I was in picturesque Haarlam (The Netherlands), minding my own business at 7 a.m. one morning on the front porch of my hostess's house. The alleyway was quiet except for a bike rider or two whizzing by. Suddenly, two little honey-haired Dutch girls wandered into the alley and started kicking a ball to each other, with intermittant time-outs to display their cartwheel abilities. This wheeling and kicking and giggling went on for an hour, then they wandered back inside.
This made me think of the games I used to play as a kid in the countryside of Michigan in the 1960's. It was pretty boring living among cornfields and gravel roads, and playmates were always only my two older sisters unless our passel of cousins came to visit.
Besides "Tag" and "Hide and Seek", we did have some favorites.....
Beautiful Statue
At least 4 kids are needed: one is the "statue maker" who presumably is the strongest and biggest kid in the yard. The statue maker grabs the arms of another, twirls her around in a dizzying circle, then lets go unexpectedly. The twirl-ee, discombobulated from all the swirling and throwing, must land on the ground and freeze into the most interesting and beautiful position she can. When all the kids are frozen into statues, the statue maker chooses the most beautiful. This game only stops when someone throws up.
Catch
All that's needed for this game is two kids with over-sized baseball gloves, the north 40 and a ball. A dog is usually involved, who will chase the ball if it's not caught, but will only bark at the missed ball and not retrieve it. If you're lucky, someone will bat the balls which, theoretically, will strenghten catching abilities greatly. It helps considerably if you have an ambidextrous dad who can bat both left and right-handed. When this version gets lame, it's time for another type of catch. One kid stands in front of the house and the other stands in back. The ball is thrown over the roof by the kid in the front, with a fore-warning yell of "annie eye over." Presumably, this exercise helps with catching pop-up balls but should not be played at dusk, since the chances of one kid getting konked over the head rises exponentially.
The Witch, The Babysitter and the Gravity Box
(aka "I'm Going Downtown to Smoke my Pipe")
This weird and somewhat gruesome game consists of a cast of characters: the witch, the babysitter, Sister Sue, her mother and a snake. If you can actually play this game in a gravity box (surreal piece of farm equipment that is nearly impossible to stand up in), then it just adds to the fun. The game starts by "mother" announcing that she is "going downtown to smoke her pipe and won't be back till broad daylight". The babysitter is instructed to watch Sister Sue carefully, or face being
"spanked black and blue with an old rubber shoe". But the babysitter is tricked into letting a stranger (the witch) come into the house, and only by facing
dire consequences can she oust the witch and keep Sister Sue safe. Of course, the players can decide just what consequences will be faced, but some include:
getting bitten by a snake, cutting off toes, using wax paper and a rubber band as a tourniquet, walking through a swamp, etc. Somehow in the end, all turns out well and mother returns to a happy household.
Even after 40 years, I can still throw a ball and probably turn myself into a statue. But where can I find a gravity box?
1 comment:
See, that's what I loved about those games of yesteryear. We needed to use our IMAGINATIONS! A dying art, for sure, with today's video games and fast-paced TV shows on 150 channels. I remember playing a variation of "Beautiful Statue," though I don't remember us taking it to the limit (of throwing up to end the game!). Good times.
Post a Comment