Folklore: Tag (the game)

Subject: BS: Tag
From: Viracocha
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 04:07 AM

We've got so many threads about playground songs, so I was wondering about playground GAMES. Everyone I came across over Britain as a child (admittedly, not many people) knew how to play tig-and-tag. It's the most basic kids' game - one person is "It", and tries to catch the others. There's usually a safe place for them to go - a "dell". In my school, we used to have three large-doorstep-things around one area, so those were all "dells"- one was a "countdown" dell (from 10, and at 0, "It" could jump onto the dell), one was "pull off" (where you could grab onto an arm sticking out and yank the people off), and one was "normal".

When I met some friends in Manchester, when I was still little, they called it "tig", and "dell" was "den". And Americans call it "tag" - at least, the ones on tv do! ^_^ So I was wondering what differences everyone else had when they were little.

Feel free to post about other playground games, too...

-Viracocha

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 04:12 AM

Ballies or bally-os meant you were out of the game and it wasn't fair to tig you.

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: Viracocha
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 04:15 AM

...I never had them. How did that work?

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 05:46 AM

Locally round here, its called 'Tick!'

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 05:53 AM

..........& also, thinking on, there were various ways us kids had of choosing who'd be the first to be 'on'.

Several rhymes were used for 'dipping' ['dip' = to choose or pick] & some were in the form of an elimination sequence.

such as:

'Dip, dip, dip,
My blue ship,
Sails on the water,
Like a cup and saucer,
Dip, dip, dip,
You're not it!'


More?

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: Becca72
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 11:02 AM

Growing up in Southern Maine in the late 70s the game was "tag" and the safe zone was "home base". "it" was never allowed to come onto home base but you were only allowed to stay there for a limited time. when stepping out of the game momentarily (bathroom break, checking in with mom, etc) we called "time out" and then upon returning called "time in".

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 11:59 AM

Swinton, Manchester, UK. 1950s/60s. Tiggy. Barleys was the word used to indicate you were having 'time out'. Variation - Tiggy off the ground where you could not touch the ground or you were 'it' as well as if you got tigged.

Ip dip dip
My blue ship
Sailing on the water
Like a cup and saucer
My Mother says that you are ... (Used to depend if you wanted them in or out;-) )

Ip dip do
Cat's got flu
I've got the chicken pox
so out goes you

Did anyone else play 'kick can'. Place a can on the ground in the middle of the street. Someone would kick it as far as possible and whoever was 'on' had to run to get it then walk backwards to it's startng place while the others went and hid. To get someone out they had to find them and make it back to the can first. If the other person made it to the can first they could kick it again and the whole procedure started over. Far more violent than hide and seek:-)

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 12:03 PM

I must have come from a much rougher, down to earth area, because our counting out rhyme was 'Ip dip, bird shit, I'm out, you're IT!'

We had variations of tag, like 'off ground touch' where you couldn't be tagged if your feet were off the ground, up a tree or standing on a wall or bench, and kiss chase, where the object was to not get kissed by the snotty nosed kid in the third year.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: Splott Man
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 12:28 PM

In our area of Surrey we called it "He".

A variation was King He, or Kingy (I was never sure which), where "it" would throw a sorbo or tennis ball to hit someone, they would then join "it". The "its" would grow in number as the game progressed. The next "it" was either the last one or the first one caught.

The one with the tin we called Kick Can Bobby - "1, 2, 3, I see John (or whoever)" and "I am home, 1, 2, 3."

Time out was called Veins (Vains?) or Veinites.

Subject: RE: BS: Tag
From: Les from Hull
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 01:08 PM

It's interest that you've all picked up on the different 'time out' phrases used (although in the UK we never said 'time out' until so influenced by American TV or film. Peter and Iona Opie a couple of wonderful folkloreists produced a map of 'children's truce terms' in their book 'The lore and language of schoolchildren' (1977). Anyone interested in this thread in the UK should try to get a look at this book - it's a mine of information and nostalgia for those of us of 'a certain age'.

The truce term in Hull was 'kings', although when I got a scholarship to a posh school this was replaced by 'pax'. It seems you come from the 'fainites/fains/vainites/vains' area down south, Splotty. This is one of the oldest of such terms, being mediaeval English and originally Old French se feindre - make excuses, hang back, back out (esp of battle).

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Pinetop Slim
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 01:39 PM

Our neighborhood featured a lot of variations on the theme -- bicycle tag, shadow tag and freeze tag.
In regular tag and a few other games "home base" was known as "gool." I took it for what it was then, but it seems the word may have been a mispronunciation of gaol.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Les from Hull
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 02:21 PM

I can remember 'off ground tig' when you were safe if you were off the ground. And 'chain tig' when those who were tigged joined hands with others in a long chain until everyone was caught.

The other games we had were 'reallio' - a team capture games; 'block' - a form of hide and seek; and eggitybudge - a form of tig using a tennis or similar sized ball.

Oh, and by the way, you're 'it'!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Tootler
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 04:23 PM

An alternative to dipping we sometimes used was for everyone to cry "not it". The last one to say it was it, or in some places where I lived, "on". (I had a nomadic childhood as my Father was in the RAF)

The "not it" method of deciding who was "it" not surprisingly, often led to disputes or had to be repeated several times as someone was considered to have taken an unfair advantage or cheated - rather like jumping the starting pistol in a race.

I remember playing kick can.

A variant of hide and seek we played was, when you were found by "it" you raced to the base (often a tree) and called "one two three in" or if "it" got there first, "one two three xxxxxx" where xxxxxx was the person's name. If you got to base before "it" you weren't "on" next time.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Les from Hull
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 05:26 PM

An accurate description of 'block' as played in 'ull, but we had to say 'block one two three'. But I've no idea why we said 'block'.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: philgarringer
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 05:34 PM

When I was a young'un in Rhose Island, all of our variations of "tag" had a safe zone known as "goo" or "gool". I think this is some kind of old pronunciation of the word.

We also played "Red Rover", and shot each other with slingshots and bb guns. Come to think of it, that wasn't really all that fun at all...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: the button
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 05:42 PM

Yeah, the whole "Block one two three in" thing stretched as far as Beverley, as well.

Off-ground tig, too.

Rhymes for selecting who was "it" included: -

Ibble obble
Black bobble
Ibble obble -- OUT!

Until there was only one person left, who became "it."

This would have been mid-to-late 70s.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Rowan
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 06:43 PM

Dave Polshaw wrote "Swinton, Manchester, UK. 1950s/60s. Tiggy. Barleys was the word used to indicate you were having 'time out'. Variation - Tiggy off the ground where you could not touch the ground or you were 'it' as well as if you got tigged. "

Much the same in Melbourne of the 40s & early 50s. Tiggy was the name of the game and "to tig" was the verb.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 09:17 PM

These recollections are from my childhood & "teenhood" in "Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1950s and mid 1960s} and from my observation of children in Pittsburgh, PA {from the late 1960s to date}:

My memories/observations of "It Tag" {the name that I recall from my childhood & the name that appears to be used most often among African American children in Pittsburgh} is confused with memories & observations of the game of "Hide & Go Seek".

You have to have a person who is "It" for both "It Tag" and "Hide & Go Seek".

Apart from self-selection, adult selection, or the "coronation" of a child with a strong personality as "It" by other children, children choose "It" by a process of elimination. Kids huddle in a bunch in front of the "reciter" {this is my term; I don't recall that any referent was used for this person}. Each of the kids either stuck their right foot out in front of the reciter OR each of the kids would stretch out their right arm so that their right fist would be within reach of the reciter. The kids are silent while the reciter chants most of the choosing "It" rhyme. The reciter touches the outstretched foot of each child {or their outstretched fist} while he or she recites a word or, in some cases, a syllable of the rhyme. One common rhyme {from my childhood and one that I've still heard nowadays} is:

My mother and your mother
were hanging out some clothes.
My mother punched your mother
right in the nose.
What color was the blood?
[At this point the person whose foot or fist was touched chooses a color. "Red" was the usual color that was chosen. The reciter then continues with the rhyme]
R-E-D spellls Red
And you are OUT

[The rhyme is then repeated again and again until there is only one person remaining. That person is "It". Of course, that rhyme can be manipulated to increase the chances that someone the reciter is friends with will be chosen as "It". One way of manipulating the rhyme was nstead of that last line given above to say:

"And you are not the one to be "It"

When "It" is selected [by the group, or self-selected, or selected by a teacher or summer camp group leader], he {or she} closes his eyes, puts his right hand over his eyes and then starts this counting while the rest of the group {including the reciter} scurries around looking for good hiding places.

"It" counts "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 [Usually this is chanted fast]. "It" will then say "Are you ready?" [Usually the first time "It" says this a couple of kids who haven't found good hiding places will respond "NO!". "It" will then repeat his count, and then say again "Are you ready?" Someone may still not have found just the right hiding place, and will therefore shout "NO!". "It" will count again to give that person more time. After the second or third time this happens, "It" will say "READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!" "It" will then start looking for people. When he {or she} finds a kid, that person tries to run to Home base before being tagged {touched} by "It" . If the person reaches "home base" he or she is "Home Free".

My memory of home base is like what Becca72 wrote in her 07 Aug 07 - 11:02 AM post.

Presumably, the last person who is tagged becomes the next "It" . Or maybe they become the reciter.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 09:28 PM

It seems from some books on children's rhymes {I can't remember whether this includes the Opies' books which I consider to be great resources} that kids didn't want to be choosen as "It". But my recollections and observations dispute this premise.

I definitely think that some kids like to be "It". Sometimes a child who is the group leader chooses him or herself as "It". Sometimes a child with a strong personality or a child who is known to be a good runner is "chosen" by other kids to be "It".

Sometimes kids don't want to go through the process of choosing "It" using an elimation rhyme because it takes too long. Imo, one reason nowadays that children may not want to go through the whole process of choosing "It" by the rhyming/elimination method is they want things to happen fast and-with a large group-this process could take a long time. Another reason why 21st century children may not use rhymes to choose "It" as often as I recall mid and late 20th century children doing, is that nowadays time for group outdoor play may be limited. For instance, children who want to play "Tag" or "It Tag" or other chasing games during "recess" {an alloted time for free play after lunch} have to get on with it because they don't have much time before the school bell will ring and they've got to go back to the grind of classes. Needless to say, computer games, video games, tv, adult organized sports,and other adult directed children's activities all take up the time that children could use for free play.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Bee
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 09:37 PM

Besides 'It' tag, Shadow tag and Freeze Tag, in Cape Breton (50s, 60s) we played a tag game called Ghost in the Cellar. One person is chosen the Mother, one the Ghost, everyone else is the Children. The following ritual goes like this:

Children: "Mother, Mother, we're hungry!"
Mother: "Show me your hands!" (Children show hands) "Your hands are dirty! Go wash them in the cellar and you can have your supper!"
(Children run off to area designated 'cellar', where Ghost is waiting.)
Ghost: "Booooooo!" (Children run back to Mother, shrieking.)
Children: "Mother, Mother, there's a Ghost in the cellar!"
Mother: "There's no such thing as ghost's, it's only your father's underwear! Go back and wash your hands!" (Children run back to cellar.)
Ghost: "Booooooo!"
Children: "What do you want?"
Ghost: "I want some water."
Children: "What do you want water for?"
Ghost: "To boil my kettle."
Children: "What do you want to boil your kettle for?"
Ghost: "To wet my stone."
Children: "What do you want to wet your stone for?"
Ghost: "To sharpen my knife!"
Children: "What do you want to sharpen your knife for?"
Ghost: "To kill you all!"
At this point, children run shrieking, ghost chases children until all are tagged. Last child tagged becomes the Ghost, and the Ghost becomes the Mother.

We were probably the last generation of children who knew wells and handpumps were often in cellars, that fathers wore 'Union Suits', and that water and stone sharpened steel edges.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 09:54 PM

The way that I played Hide & Go Seek and the way I've seen Black children play this game in the Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania area differs from the way it's documented being played by southern African American children in books like Bessie Jones & Bess Lomax-Hawes Step It Down and Linda Gossett's Talk That Talk.

The rhyme composition "All Hid" is an example of how rhymes were strung together to give the children playing this game time to hid. In this chant, the reciter combined Mother Goose rhymes and rhymes from African American secular slave songs such as "Juba this Juba that". Periodically in his {or her} recitation of standardized rhymes, the reciter would ask the other children if they were all hid, and the children would respond by saying that same phrase {though I wonder if early on the children said No, we're not all hid".

Here's that rhyme.

ALL HID

Call:
Last night
Night before
Twenty-five blackbirds
at my door.
I got up
Let 'em in
Hit 'em in the head
With a rolling pin.
All hid!

Response:
All hid!

Call:
All hid!

Response:
All hid!

All:
5, 10, 15, 20, all hid, hid

Call:
25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, all hid.

Response:
All hid!

Call:
All hid!

Response:
All hid!

All:
5, 10, 15, 20, all hid, hid

Call:
65, 70, 75, 80,85, 90, 95, 100 all hid.

Response:
All hid

All:
5, 10, 15, 20, all hid, hid

Call:
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the
candlestick. Little boy blue, come blow your horn, sheep in the
meadow, cows in the corn.Tom, Tom the piper's son, stole a pig and away he run. Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife but couldn't keep her. Juba this and Juba that, Juba stole a yellow cat.
I spy in pocketful of rye, how many blackbirds in my pie?
All hid!

Response:
All hid

All:
5, 10, 15, 20, all hid, all hid

-snip-

Unfortunately, my copy of Step It Down and my copy of Talk That Talk are hiding from me. Therefore, I can't cite the page number or publishers. I seem to recall that the Linda Gossett's book quoted Bessie Jones' recollection of this chant from her African American Gullah heritage.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Janie
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 10:47 PM

We called it 'tag' (west central West Virginia, mid to late 50's.)

To chose "it" we would stand in a circle and everyone would hold a hand out, palm down. There were no rules for determining who was the reciter, to use Azizi's term. But that person would go around the circle, tapping each person's hand sequentially with a balled fist, one tap per word.

One potato, two potato, three potato, four
Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more.
Then, much faster,
My-mother-told-me-to-pick-the-very-next-one-and-you-are-it!

Then there would be a mad, screaming scramble to run away from the circle and 'it' so as not to be immediately tagged. Once tagged. You were it.

We also played freeze tag, and I game called 'statue.' In statue, we took turns being the 'swinger'. Each swinger swung everyone else before passing the job off to some one else.

The 'statue' would stand at right angle to the swinger. The swinger took the statue's wrist in both hands, and swung the person in a circle, building up momentum. When the swinger was satisfied there was sufficient momentum, they would let go, sending the statue staggering or tumbling. Quickly, the swinger would yell 'freeze! and the statue would have to try to stop their motion immediately, and hold the pose. The point was to freeze into as silly and/or awkward a position as possible, preferably with a grotesque look on your face. There was no other point than to look silly and get a good laugh from the other participants.

Janie

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Kent Davis
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 11:14 PM

We played freeze tag in Southern West Virginia and in the South Carolina Low Country in the 1960s. Now my daughters and their friends play the same game every Sunday and Wednesday after church, here in Southeastern Ohio. It's nice to know that not everything changes.
Kent

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Janie
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 11:27 PM

The person who was 'it' in hide-and-seek would simply yell out, "Ready or not, here I come!" when they reached a count to 100. To end a game of hide-and-seek before everyone was found, the Seeker and any of us who had been caught would stand at home base and yell
"All-ee All-ee in Freeeeee!"

We also played a variant of hide-and-seek called "Sardines." One person would go hide while everyone else counted to 500, and then we would disperse to find the one person. If you found them, you had to try quickly to hide with them from all the other seekers. The challenge was to find a good hiding place that would remain a good hiding place as the number of hiders increased. The fun of it was the hiding place was never quite big enough and some some really odd contortions ensued as people tried to pack themselves in or make room for one more.

Janie

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Bert
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 12:57 AM

The kids used to hold out both fists and the leader would count around, One potato, two potato, three potato, four
Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more, bangibg each fist in turn with his, When they reached 'more' the kid had to put that fist behind his back and then the leader would go 'round again. The winner was the one left with a fist out.

Other games were,

What's the time Mr. Wolf
Fag cards
Bottle tops. Which was the same game as fag cards but played with cardboard milk bottle tops.
Conkers
Jump rope, of course but mostly by girls
Two ball, again mostly by girls
Kingy in the Middle
Gobs
Cops and robbers
Cowboys and Indians (Bang you're dead)

These games were seasonal, you wouldn't dream of playing gobs during fag card season.

Marbles and hop scotch were played occasionally if we were really bored

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 03:24 AM

We played tick, ticky-off-ground, chain tick, ball tick (or Baltic?), kick-can-123.

Someone was "on" not "it". And we said "barley", but I think my cousins said "skinch"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Mr Happy
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 07:45 AM

Inky pinky ponky
Daddy bought a donkey
Donkey died, Daddy cried
Inky pinky ponky
O-U-T spells OUT
And OUT you are!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 12:37 PM

how about yellow fever? this was version of Tag when I was a kid where, if you were tagged by It, you became It too, and kids who hadn't seen you get tagged wouldn't know you were It...

And the French call it Cat. You aren't It, you are the Cat. But then again, the French say "I have other cats to whip" for Other fish to fry...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Les from Hull
Date: 09 Aug 07 - 08:38 AM

Snuffy - the Opies would locate your cousins in Northumberland or Durham.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Snuffy
Date: 09 Aug 07 - 09:18 AM

Spot on, Les. Ryton on Tyne

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Viracocha
Date: 13 Aug 07 - 07:22 AM

Wow. I didn't expect this much response! Or this many varieties...

There's a lot of these 'choosing it' rhymes on other pages - such as here . Actually, a lot of those were posted by me :S We had several...

As for the 'time out', we crossed our fingers and yelled "S.P!", my mum said "pax" as a child, and the teachers tried to make us make a T with our hands and say "Time Out" when we were in P.E. (gym). And it was ALWAYS called "tig-and-tag", but when we called out "tig", almost never saying "tag", but it was always "tag, you're it" if we did the full version. I wonder why that was?

I'm surprised "Stick-in-the-mud" wasn't mentioned, but maybe that was just a local thing...our gym teachers knew it, and my brownie/rainbow/guide leaders all knew it, and we often played it in the playground. Very much like "tig and tag" (or whatever everyone else called it), but when you "tigged" someone, they had to freeze with their feet apart and their arms spread wide (not freeze in the position they were caught). The teachers/leaders made us go under the legs of the frozen people to save them; we played it ourselves as going under the arm (far quicker, and far far better when there were people of different sizes [tall/large person squeezing under short/small person=embarressing], and genders, and with skirts). The trick was to "tig" all of the people before they could unstick the others. There were usually several "It"s. You had to say "Stick-in-the-mud" rather than "tig".

((Does anyone have any old books that might shed some light on which came first - tig or tick(y)? The two words must be related somehow.))

-Viracocha

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Viracocha
Date: 13 Aug 07 - 07:30 AM

And I was always told "S.P!" meant "Stop Please!", but I always though the people talling me that sounded a bit unsure...

-Viracocha

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 07:31 AM

I'd guess that 'tag', 'tiggy', 'tick' etc. are derived from Latin tangere (tango present tense, tetigi imperfect, tactum participle), so from schoolday Latin along with 'pax'.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Viracocha
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 04:09 AM

Thanks for all the examples, btw...
---
Guest,PMB: I didn't get a chance to learn Latin in school, but an online translator says "tangere" can mean three different things:
-touch, strike
-border on, influence
-mention

And the first one sounds very likely. Though that doesn't really explain the French "Cat", but that one probably developed on its own, seperate from tig/tag/tick/ticky. Thanks ^_^
---
Azizi: We never played hide-and-seek at school - at least, not once we were about 7 or older (not a cultural thing, just a lack of hiding places and a large amount of kids in the way). But when we played it elsewhere, we only ever counted, then said ready-or-not-here-I-come - I doubt we'd have remembered all of "All hid!" I still find children learning long rhymes like that very impressive.

But then, I did read somewhere that young children used to be made to learn enormous poems (not to mention bible passages) in Britain, not so long ago. They were sometimes called upon to recite poetry to their elders, and they tried, or were forced, to memorise many different ones. And since that is no longer done in or out of schools (well, in those that follow a government curriculum - I suppose some schools might still force memorising of poetry), that part of our brains isn't developed at a young age and, consequently, we find it more difficult to memorise rhymes/poems (or, arguably, to memorise ANYTHING) in later life. Which is a shame, because oral traditions will get lost. I suppose that's what Mudcat is for. Anyway, I digress...
---
Bert: We played:

Stick-in-the-mud

Polo (no, not the thing with horses)
Tag
Rangers 1-2-3 (a game we were very proud of having invented)
Fishy, Fishy, Swim my Ocean
Tig-on-the-Line (NO ONE knew the rules)
Skipping [with a rope or a french-skipping-rope, mostly by girls]
Hand-clapping [mostly by girls]
Kings and Queens arriving [I discussed this in detail on another thread]
Football [only in a certain area, for one year at a time]
Hopscotch [VERY rarely]
Mummies and Daddies [only the REALLY wee kids]

I collect marbles. I think it's such a shame that no kids up here know how to play it :(

-Viracocha

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: DonD
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 05:42 PM

First, thanks to all for the memories and especially for the consideration of specifying the geography. No thanks to those who think that saying 'here' is of any use at all. Or perhaps they think they're so famous that everyone knows where they're from.

In The Bronx (does everyone know where that is?) when I was a kid in the thirties (!) we played tag and hide & seek (not hide and go seek) and kick the can, among other street games. Car traffic on our residential streets was sparse, and we resented having to interrupt our play when a motorist appeared. Among the popular games was 'War' which involved placing a rubber ball (a spaldeen if we had one) in the center hole of a manhole cover in the middle of the street, drawing a large segmented chalk circle around it and writing the name of a country in each segment. The players stood with one foot in his segment, leaning away to make a fast getaway but stretching an arm toward the ball. Whoever was it first called "I declare war on ---(naming a country)". The player in the named segment lunged for the ball while everyone else ran in all directions, until the ball-holder yelled 'stop!' He/she then had to throw the ball and try to hit the most vulnerable player. If he hit someone that player would be the one to declare war the next time; if he missed, or if his target caught the ball, the thrower would get to declare war. The choice of country names was always influenced by the news of the day and the politics we heard our parents discussing the night before.
Don't get me stared on 'ring-a-levio', because I can't remember the rules.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 07:26 PM

Bradford, West Yorks (West Yorkshire for them as didn't live there), England, Europe, The World, The Universe etc. etc.
Sticking specifically to "Tig" games local to me - 1960's.

Tig was called Tig, not tag.
There was no break during a game of tig. It was generally all in the open, no hiding, no safe area, no "time out" words. If you stood still, you would get tigged and would be "It".

Choosing rhymes - a couple used, but probably Dip Dip Dip.
This was an elimination rhyme :-
Dip, dip dip.
My blue ship.
Sails on the water.
Like a cup and saucer.
YOU DO NOT HAVE IT!

The person pointed at when the rhyme hit "IT" stood out, safe, and the rhyme started at the next person in the circle with Dip again. Finally only one was left and they were "It".

In Hide and seek you hid until found.

Some people have mentioned a can kicking game.
Our local one was "Tin Can Squat".
It was a cross between Tig and Hide and seek.
A tin can was put in the middle of the road. About ten or twenty twigs were broken off a bush or tree. They were placed in the tin can.
The person who would be "It" was chosen.
Somebody else then kicked the can, sending the twigs flying.
"It" then had to gather up the twigs and put them back in the can before they could go searching for the rest of the players.
If they found a player they both raced back to the can. If "It" got there first, the player had to stay there, caught. If the player beat "It" they kicked the can and all caught players were free to run off and hide again until twigs were back in the can.

If "It" was fast, all players ended caught.
Sometimes a brave player would leave their hiding place and run to kick the can, hoping that "It" didn't spot them and get back to base before they did.

A singer whose name I can't at the moment recall, (Graham something? - looking at gig list of the Topic Folk Club probably Graham Shaw) wrote a song with chorus :-

Tin Can Squat, Tin Can Squat.
That's the game we used to play,
(We'd) Kick the can and run away
Why don't they do the same today,
Tin Can Squat.

Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 07:34 PM

With Tig there would be local rules about whether you could tig back the person who had just tigged you. Sometimes they were safe until another person became "It" and could have a short rest. On other occasions two players would just keep tigging each other, giving the rest of us a break.

"Off the ground tig" was usually played in school, usually in the gym during a games lesson. You were allowed on wall bars, benches, forms, vaulting horses ropes and the likes, on blue mats but were not allowed to touch the wooden floor. Equipment was arranged so that there were various escape routes.

Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 07:41 PM

I just remembered "Tram Lines" which we played at primary school on the playground.
It was marked out with lines for Football (5-a side soccer), Rounders and others, possibly tennis.
The result was a whole load of lines in different colours.
You were allowed to run along the lines, but not allowed to leave the lines. You could change to a different line if it intersected the one you were on.
As usual we had a person who was "It" and they had to chase along the same line to catch you up. They couldn't tig you from a parallel line, even if they could reach you to touch. They had to be on the same line you were on.

Quack
GtD.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: GUEST,Scabby Douglas
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 08:30 PM

In Glasgow it was "Tig", and the nominated catcher was "Het".

The truce word was "keys" - always said with fists closed, and thumbs pointing upwards. The safe area was the "den", and reaching the den, you were only safe if you had said "In den, one-two-three!"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: open mike
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 08:48 PM

ok, so how did the word "tag" come to mean (musical thread....)
a repeat of the last line of a song?

and then there is "bridge" .... which is somrt of line a chorus,
but not....

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Viracocha
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 04:45 AM

In reply to DonD - I'm in North-East Scotland, sorry if I didn't say.
And Geoff the Duck - our PE hall had lines like that. Our plyaground only had Netball lines, that's where our Tig-on-the-Line came from. But no one knew the rules, or even if 'It' was allowed to leave the lines, or if anyone could 'hop' onto other lines (such as the circle in the middle).

-Viracocha

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Mr Happy
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 08:05 AM

Both at primary school & in the cubs, there were a variety of games set up by teacher/akela/cubmaster.

Most were rough & tumble sorts & some I didn't like at all.

One of these was 'British Bulldog' & seemed to consist of random running about in a crowd of small boys, then grabbing each others goolies [AAAAAAArrrrgggggggh!!] & shouting 'British Bulldog!' for no apparent reason.

Another was one where the leader would shout 'Port' or 'Starboard' & the teams had to run to the right or left.

Those who got confused & ran wrong way got eliminated & winners were the team with most left at time period.

A game I did enjoy, played both in school & away was 'Pirates', very similar to 'off ground tag/tick' described above, the school gym version being particularly good with having ropes to swing from place to place.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 11:42 AM

Don't worry, Viracocha, many British children are still required to learn long passages off by heart - they're called the Koran.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 08:33 PM

One, Two, Three.
Mother caught a flea.
She put it in the teapot
And made a cup of tea.

That was another "counting-out" rhyme, used in the Southampton area of UK.

Two of the games described by Mr. Happy actually did have rules, although perhaps in his area or school the had not been passed "down the line", so to speak.

The object of British Bulldog was for one or two persons to be in the centre of the play area, be it a large room, hall or playground, and the other competitors lined up against the wall on one side of the area. At a signal all the competitors would rush to try to get to the other side of the area while those in the middle tried to catch one of them. It was then required for the two "catchers" to lift the caught person off the ground, holding him airborne while shouling "British Bulldog". The caught person would then join the catchers in the middle. The winner was the person who was last left uncaught.

"Port and Starboard" also had additional commands, such as "Boom Overhead" when one would have to lie flat to avoid being struck by the (imaginary) boom of a sailing ship. "Bow" and "Stern" also involved rushing to the requisite part of the "ship". "Man the lifeboats" involved the competitors forming themselves into fours (or sixes if a large group) and sitting line astern. As was said above, it was devil take the hindmost as regards to who was "out".

"Pirates" has already been described but another playground game, usually played by girls, (yes, we were very sexist in those days but playgrounds were divided into "girls" and "boys") was a ball game known as "Queenie" which involved an individual throwing a tennis ball backwards over their head towards a line of other competitors stood behind them. The ball, having been caught by one of the line was then secreted behind a back, sometimes with surreptitious passing along the line. At the call of "Queenie, Queenie, who's got the ball?" the thrower would then be required to turn around and guess who held the ball. If the guess was correct then the ball-holder would become the thrower, otherwise the thrower would throw again.

There was another game, whose name I cannot remember.
It involved two teams, one crouching against a wall to make a long back, often longer than the vaulting box in the gym, while the other team vaulted onto the long back. The object was to get the other team to break, when they would have to reform their long back. If the team macking the back could hold up the combined weight of all of the other team, they had won and the teams changed over.

Colyn.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Kent Davis
Date: 20 Aug 07 - 10:13 PM

How did you keep freeze-tag players from standing right by the safe area so that it was impossible to tag them? We* told them not to "guard the base". My children** say:
"One, two, three,
Get off my father's apple tree".
How did you keep the one who is "it" from standing right by a "frozen" player so that it is impossible to "un-freeze" them. We had no special terms that I recall, but my children tell the one who is "it" to stop "baby-sitting" or to stop "dog-guarding".

* Lived in Southern West Virginia '60 to '66, Low Country South Carolina '66 to '72
** Living in Appalachian Ohio

Kent

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 05:15 AM

Bonecruncher.

I recall the girls "Queenie" game you mentioned, though in my neighbourhood, it was called "Queenio-Coco"

Down our way, the girls often invited me & other boys to play as well.

After the thrown ball had been hidden, the chant was:
'Queenio-Coco, who's got the ball ee-o?'

Boys were at a great disadvantage in hiding the ball because they wore shorts or trousers, whereas the girls in those days [1950's] wore dresses or skirts.

They'd slyly shove the ball up under their skirt & hold it between their upper thighs, so when the searcher sought it, they could turn all around without the ball being detected!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 07:00 AM

Bee 07 Aug:
Besides 'It' tag, Shadow tag and Freeze Tag, in Cape Breton (50s, 60s) we played a tag game called Ghost in the Cellar.
We called it "Witch in the well", but the water, knife, chasing etc. was the same. The phrase & responses were very specific, & if you were the youngest, you made sure you were two steps away before the withch said "knife".

Bonecruncher 20 Aug
One, Two, Three, Me Mother caught a bee.
She put it in the teapot, To make a cup of tea.
The bee flew out, mammy gave a shout,
And in came Johhny, with his shirt hangin' OUT.

This could be used to select who wasn't "IT"

Queenie was never played at my (boys only) school, but I'd sometimes play it at home with my sisters. (They had to pronlise not to tell anyone though!)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 07:04 AM

Queenie, Queenie, who has the ball?
Is she big, or is she small?
Is she fat, or is she thin?,
Or is she like a safe-eh-tee-pin*?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Viracocha
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 08:28 AM

Thanks everyone.

I never played Queenie - but few of us wore skirts past a certain age (and the school was mixed).

We didn't have freeze-tag, but if people stood too long on "dell", we counted down from ten. At zero, we could jump on dell and grab anyone still left (our "dell" tended to be a low step - or 3 low steps - not a wall, as the walls had those little jabby stones. Sometimes it was the wall, but there was a lot of wall, so that wasn't very fair).

And I remember "Port Starboard Bow Stern" very well from parties, gym AND Brownies. There were many commands such as:

Captain's coming (stand to attention)
Captain's gone (look relieved and stand relaxed)
Climb the rigging (mime climbing rigging - looks like a midair doggy paddle)
Swab the deck (mime scrubbing the floor)
Up periscope (lie on back and lift one leg)

But I don't remember "Boom Overhead" or "Man the lifeboats".

-Viracocha

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: HouseCat
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 12:55 PM

We played "Devil In The Ditch" - you had to have a good-sized ditch, which we did. The "devil" stood at the bottom of the ditch and the poor souls he was trying to steal ran back and forth across the ditch as fast as they could as the devil tried to tag them. First one tagged was the new devil. Our ditch had steep sides and we had lots of skinned knees but it was great fun.
We also played "Colored Eggs" which required a wolf, a hen, and an assortment of chicks. Each chick secretly chose a color. The wolf came and KNOCK KNOCK KNOCKED on the door. The hen answered with, "What do you want?" and the wolf replied, "I want to buy some colored eggs!"
"What color?" the hen would ask, and the wolf would start naming colors until he called one that a chick had chosen. Said chick would then take off running around the yard until it was either tagged by the wolf or made it safely back to the hen. The most fun was trying to think of colors so rare (from the Crayola box) that the wolf would never think of them. Last chick standing won, or if the wolf got them all, he won.
Both were played in the 60's and before, in rural Alabama.