Play phrases you used as a kid

[Thinking Aloud]

Our version of that was just called "hide and seek" but when you got back to base, you yelled "One two three weep <your name>" to tell everyone else you were home and safe. I think the last time I played it, I recall the seeker was leaning against a lamppost, counting, so I just stood completely silently behind her until the count was up, reached over her shoulder and called myself out. Fright of her life! And slightly creepy now I think of it.

Come to think of it, I think the "one two three" call was also used by the seeker at base, to tell you you'd been spotted ... and I think the last person to be found became seeker next, since that was the goal. It's a while ago...

[Elessarina]

I still do it sometimes when I climb. It's called chimneying. I think I need to go climbing now ...

I'm going climbing after work.

Double post!

[Elessarina]

I would gladly play all of these games again now, If I could only rope in some other "adults" to join me

I want to!... it was so much fun..I want to run about on a summers evening.. and only have to go in once it's dark...

[AshtonBlack]

We called that game Releevo. The "tag" phrase was "Releevo Releevo one two three."

[Horwood Beer-Master]

2197.











Don't ask.

[Elessarina]

We called that game Releevo. The "tag" phrase was "Releevo Releevo one two three."

Funny isn't it how these things have different names depending where you are.


Like we had some interesting skipping songs, or hand clapping thingy songs.. or.. any girls remember playing elastics???

Wow..being young now seems to suck.. when we were young your life was spent mainly outside.. it was great..

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Our version of that was just called "hide and seek" but when you got back to base, you yelled "One two three weep <your name>" to tell everyone else you were home and safe. I think the last time I played it, I recall the seeker was leaning against a lamppost, counting, so I just stood completely silently behind her until the count was up, reached over her shoulder and called myself out. Fright of her life! And slightly creepy now I think of it.

Come to think of it, I think the "one two three" call was also used by the seeker at base, to tell you you'd been spotted ... and I think the last person to be found became seeker next, since that was the goal. It's a while ago...

We used to call that "Cavey" - I think from the Latin Cave = beware.

The seeker hung around the base - a tree in our case - and everyone had to get to the tree without being seen and shout Cavey. If you were spotted the seeker would shout 1, 2, 3 [name]. We had all sorts of complicated rules. If the spotter shouted out the wrong name, both the name called and the person misidentified were free and could come out of hiding (this led to quite a bit of clothes swapping!) The thing I can't remember was how you decided who got to the next seeker.

We also had a game called Relevio - but it was completely different. There was a wall at school - one wall of the playground. Somebody was 'it' and they had to tag the other players. Once you were tagged, you had to stand against the wall with your right hand on it. You could be freed by any free player running under your arm. Sometimes we would have dozens of players with 2 or 3 teaming up as 'it'. Great game - and again, I have no idea how you decided who had won and who was 'it' next.

[devogue]

I remember shouting "LET'S GO, MAN!!!!" a lot and running round aimlessly.

Brilliant.

[Pappa]

Anyone ever play Kingo (or "King Ball")? It was predictably banned in school after some years.

One person is on it and they have a tennis ball. They have to hit one of the other players with the ball. I think the person then joined their team and the winner was the last one left.

[Pappa]

When I moved ot N Wales from Manchester (at age 10) I was introduced to a version of Hide & Seek called Blocky that was fantastic. Basically the base where the person who did the counting was was the base and after everyone had hid when the seeker started to look for people you could run back to the base, touch it, shout "Blocky El" and you were free from being "it" / the seeker for the next game.. it was so much fun - we had a old primary school in Wales that had a maze of places to hide. i can recall many times running at full speed to beat the seeker back to the base...

That was a fun game.. sometimes i think back and think I'd love to play something like that again...

I loved school.. those days were the best

We used to play that too. But we had a different name for it and I can't remember what it was. I used to be brilliant at hiding. I would always come up with original places to hide. One time I hid by going between two houses and climbing up between them with my arms and legs spread out putting pressure on the walls then when I reached the top, at the apex of the roof between two-story houses, I then changed position to having my back against one wall and my feet pushing against the other holding me firmly in place. I was able to see the guy who was counting against a lamp-post on the path in front of the house.
My aul one would've killed me if she had've caught me

Shit.... we used to play that game too.... like a cross between hide and seek and tag. I can't remember what it was called either.

I remember now.... we called it mob!

[Rum]

Anyone ever play Kingo (or "King Ball")? It was predictably banned in school after some years.

One person is on it and they have a tennis ball. They have to hit one of the other players with the ball. I think the person then joined their team and the winner was the last one left.

This is serious anthropology! We had that game and called it King. This was in my school in Hong Kong of all places!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Anyone ever play Kingo (or "King Ball")? It was predictably banned in school after some years.

One person is on it and they have a tennis ball. They have to hit one of the other players with the ball. I think the person then joined their team and the winner was the last one left.

This is serious anthropology! We had that game and called it King. This was in my school in Hong Kong of all places!

We had a similar game - called "Sillybuggers!"

Everyone ran across a stretch of wall and one person threw a tennis ball at them. If you got hit, you were out. Last man got to throw the ball next game. Mr Wass, French teacher, saw us playing one day and said, "What are you boys doing? Playing Silly Buggers?" That's how it got its name.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

When I moved ot N Wales from Manchester (at age 10) I was introduced to a version of Hide & Seek called Blocky that was fantastic. Basically the base where the person who did the counting was was the base and after everyone had hid when the seeker started to look for people you could run back to the base, touch it, shout "Blocky El" and you were free from being "it" / the seeker for the next game.. it was so much fun - we had a old primary school in Wales that had a maze of places to hide. i can recall many times running at full speed to beat the seeker back to the base...

That was a fun game.. sometimes i think back and think I'd love to play something like that again...

I loved school.. those days were the best

Sounds nearly identical to a game when I was young called "Forty-Forty". The person who was seeker (I can't recall if there was a specific term for this person) would stand at the 'base' (normally the lamppost outside next-door's house) and cover their eyes while they counted to 40, while everybody else hid. They would then seek-out the hidden people, and if they saw them they would have to rush back to the base, touch it, and yell "Forty-forty, see you <person's name>!". In the meantime the hidden people would be trying to get back to base, whereupon they would shout "Forty-forty, save myself!".

The first person 'seen' would be seeking the next time, unless everyone 'saves' themselves, in which case the last person goes again. It could sometimes get a bit acrimonious when a seeker was accused of 'base-hanging' (staying near the base just waiting for people to reveal themselves, rather than going off to search).

I have no idea of the etymology of the term 'forty-forty', beyond the counting to 40 seconds bit (which I'm fairly sure came about as a result of the game's name, not vice versa).


Postscript - Having typed all that, I now find Forty-Forty has it's own wikipedia article.