Kiddie Games

When I was a kid, we played all of the usual games. But sometimes we made up our own rules out of necessity or just because.

Take baseball, for instance. We never seemed to be able to round up enough kids to play a baseball game in someone's back yard. So we added certain "incentives". Usually, it went something like this:

"Your team can bat first."

"Well....I don't know. It's almost time for Officer Don's Clubhouse."

"OK...how 'bout you get four outs instead of three."

"Hmmmm...."

"Oh....come on! How 'bout you get four strikes to an out instead of three?"

"OK!............."

This usually worked for circumstances such as it was too hot outside, one team had one person less than the other, or the team you were on was crappy to begin with.

Then there were the "ghost men". Since usually each team might have only three players on it, you might be on base when it came your turn to bat. So what you had to do was call "ghost man" on whatever base you were on. If you got a hit, your ghost man automatically advanced to the next base. The downside was that you could never tag a ghost man out, because after all....he was a ghost man. (That rule really sucked.)

Monopoly

We loved playing Monopoly as kids....but the problem was that it took so long to play. One evening, my brothers and I started up a game. We set it up on our living room floor and began playing.

Well, before long, it came time for bed and we were no where NEAR finished with the game. So, we talked our mom into letting us leave the board out on the floor so we could pick up where we left off the next morning.

Off to bed we went. Did I mention that we had a little dog? Well, we did. Her name was Lady and she was housetrained.

However, for whatever reason she felt the need to "go" in the middle of the night after everyone had gone to bed. And she "went" right on Pennsylvania Railroad.

From that day forward, Pennsylvania Railroad became known as "Doo Doo Spot Railroad". I think the reason is fairly obvious.

And, if you were unfortunate enough to land on "Doo Doo Spot Railroad", you could buy it for $100 instead of the actual selling price of $200. After all, it was now considered to be distressed property.

Our Car Game

This one is loosely based on the car tag game.....very loosely!

OK....before I explain this one, let me just preface this one with a little bit of background. First off, I grew up in The South. (Note the capitalization.) Secondly, this was the 60's. Lastly, I grew up in an all white neighborhood and went to an all white school. (Do you sort of get where I'm going with this?)

The name of the game was "Gotcha!". My brothers and I kept our eyes peeled for people. The first rule was the people had to be black. The second rule was the minute you saw one, you held up your hand in a grabbing motion and whispered "Gotcha!". Whoever saw the person first was the one that got to claim "Gotcha!" Whoever had the most at the end of the trip, won. No prize involved....you just got bragging rights.

It wasn't the most politically correct game in the world, but let's face it. If you are a parent driving a nine year old, an eight year old, and a five year old on a two hour trip and they are contentedly playing a nice game of "Gotcha!" versus whining over who's on who's side, she's looking at me, asking if we are almost there every five minutes, make him stop kicking me.....I think that parent would gladly say "Hey kids. Why don't y'all play Gotcha for a little while."