DO YOU REMEMBER?

What kind of spontaneous games do you remember playing as a child/youth? Do you know children who play these today? These are a few; add others you played.
Gary/Louisville

Remembering Kid's Games.....

Red Rover
How to Play – Divide everyone into two large groups. Each group lines up, joining hands and facing the other group. One groups shouts in unison, "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Johnny right over." Whoever’s name is called (in the place of ‘Johnny’) has to run towards the group and try to break through the line between two people by breaking their hand grips (or perhaps their arms). If he successfully breaks through, he can take one of the other team’s players back to his group. If he fails to break through, he must join the other team.

Kick the Can
The basis of a Twilight Zone episode, in which old people become young again through the playing of this very game. Memories…
Equipment Needed – A can.
How to Play – One person is It. It tries to catch people, while protecting the precious can at the same time. If the can gets kicked over, all the captured people run free, and It has to put the can back in place before they can go and try to catch people again. Game continues until It catches everyone, or collapses from exhaustion.

Hide and Seek
Equipment Needed – Nothing.
How to Play – Oh, please. Don’t tell me there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know how to play hide and seek. What is the world coming to? You pick an It, and everybody hides, and It goes to find ‘em. How hard can it possibly be?
Variation – The game is called Sardines. Kind of a twisting backwards of hide and seek. You choose an It, as usual, but this time, It goes and hides. Everyone else goes to look. When someone finds It, they have to squeeze into the hiding place with them. Y’know, like sardines. The game ends when everyone is all squished in with It.

Duck, Duck, Goose
Equipment Needed –People intelligent enough to sit in a circle.
How to Play – Sit everyone in a circle and choose someone to be It. It walks around the circle, patting everyone on the head, saying "Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck…" et cetera. Finally they choose someone and say "Goose!" and promptly begin running. The chosen Goose stands up and chases after them. It has to run clear around the circle, then sit down in the Goose’s previous spot. If the Goose catches It, then It has to go through this pattern again. If not, the Goose becomes It, and they have to go through it. A prime example of a never-ending game.

Fruit Basket
Equipment Needed – People intelligent enough to stand in a circle.
How to Play – Make a tight circle – no gaps. Each person chooses a fruit (a little help – strawberry, banana, watermelon, tomato [yes, it is a fruit], cherry, grape). Then It is in the middle. It calls out a fruit. Everyone who has chosen that fruit has to run to another area – an empty space left by a member of the same fruit group. It tries to get into one of those places, therefore leaving one different person in the middle to be It. One cannot move to the space directly beside them, nor can they stay in the same spot – if It doesn’t make it to an empty space, It has to do the whole thing over again, with another fruit. Oh, the ghastly horrors!

Scavenger Hunt
Equipment Needed – A list of things to hunt for (one copy per person or team)
How to Play – Give people or groups a list of things to hunt for, and the first one done wins. The common version is to have everyone find strange things (tennis ball, piece of string, coconut...) and bring them back.
Variations – There are a million variations to this. Here are just a few...

Cleanup hunt - Give everyone a list of different types of trash (Dr. Pepper can, napkin, plastic fork, watermelon rind, etc), or just see who can pick up the most pieces of trash. No digging in the trash can allowed. They have to find them on the ground.

Service scavenger hunt - Give them a list of things to do: vacuum one room, read a book to a small child, wash a window, etc. You can even have them do each of these things at a different neighbor's home, and the neighbor has to initial the item as proof.

Family hunt - Give them a list of personal characteristics, and have them find family members who match (for example, green eyes, no hair, same color eyes, born the same year). Make up some others.

Red Light, Green Light
How to Play – Choose one person to be the stoplight. Everyone else is a car. The stoplight stands at the finish line with his or her back towards the starting line. Everyone else lines up. The stoplight calls, "Green light!" At this signal, everyone races towards the stoplight. The stoplight can shout "Red light" at any time, and then turn around quickly to see if he or she can catch any of the cars still moving. If the stoplight sees someone still moving, that person must go back to the starting line and start over. Whoever gets to and tags the stoplight first gets to be the stoplight for the next round.
Variation – Have two stoplights standing up there. Then the cars have to watch both.