Games we played as kids

[littleluck55]

Probably showing my age for some of you young whippersnappers, but what were some of your favorite outdoor games you played as kids. I was talking to my kids the other day discussing how we went to record stores, arcades, etc and didn't have the luxury items like playstation they do now.

Some of my favorite things we did as kids was ghost in the graveyard, kick the can, and kill the man with the ball. What were some of your favorites?

[Randy Parker]

Spotlight. I've heard some call it Flashlight Tag.

[TAC]

Red rover

Dodgeball

Strikeout

spin the bottle

[Run To State]

Kick the can, king of the mountain, red light - yellow light - green light, kill the man with the ball, mother may I (I had two older sisters, so...yeah. :lol2:), hot potato, keep away, marbles, red rover, Simon says, mumbleypeg, ghost in the graveyard, cops and robbers, dodge ball. I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.

[CincySportsFan]

Don't know if I'd call it a game or not, but went on quite a few snipe hunts when I was young.

[coldweatherfan]

In the spring/summer:

Daytime:

- Fishing, tubing, boating.

- Baseball in the street. Boys and girls using rubber balls.

Night time:

- Capture the flag.

 

In the fall:

Daytime:

- Football. At least once a week would would play a game against another neighborhood, 7 v 7, 9 v 9 however many we could get. The rest of the time we would play kill the man with the ball.

- We'd also make giant piles of leaves and do leaf diving.

Night time:

- Capture the flag

 

Winter:

- Football until the ground froze.

- Hockey and ice skating

- Snowball fights, often with other neighborhoods.

- Ice fishing when the ice got thick enough.

[Watusi]

I'm only going to list the outdoor games

 

Cowboys and Indians

Cops and Robbers

Kick the Can

Hide and Seek

Spotlight

King of the Mountain

Football, Baseball and Basketball pickup games

Jarts

Horseshoes

Hopscotch

Red Light, Green Light

Mother May I

Tag

Freeze Tag

And we had rock fights and BB gun fights on a regular basis.

[Bengal Maniac]

Home Run Derby

Wiffle Ball

Army

Bike Racing on figure * track

Football

Any Basketball Game

Hide 'n Seek

Washers

[B-Ball-fan]

Kick the can, king of the mountain, red light - yellow light - green light, kill the man with the ball, mother may I (I had two older sisters, so...yeah. :lol2:), hot potato, keep away, marbles, red rover, Simon says, mumbleypeg, ghost in the graveyard, cops and robbers, dodge ball. I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting.

 

Hated this game, but still love being reminded of it.

 

What a crack up of a premise. :lol2:

[B-Ball-fan]

Looking back I loved how my friends and I managed to invent or modify games using simply the resources of our limited space inner city yards where we spent countless hours staying completely entertained, and in our minds our games turned epic which often lead to keeping regular season stats, and ultimately conducting World Series or major championship tourneys of any or all of these games that we incessantly played and obsessed over day after day.

 

1. Two on Two Wiffle Ball - but played in a narrow side yard of my childhood inner city shotgun brick style house where there was home plate and only one base with a pitcher and outfielder.

 

Instant home run if hit over the fence and out of the yard, however hitting that line shot wasn't always easy as a late or early swing would ensure that you just banged the ball against the left or right brick wall which was just a mere couple of feet on either side of you, and as a fielder playing the ball off the wall was also an art within itself.

 

To get to first base you had to run past the pitcher who was fielding your ball which often times turned into an awful collision in an attempt for him to field it and try to tag you out while passing.

 

If you grew too tall to play, the obstacle for a right handed batter was that one swift careless swing of the bat could result in busting a window after fully extending the bat during your follow through, which happened when my friend's older brother wanted to try his hand at showing his excellence at our little game of wiffle ball.

 

My Dad wasn't too happy about it.

 

2. Nerf Kick Ball - My next door neighbor had a small back yard but large enough space to have a basketball hoop where we often shot around and played one on one, or two on two games, and games of HORSE or Around the World, or 21 Tip.

 

We also used this space to play Nerf Kick Ball by rolling a nerf ball to the kicker who had to muster serious might to be able to kick the ball any significant distance all the while exercising great control to avoid kicking ball on a roof or out of bounds which were instant outs, and not just foul balls. Inbounds was acceptable, out of bounds you're out.

 

Kicking it on the roof making my neighbor have to climb out the 2nd floor window to get it also would cost you a fine of a nickel which went towards buying a new nerf ball when the one we were using started to fall apart.

 

Kicking it in the basketball hoop was an instant grand slam which only happened a couple of times in the history of the game.

 

My neighbor had a three story house where the lower section was white and the upper section was green, so if you managed to kick the ball high and far enough into the green seats it was an instant home run.

 

Because these games were typically played one on one or two on two with 4 bases, we had to adjust rules and often times had pinch base runners to allow base runner his next turn at bat by switching with his teammate who had just batted. Although we often encountered puzzles in the game's format, it always prompted us to discuss and offer various solutions to develop the rules to be more concrete and fair.

 

3. Runners or Pickle - Played on the sidewalk outside of our houses with at least 3 people with two gloves and a rubber baseball, where the two bases were from one metal water lid to the next.

 

Simple game of trying to run from lid to lid without being tagged out by the two people tossing the ball back and forth to each other. Your score would increase if you managed to get from lid to lid without being tagged out, and if those tossing the ball happened to miss or bobble the ball, you could increase your score as many times as it was possible to run back and forth until they finally regained control of the ball.

 

One issue would be is if the ball rolled all the way down the street it was pretty inevitable that it would end up in the sewer at the corner of an intersection of the street forcing us to hit up our parents for some cash to buy a new ball from the corner candy store.

 

4. Strike Out - Fast pitched rubber ball with wooden bats up against a wall in a big parking lot. Sometimes the game would simply be played one on one with pitcher and batter, or two on two if possible. It really was a great game to learn to time hitting fast pitched baseball. When I had early childhood issues in timing at batting this game single handedly helped to correct my issues.

 

Of course when using neighborhood parks for games such as baseball, football or basketball, they were mostly played as conventionally as possible resembling the real game without all of the modifications of our home baked games.

Edited July 28, 2015 by B-Ball-fan

[BigVMan23]

@mcpapa liked rolling a barrel hoop with a stick...but then again that was all the rage in the 1800's.:woot:

 

Tape ball home run derby.

[World B Free]

Home Run Derby.

 

Wood Bats, Tennis Balls. Backyard. Hitting somewhat uphill toward back of house.

Off the house was a homerun. Rooftop a grand slam. Flagpole in middle of yard a bonus run. In basketball goal automatic game winner. Left or right over neighbors fence, automatic 3-outs & you had to get the ball (not bad to left field, right field had jagged chain link fence & less than friendly Mrs. Sl....

[rjs4470]

I grew up in the country and had limited numbers of friends to play with. I had 1 neighbor who had 3 kids around my age, my brother, who was a few years younger, and 2 or 3 other kids, so everything we did was in groups of a few kids. We would play 3 on 3 baseball, football, basketball etc. Wiffle ball played with a duct taped bat and tennis ball was almost a daily ritual in the summer, and we were crazy enough to keep stats.

[Getslow]

Pickle

Had two trees in a common area in our neighborhood we used as bases. You'd run back and forth between the two while someone standing in the middle with something like a nerf ball tried to pelt you. If you got hit, you became the man with the ball. We would keep a record of who could go back and forth the most times without getting hit. We played this one CONSTANTLY.

 

King of the Mountain

Another friend had a mysterious hill in his backyard. Looking back now it was probably just leftover dirt from a construction project in the neighborhood that was just left there and grass grew over it. It had fairly steep sides and went up about five feet or more. The rest of the game is just like you'd expect: one dude stands on top and everyone else tries to knock him down.

 

Woodpile Soccer

Stand in front of pile of firewood and try to guard it from being hit while the other two or three guys kick soccer balls at it. Bonus points for shooters if you could get one past the keeper high up and actually knock down pieces of wood from the pile.

[ThrillVille Cardinal51]

Jail Break