Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 18, 1995 TAG: 9509190001
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
We're talking about games that test skill, dexterity and sportsmanship without cost or planning. We're talking about games that your parents and their parents and their parents' parents played way back when high-tech for kids meant using a stopwatch to time a foot race.
We're talking about games that your parents might enjoy playing with you because the games can bring you closer together, bring back memories and get your creative juices flowing.
Many street games have survived for centuries.
But the rules often get lost or distorted. To refresh your memory, here are examples of some popular street games and their rules, from the books ``The Official Kick the Can Games Book'' (Andrews and McMeel, $10.95, 64 pp.) and ``The Games Treasury'' (Chapters Publishing, $19.95, 332 pp.)
OK, now you're ``it.''
Kick the can
Players: Four or more
Equipment: Can and chalk
How to play: Draw a dot with chalk. Take two giant steps out and draw a circle around the dot. Place a can on the dot. Choose a person to be ``it'' and someone to be the kicker. The person who is it stands beside the can. The players stand on the rim of the circle.
It yells ``go,'' and the kicker runs into the circle and kicks the can as far as possible. The players scatter and try to hide. It retrieves the can, places it back on the dot and yells ``freeze.'' All the players must stop running.
It calls out the names of the players he sees and these ``captured'' players must sit inside the circle. Unseen players now may look for a better hiding spot. It searches for the missing players and, once found, they must sit in the circle too.
Players may try to run past It without being tagged and kick the can, freeing all the captured players to run and hide again. It then must retrieve the can, put it back on its dot and yell ``freeze.'' The process of capturing players starts again.
The game is over when It captures all the players or when a player kicks the can when there are no captured players. That player yells ``home free'' and the game is over.
Freeze tag
Players: Four or more
Equipment: None
How to play: Choose the person who will be ``it.''
It chases the players to tag them. Tagged players are ``frozen'' in position. They are unfrozen when tagged by a free player.
Frozen players may unfreeze themselves if they can reach each other. It wins when all the players are frozen.
Marbles ringer
Players: Two or more
Equipment: Marbles and chalk
How to play: Make a dot with chalk. Take two baby steps out. Draw a circle around the dot. Draw two shooter lines. The first shooter line, for children under 6, should be one giant step away from the circle. The second, for children over 6, should be at least two giant steps away. Each player donates at least three marbles, placed evenly around the circle.
Players take 10 turns each shooting marbles at the marbles on the circle. The goal is to knock marbles off the circle. The shooter wins any marbles she hits as well as any marbles that are moved or hit by other marbles during her turn. If the shooter doesn't hit any marbles, she loses her marble and it stays where it landed.
The winner is the one with the most marbles after 10 turns.
Hopscotch
Players: Two or more
Materials: Chalk, markers
How to play: Draw a traditional hopscotch board and number the squares.
The first player throws his marker to Block 1 then hops over Block 1, landing on one foot in Block 2. The player hops all the way Home and all the way back, stopping on Block 2 to pick up the marker. He then hops over Block 1 to finish the round. At Blocks 4 and 5 and Blocks 7 and 8, players must land in both at the same time. The second player repeats the exercise.
After every player has had one turn, the first player throws his marker to Block 2, hops on Block 1, hops over Block 2 and then all the way home and back, stopping on Block 3 to pick up the marker and hopping over Block 2.
Players lose their turn if they step on a line or on a block that contains a marker; if they toss the marker onto the wrong square or onto a line, or lose their balance and put a second foot down.
The game is over when one player has gone through all the numbers on the board.
Statues
Players: Four or more
Equipment: None
How to play: Choose a person to be ``it,'' who then swings each player by the arm. As she swings, she asks, ``Coffee, tea or milk?'' If the answer is ``milk,'' the player is swung gently, if he answers ``tea,'' he is swung slightly harder and if he answers ``coffee,'' he is spun as hard as possible. Each player spins, then stops in some hard-to-hold pose.
It walks around the motionless forms. Anyone who moves or laughs is out of the game and joins in trying to get others to break their pose. The last one to hold the pose wins and becomes It.
Double dutch
Players: Three or more
Equipment: Jump rope
How to play: A fancier version of old-fashioned jump rope, two or more ropes are used in double dutch. Players, sometimes more than one at a time, jump in-between the ropes, often in complicated configurations to the sound of chants.
by CNB