Before the days of Farmville, Webkinz and Candy Crush, kids actually played outside. I would say anyone born after the year 2000 doesn't know what it's like to break a sweat throwing a ball at someone, or trying to keep the sun out of your eyes in sudden death or extra baseball innings, or trying to catch a lightening bug for that matter.
Ask a kid to go run through sprinklers today, and you'll probably get a reaction like this:
actually, no.. you probably wouldn't. kids aren't that kind today. they are more like:
You know that look... the
"I hate you, get out of my face, where's my cell phone I need to snapchat with my BFF!" look.
Let's take this time to remember some of the fantastic games we used to play OUTSIDE in the 90's as kids.
1.
SPUD.!
S-P-U-D-PERIOD-EXCLAMATION POINT! By far one of the dumbest games that I've ever played.
Does anyone remember this, or did my brothers and his friends make this up? Every player gets a number and crowds around the person who is “it” for that round. Then “It” then tosses a ball (like a kickball or soccer ball) straight up and the other players run away. As the ball reaches the top of its toss, “it” calls out the number of one of the other players and then runs away also. The player whose number was called must run back and catch the ball (or chase after it if it is bouncing around). Once that person has the ball, they yell, “Spud!” Then everyone else must freeze. The person with the ball must try to hit one of the players with the ball. If they do, that new person gets a letter (first S, then P, then U, then D) and is now “it.” If they miss, the person who threw the ball is “it” for the next round.
2.
Mother May I?
Another dumb one, but that didn't stop me from playing it. There was a "mother", and "children". The mother would stand at the top (of the driveway in my case) and the children would stand about 25 feet away. the children would ask "Mother may I take.....3 SKIPS!" and she would either say yes or no. She would choose another child and the child could then ask, "Mother may I take 10 giant steps". Chances are she'd say no. You wouldn't want to be too greedy!!
3.
Red light, Green light.
one- two- three! this was ALWAYS fun. the Stop light (a child lol) would yell "Green light!" and you had the chance to run up to the stop light but you had to be careful, because at any moment they could yell "Red light!" and if you were caught moving, you were OUT! The person to reach the stop light first would then be the next to call out Red Light/Green Light.
4.
Miss Mary Mack.
Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack, All dressed in black, black,
black, With silver buttons, buttons, buttons, All down her back, back,
back. She asked her mother, mother,
mother, For 50 cents, cents, cents, To see the elephants, elephants, elephants,
Jump over the fence, fence, fence. They jumped so high, high, high They reached
the sky, sky, sky And they didn't come back, back, back 'Til the 4th of July,
ly, ly!
Bahahahahaha oh my god. seriously? this was accompanied by a really awesome hand clapping routine that I couldn't do today if I tried my hardest.
5.
BASEBALL.
You know this game. Tennis ball, metal bat, and mailboxes and puddles that served as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base. This was always so fun. But I recall how badly I sucked at hitting the ball, so I never really enjoyed it all that much. And playing outfield in the court was a time to gossip about when me and my friend were meeting for the Silly Sisters Club next.
5a.
Homerun Derby
5b.
Run the Bases
6.
Pretend Clubs.
Not the kind you dance in. The kind you make up binders for, membership cards, and have weekly meetings in. Oh yes, we had quite a few, me and Colleen. The Silly Sisters Club (SSC) met once a week in the cave between her house and the neighbors. We even voted one time if this girl could be in our 2-person club. Even though she was considerably younger and brought no value to the club, we let her in anyway.
7.
Running through sprinklers.
There is no explanation for this. Doing a kartwheel through the sprinkler was by far the best thing about summer. And Freeze pops.
8.
Freeze Tag.
Grab your neighborhood kids and gather in a big group. Count to three and hope to god you aren't the last person to say "NOT IT!" If you are, you are "it", meaning you are the one who has to run around (getting tired very quickly!) and tag people. If you are tagged, you must freeze in the position you were tagged in, until a friend comes and untags you
by crawling underneath your legs. HAHA.
9.
Simon Says.
Late 90's kids might think I am referring to SIMON, the electronic memory, light up game... but I'm not. What I am talking about however is, "Simon says 'Follow Lauren's Blog!'", at this time, it would be wise of you to follow along. If not, you are out. Simon says "stand on one foot while patting your head and rubbing your belly!". Did you do it? Oh good!
10.
HIDE AND SEEK.
Handsdown the BEST game of the summer. It's just starting to get dark, let's go. You rush through your dinner so you don't miss out. Usually a 730pm start time would be involved. Boundaries would be Mr. Smiths driveway to Mrs. Jane Doe's and everything in between. Home base would be the giant flag pole on Curly Sue's front lawn. Seeker would count to 100. Hiders-run for your life. I've found from personal experience that great hiding spots would be inside garbage cans (that were empty of course!!), underneath parked cars, inside the baby play house, inside the woods in some private area, and obviously somewhere close to the home base! This game could go on for hours. And no one would ever get sick of it.
Honorable Mention: Capture the Flag & SkipIt
How I miss those days!
