step,” which resulted in a kid doing the belly crawl. The type of exotic animal steps “Mother” could assign was limited only by his or her knowledge of the animal kingdom.
“My question,” Mildred mused, “Sixty years after playing those games, is why didn’t we play in our yards instead of the alley? I guess it was because most families needed to have a vegetable garden in their yard, leaving no room to play there.”
Some games attracted girls more often than boys. One of them was “Jacks.”
“It was a game that you could play alone or play with friends,” remarked Patty O’Neil Wilson of Coal Center. The game was played with a small rubber ball and 10 small metal “jacks.” As was true of pocketknife baseball or marbles, winning at Jacks required coordination and practice.
“You started by scattering the 10 jacks onto a flat surface,” Patty Wilson explained. “Only one hand could be used to pick up the jacks and catch the ball. In the first round, which was called “One-sies,” you had to bounce the ball, pick up one jack, and then catch the ball before it hit the floor or ground. If you missed picking up the jack or catching the ball, or if you touched another jack while doing it, your turn was over.
“If you successfully picked up all 10 jacks one at a time, your turn continued into the second round, which was called ‘Two-sies.’ Picking up two jacks at a time, you had to pick up all 10 jacks using the same technique. The next round was ‘Three-sies,’ and so on until the final (10th) round was reached, when you had to bounce the ball, pick up all ten jacks, and then catch the ball before it hit the floor.
“This game was usually a girls’ game, but when I was in school, there were some boys in my neighborhood who were not to be outdone by us girls.”
Of course, no boy in those days would dare be caught jumping rope, even though nowadays jumping rope is a common conditioning technique employed by both male and female athletes.
“Boys did not jump rope,” declared South Side native Nancy Campbell Bender of Grindstone. “That was a girls’ activity. Using a specially made jump rope or a length of clothesline held at each end by a girl, the rope would be twirled. A third girl would step into the middle and begin jumping, and sometimes a second or even a third girl would jump in. I don’t recall seeing anyone doing the fancy rope jumping that we see today.”
There were some games that boys and girls most definitely enjoyed playing together. Uniontown native Dick Alexander of El Granada, Calif., told me, “A popular birthday party game was ‘Spin the Bottle.’ How I dreaded having the bottle point at me, which meant I had to go into a closet and kiss a girl!”
“If the bottle pointed toward you,” added North Side native Barney Sabo of Sequim, Wash., “you had the choice of who you wanted to kiss.”
More subtle, yet at the same time more provocative, was a giggle-inducing party game called “Under The Sheet.” Such a name today would conjure parent-panicking images of unchaperoned tomfoolery, but Under The Sheet relied more upon the youthful players’ imaginations to provide titillation. Dick Alexander remembers playing the game when he was a student at Uniontown’s Ben Franklin Junior High School in the 1930s.
“In those days, when radio was still in its infancy and television was light
years away, the piano was very popular in many parlors,” Dick told me, “and of course, there was a lot of sheet music to be found under the lid of the piano bench.
“To play Under The Sheet, players would gather in a circle in the living room and take turns selecting a piece of sheet music from the piano bench. The game required that each player say aloud the title of the tune. The rest of the group would then repeat the words ‘under the sheet.’
“This could result in some very funny moments, as well as some racy stuff for us pre-pubescent youngsters, when you consider that some of the popular tunes of the day were entitled ‘I Got Rhythm,’ ‘Moanin’ Low,’ and ‘Yes, We Have No Bananas!'”
If the party was held outdoors, a popular back yard game was “Red Rover.” Rosalie Coughenour of Hopwood explained the rules.
“The children divided themselves into two teams,” Rosalie told me, “then lined up like soldiers facing each other about 15 to 20 feet apart. One team would lock arms with hands only – you could not ‘hook’ elbows – then call to the other team, ‘Red Rover, Red Rover, let Johnny (or whatever opposing player they selected) come over.’
“The selected child would then run full speed toward the opposing line and try to break through their locked arms. If he did, the team whose player cracked through the locked arms won the point. This continued until each child had at least one turn, so as to avoid the bigger kids not being called upon to ‘come over.’ The team with the most points won. It was surprising how successful many of the smaller kids were at stopping the charger from breaking the line.”
North Side Brownsville native Ken Nickalo of Canton, Ohio, noted that games requiring the least equipment were often the most popular. “Kick the Stick” was one of them.
“I spent my childhood on Sixth Avenue in the late 40s and early 50s,” Ken recalled, “and played nearly every game there was. One that I particularly remember was ‘Kick the Stick.’ We would slant a stick on the curb near Cooper’s house on the corner of Sixth Avenue, and kick the stick as hard as we could. The game was a simple take-off on baseball. Catch the stick on the fly, and the kicker was out. Tag him running the bases and he was out. There were two kickers on the team, and when somebody was out, he would go to the field. As few as three kids could start a game, and as many as wanted to join in could do so.
“Kick the Stick took absolutely no money to play. There were no balls, no gloves, no $100 bats, and no taxpayer-supported playground or ballfield. If a car came, the game stalled while it went by. It was just a bunch of kids using their imagination and having fun, and it sure beats Playstation 2 and Game Boy.”
Playing with other children when no adults were around to supervise taught youngsters valuable interpersonal skills. Dealing with those who violated the rules and settling disagreements through negotiations (or the occasional fist fight) gave kids practice at dealing with their peers.
I wonder if kids play games with other kids as often as they once did.
Or are they more likely to play electronic games by themselves, straining thumbs and eyes playing a video or computer game instead of exercising their bodies and learning to get along with others?
As Christmas approaches, anxious-to-please parents will fork over hundreds of dollars for the latest must-have toys and electronic games.
I wonder what would happen if on Christmas morning, a few boys and girls in this age of electronic gadgets were to rush to the Christmas tree, only to discover that the only toys and games Santa had left this year were a stick, an empty tin can, an old pocketknife, 10 jacks and a rubber ball.
The cost of shopping to provide such an old-fashioned Christmas? Pennies, if anything at all.
The value of watching the bewildered expressions on the kids’ faces as they examined these popular children’s games from yesteryear?
Priceless.
Glenn Tunney may be contacted at 724-785-3201 or 6068 National Pike East, Grindstone, PA 15442. Comments about these weekly articles may be sent to editor Mark O’Keefe, 8-18 E. Church St., Uniontown, PA or e-mailed to mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com .
All past articles are on the Web at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~glenntunneycolumn/