Folklore: Tag (the game)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 08:22 PM

Viracocha
In UK trousers for girls were never worn in school until about the early 1970's.
By that time the girls referred to by Mr. Happy were probably allowing balls of a different type to be near their upper thighs!

Colyn.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 10:20 PM

In Louisville Kentucky circa 1964, we used to play Smear, and I have sometimes wondered whether other kids in other places played it, or if it was a perverse local phenomenon.
It took five or six people, always males, and a football. The game began with all standing in a circle around the ball until somebody got the nerve to pick it up and run with it, at which point everyone else would tackle, kick, beat, gouge, and strangle(smear) the ball carrier. Once the ball carrier was forced to relinquish the ball, we would stand around it again until someone else picked it up, and the brutality was repeated. It was more like a male puberty ritual than a real game, I suppose.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Kent Davis
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 10:37 PM

Lonesome EJ,

The game you call "smear" was played by my father (born 1937) in Kegley, WV. He called it "hahchemahlee" which is, I would guess, how a little Anglo boy in the '40s heard "hot tamale".
We played the same game in Orangeburg, SC, in the late '60s and early '70s. I called it "Smear the Quarterback", as did my friends if an adult was listening. If not, they usually called it "Smear the Queer". The "queer" was whoever had the ball.
We did not allow strangling. It was an all against one tackle and rough, but not that rough.
Kent

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Janie
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 10:41 PM

Kent,

I don't recall it ever being much of an issue. There were a bunch of kids in my neighborhood, and simple peer pressure may have taken care of that problem.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 10:46 PM

I exaggerated a tad, Kent. No strangling, but no real rules about what techniques could be used to take down the ball carrier, either. Tackling, true, but the piling on was the worst. I remember plenty of bloody knees, black eyes, and torn shirts. We usually played out of sight of any adults, who tended to frown on this activity. I guess it was a sort of an early "fight club".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Janie
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 10:54 PM

Now that I think about, we did not have a
'home base' in tag or in freeze tag.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Kent Davis
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 10:59 PM

Janie,
I apologize in advance for being dense, but what is the issue and what is the problem to which you are referring? If it is the term "queer", the only issue was whether or not we said taboo words. That particular word was taboo. I doubt very much if my friends even knew what the word meant to adults.
Kent

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Janie
Date: 21 Aug 07 - 11:27 PM

Hi Kent,

I was responding to your post of 8/20 at 10:13 pm about freeze tag. You happened to post a response tonight to LEJ while I was typing. Your most recent post wasn't up there when I started typing, or I would have been more specific about what I responding to. (about which that to which I was responding:^)

Sorry for the confusion.

Janie

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Viracocha
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 09:55 AM

This sort of thing ("Smear") makes me even more certain that my generation (I was in Primary School in the early/mid 90s) were a bunch of wimps! Or maybe the adults were just stricter. We'd never have played a game like that, we were a bunch of little crybabies.

We were even made to play some form of "safe" rugby in gym (it had a specific name that I can't recall - we weren't allowed to tackle or bodily attack others). I've still never been taught proper rugby rules...

I wonder if this is another example of adults smothering each new generation more and more...?

-Viracocha

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: GUEST,Terry McDonald
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 12:39 PM

In the Parkstone area of Poole, Dorset, in the late 1940s, we called it 'Daddy-dun' (or perhaps 'done.') The truce word, with fingers crossed, was 'failance.'

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Anne Lister
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 05:58 PM

I had a nomadic childhood and had to adjust quickly to the various rules of the games played - and the "safe" word. In one area it was "fainite", in another "pax" and in yet another "cree". In all cases it was accompanied with crossed fingers. We moved from Bromley in South East London to Reading, then to Worcester and then to Cardiff (all the UK variety, for our US cousins!).

We played a version of British Bulldog, but it was far more sedate than the versions written down by others - in fact, these versions make it clear why it was banned in many playgrounds! Our version had the rhyme "Farmer, farmer, may I cross your golden meadow?". The Farmer would give permission for certain colours, so if you were wearing them you'd be fine, but if not you had to run across the space and avoid being caught. Anyone who was caught would join the Farmer and be ready to catch the next unfortunates.

We played Sticky Tag, and various Cat and Mouse games, as well as Pirates and the "Ship, Lifeboat, Deck" game mentioned by others ... which also had the command "sharks!" at which point you had to lie on your back with one leg in the air, or "Bombs", for which you had to lie on your stomach with your hands over your head. I still do this with children now ... great fun to have them rolling over and over on the floor ... maximum energy dispersal for minimum effort on my part!

At my secondary school (all girls) we had numerous ball games. The main one was called Donkey, and involved throwing a ball against the wall, letting it bounce and then doing various things - either ways to catch it (one handed, two handed etc) or jumping over it. I think there was a hierarchy of what actions to take but I can't remember now what the various actions were!

My favourite current game (which I was taught by some children in London) is called Witches, Fairies and Giants.   There are two teams, either end of a space. They have a time to confer (regulated by some kind of referee) and to decide if they will be Witches, Fairies or Giants. Witches have to move forward going "cackle, cackle, cackle", Fairies have to say "twinkle, twinkle" and Giants go "stomp, stomp".   The rule is that Witches catch Fairies, Giants catch Witches and Fairies catch Giants, so once it's clear what each team is doing it becomes a catch game, and prisoners become members of the capturing team.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: s&r
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 06:09 PM

We played a lot of 'snobs' (jacks, fivestones) in Nottingham Ca 1950. There was a progression of throwing picking and catching tricks from one to nine: after nine, a harder set followed called 'French ones, twos etc. If you succeeded in completing the Frenchies, you progressed to the 'Carltons' from one to nine.

I once knew someone who claimed to have completed the Carlton nines.

Stu

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 06:38 PM

OK, here's another violent game I remember playing around the same age (13-16 yrs). I think it was based on the innocent little kids' game called "A Tisket, A Tasket". We played this in boy scouts, with the supervision and approval of the adults Scoutmaster, I might add.
In this game, everyone stood in a circle facing inward, with hands behind their backs. The scoutmaster selected someone from the ring, and placed a belt in his hands. This person, the Belter I suppose he'd be called, prowled slowly around the outside of the ring, until he would suddenly place the belt in your hands. He would then run around the circle counter-clockwise while you chased him, beating the hell out of him with the belt. You kept this up until he reached the space you had vacated, at which point you became the belter.
I tried to onlygive the belt to kids who had asthma or were very small, etc, however I can remember Steve Klinglesmith who was about 5 ft 10 and weighed 180 or so, stepping back to wrestle the belt from my grasp, and then me having to run like I had the Devil behind me around the circle.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Viracocha
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 06:46 AM

THAT was 'a Tisket a Tasket'? We always called it (allbeit a FAR milder version) "the keys game". Someone sat in the middle, curled up (or eyes closed), and they had keys beside them. Someone else had to creep up silently, quietly lift the keys and tiptoe all the way around the circle. Of course, as soon as the 'sleeper' realised the keys were gone, it was no longer tiptoing. If you caught them, you could remain the sleeper; if not, they must become the sleeper. Or was it the other way round...?   Needless to say, it required too much silence to play in the playground.

It's a bit like 'Duck Duck Goose', too.

Tabster, your information is very interesting, thanks - Fainite and Failance might have the same stem. Though I can't imagine where 'cree' comes from. And thanks to Guest,Terry McDonald, too. And I've never heard of anything like "Witches Fairies and Giants", but I have heard of jacks. Though we never played it, sadly.

-Viracocha

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 08:12 AM

We played Jacks too & also marbles.

Loads've varieties've marbles games.

Hopscotch was another favourite, also skipping

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: GUEST,Terry McDonald
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 08:51 AM

We called 'jacks' 'dibs' - five little cubes that you'd catch between the fingers with the back of your hand turned upwards. I was at the local grammar school in the early fifties and playing 'dibs' was one of the crazes that suddenly took off, lasted a few weeks (perhaps a couple of months) and then became old hat.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Anne Lister
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 03:33 PM

Yes, we played jacks, and marbles, and then there were the skipping games, the elastic games (elastic around the ankles of two people and an elaborate system of intertwining it and then jumping clear, although I never played this) and lots more chasing games, if only I could remember them. I was good at jacks, though.

Anne

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 08:28 AM

Following a query from Azizi, I got these extra bits for the 'Queenio coco game [my post 27th Aug 07 here:thread.cfm?threadid=123101&messages=37]

thus:




Queeny Old Co-Co, who쳌fs got the ball- e-oh?
See I haven쳌ft got it; see I haven쳌ft got it,
It isn쳌ft in my pocket
So Queeny Old Co-Co who쳌fs got the ball- e-oh?

Hand movements showing empty hands left and right alternately when saying, 쳌gSee I haven쳌ft got it.쳌h

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Kosmo
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 08:59 AM

We played tig, and then you had bagsie which was "safe" and then you had out which was when you joined the person who was "it" and had to help them tig people, out was usually when you'd been tigged a few times ... conjugate the verb to tig!
We also had "can't tig the butcher back" meaning if you've jsut tigged or tug someone they can't instantly tig you back and therefore must find someone else to tig, therefore it's a three or more person game. :)

We also had the old man on the hill game, where one of us would be the old man (or woman), then the rest of us would each have a number, and then we'd creep towards them (the "old man" would have his/her back facing us) and they'd count and turn on which ever number they liked, the person moving still would have to go back 10 paces. Anyway, say that person was number 5, the old man would turn back round and count to five (at any speed) and then turn again ... and it's the first one to tig the old man that wins.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: GUEST,GUEST, OldRugface
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 12:12 PM

In Nottinghamshire from at least the 1950's until at least the 1990's, when I heard my own children playing versions of the same game, "Tig" was referred to as "Dobby". There were diferent versions such as "Dobby off ground", where the person who was "on" couldn't "dob" you if your feet were off the ground. "Dobby Little-Man" meant you were protected if you crouched down before being "dobbed" etc. Various "Dips" were indeed used to decide who was "on". "Dip, dip, dip,
          my blue ship,
          sails on the water,
          like a cup and saucer,
          O - U - T spells out!"
Some "Dips" required a number being picked by the first child to be identified e.g.
   "Mrs. Ink fell down the sink,
    how many miles did she fall? (the child now identified choses a number, such as "five". The child "Dipping" now continues counting around the circle)
    "One, two, three, four, five and O-U-T spells out!"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 06:48 AM

Round our way, the 'dipping ' was similar, but for a contrived dip, the chant could be lengthened by the crafty to ensure a different outcome, as in

Dip, dip, dip, my blue ship,
sails on the water,like a cup and saucer,
O - U - T spells out, & out you are !"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 06:49 AM

Sorry, forgot to say the area was Boughton, Chester, Cheshire UK

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Sep 09 - 08:31 AM

For the record: jacks or dibs was called 'fivestones' in N London [Hendon] where I was at school.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 04:01 PM

I remember in the late '90s (when I was a kid) we would play Zombie Tag. When the person who was It would tag you, you had to walk around acting like a zombie, with your arms stretched out in front of you. The game ended when everyone was a zombie. Not sure if zombies could tag people.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: GUEST,ADalton
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 04:02 PM

Forgot to mention in my last post location was California.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Mysha
Date: 03 Apr 11 - 02:25 PM

Hi,

In Dutch, "tikkertje spelen", which is: play "tikkertje". "-tje" is the diminutive suffix, and "-er(d)" is the suffix for the actor, leaving for the action "tik" (as an imperative or 1st person). It might derive from English "tig", as that g doesn't exist in Dutch. It might also stem from "tikken" in the sense of "to tick", a short, noticeable touch, though for some reason in Dutch that's only from around 1600.

In Frisian "tikboartsje", with "boartsje" being "to play" (child's play, rather than theatre). It would not have come from English directly, as Frisian does have the same g as English, but it could have come by way of Dutch. Then again, it might have been in our language much longer: In old Frisian there's "tigta", to point out someone, in the sense of accusing or blaming them. Have we been trying to pass the blame around all this time?

Viracocha : It's always: who gets caught takes your place, otherwise the games unbalances.

Guest Anonymous : The Zombies could tag (over here), but they had to stay in character, meaning a single zombie could easily be evaded, but zombies teaming up would get more and more difficult. Probably something that was inspired by the Living Dead films.

Bye,
                                                                Mysha

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Apr 11 - 02:17 AM

Mysha,

In the parts of England I know, the game is "tick" (or even "ticky"), not "tig", so the connection to Dutch and Friesian may be closer than you think.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tag (the game)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Apr 11 - 05:16 AM

It was always 'tiggy' at Hendon County, 1943-44. A favourite was 'tiggy-off-the-ground', in which you could not be had if your feet were off the ground standing on a bench &c. There was also 'tiggy-green', where you had to touch something green to be exempt from being had. Boys wore shorts in those days; & members of the Boy Scouts would have green tabs hanging from the garter holding up the sock under the fold-over; it had to be agreed that running around leaning down & clutching these, apart from making yourself look absurd, did not count as a green refuge!

~Michael~