When I entered kindergarten, I had a hankering for the great outdoors. Therefore, when the teacher turned us loose on the playground for recess, I hightailed it for the wide open spaces, namely my home a few blocks away.
Following a parental bribe of a Hopalong Cassidy gun and holster set, I abandoned my wandering ways and soon learned the delights of playground time. During my elementary school years I remember two playground breaks each day – one for recess and one for physical education. Most of the time I couldn’t tell one from the other.
Playground time was game time for me. Kick ball was a particular favorite, but there were others, too. My friends and I played games before school, after school and on weekends, too. A game of tag or hide and seek often extended well past dusk in those days.
Once our parents tossed us out the door, we were on our own to entertain ourselves and we generally were successful.
I have little contact with elementary school age kids these days but my perception is that many of them lead much more structured lives than we did. Many kids today start organized sports as soon as their little legs can carry them onto a playing field.
I don’t know if schools offer recess anymore, or P.E., for that matter, and I wonder how many kids today would enjoy a simple game of tag or keep away. How many of the following childhood games do you remember?
- Annie Annie over
- Blind man’s bluff
- Dodge ball
- Four square
- Hide & seek
- Hide the button
- Hopscotch
- Hot potato
- Jacks
- Jump rope
- Keep away
- Kick ball
- King of the hill
- Leap frog
- Marbles
- Mother may I?
- Red light, green light
- Simon says
- Spin the bottle
- Stickball
Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand -- Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.
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