Games We Play

Lets play. I remember playing “Cops and Robbers” in the elementary school yard in Richland, GA. It was everybody’s school yard because older kids took over the swings but not the monkey bars.

Kids split up into “Cop or Robber” teams and a site was selected to be the “jail.” I remember it as like a game of “tag.”

“Cowboys and Indians” was played with cap pistols, which I hear are banned in schools today.

I was a child for a long time, perhaps too long, but I never knew of anyone who used a cap pistol to hurt somebody. Neither have I heard of someone becoming a killer based upon having played with cap pistols.

Unless there was seriously bad weather, kids were kicked out the school door. If we couldn’t do anything else, we could stand outside under the eaves of the building, but at least we were not inside.

Later the school had “educational films” from the state film library on rainy days.

Some, maybe all, of the games we played as school kids are probably banned now.

In “Red Rover,” two parallel teams line up facing the other holding hands. “Red Rover, send Brutus right over” and Brutus tries to break through the opposing line.

In “Dodge Ball” something like a basketball is used, and the thrower tries to hit opponents with the ball.

In “Alley Oop,” players are in a circle passing a ball to each other, but you can only hold the ball while your feet are off the ground, as “in the air.”

If a player touches the ball while on the ground, he’s out.

I never actually played Alley Oop, but I watched the really big kids, sixth graders, do it.

In “Anti Over,” or “Andy Over” in Kansas, a basket ball was thrown or kicked over the roof of the schoolhouse. If a kid on the other side caught the ball, he ran around to the other side and tried to hit other kids with it.

I can see how adults would feel about basketballs bouncing around on the roof knocking shingles loose.

All these outdoor games involve chasing someone, throwing balls at them, what whiners would call “violence.”

It isn’t the rational, common sense people who make up the rules.

It didn’t take any rules to go running through the school yard or down the street, running just for the joy of it.

Nope, I haven’t run anywhere for a long time either.

joenphillips@yahoo.com