• 10 Ways Kids Entertained Themselves 30 Years Ago

    10 Ways Kids Entertained Themselves 30 Years Ago

    Kids these days have no clue how lucky they are... with so many toys, video games, TV shows they don't even have to leave their rooms to have fun. When we were kids we had Saturday morning cartoons, not 24/7 networks devoted to them, so the rest of the week we had to come up with our own entertainment. We didn't need Nintendo DSi to occupy our time... all we needed was our imaginations. We made up all kinds of games that were pretty fun and creative (although admittedly looking back some were a little dangerous). Here are 10 fun ways kids entertained themselves 30 years ago.

    Stickball

    Kids didn't need a baseball, gloves or any fancy equipment to enjoy their own version of America's favorite pastime. Stickball usually involved a broom handle, a rubber spaldeen or tennis ball and make-shift bases like manhole covers.

    Butts Up (aka Wall Ball)

    It's actually kind of obvious why no one really plays Butts Up anymore. Also called Fumble, Fireball, Wall Ball, or Red Bum, the game involves a tennis ball and a wall and a lot of aggression. If someone throws the ball and it hits the ground before it makes it to the wall or if someone fumbles the ball they get an out. Get four outs that spell "B-U-T-T" then you have to face the wall sticking your butt out until someone pegs you with the ball. Ouch.

    Skully (aka Caps)

    Skully, also known as skelly, skellzies, tops or caps, is a game that was especially popular in New York City from the 1950s through the 80s. A skully board, typically drawn on asphalt, consists of a large box with other boxes around the edges marked 1-12. In the center a 13 box is drawn with areas around it marked with skulls. Skully was played with bottle caps, but some kids weighed them down with clay or wax to get more distance. Starting off a player would flick their cap and try to land it in the box labeled 1. If successful they get to move on to 2, 3, 4 and so on. If a player misses their turn ends. However if a cap lands in a space around the 13th box they are trapped until another player hits their cap and frees them.

    Mother May I

    We can only imagine that Mother May I was invented as a conspiracy to teach kids manners. Children take turns asking the "mother" of the game if they can take so many steps forward, hoping to make it to the end of the race before the other children. The designated mother may say "Yes you may" or "No you may not but..." and make their own suggestions. Mother may suggest that you take giant steps, baby steps, frog leaps, crab walks or other moves... and of course you better do what mother says if you want to win.

    Red Rover

    It wasn't uncommon during recess to hear "Red Rover, Red Rover send Jimmy right over" on the playground. Red Rover has a few less common nick names like Octopus Tag, Bullrush and Forcing the City Gates, depending on where you grew up. But the rules are the same... two teams line up holding hands and call a player from the other team over. That person then has to run through the line to try to break the chain. If they fail they join that team. If not, they can chose to bring a player back to their team. Sounds like good clean fun, but some schools have banned this activity due to "clotheslining" causing neck injuries.

    Hot Hands (aka the Hand Slapping Game)

    If you have an older sibling then you probably hate this game. One player puts their hands palm down hovering over another player's hands so the hands are barely touching each other. The person whose hands are on the bottom has to try to slap the tops of the other players hands before they move them away. If the "slappee" can avoid being hit they switch places.

    Four Square

    Four Square was a great name because all you needed was chalk and at least 4 players. Four Squares were drawn on the ground and numbered and the object of the game is to move up to the highest ranking square. You move up by eliminating other players by getting them to hit the ball out of bounds on your serve. As each player is eliminated a new one can join the game at square 1.

    Hot Lava (aka The Floor is Made of Lava)

    Hot Lava is a game every kid seems to come to on their own as an excuse to jump all over their room. The idea is that the floor is made of lava so they have to run and jump from one piece of furniture to the next without touching the floor. It can also be played outside on a playground.

    Red Light Green Light

    Red Light Green Light is another "make it to the finish line" game that involves instruction. The person who is "it" yells out "Green Light" allowing players to move forward and "Red Light" forcing them to stop. Depending on who you play with you either have to skip a turn or start over if you're caught moving during a "red light."

    Kick the Can

    There's probably dozens of variations or names, but kick the can is a classic kids game. A combination of tag, hide and go seek and capture the flag, kick the can has a player who is "it", a jail and some kind of can or bucket. If a player is caught they have to go to "jail" but hope isn't lost. If another player can make it to the can and knock it over everyone in jail is set free.
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    More:  Outdoors | Games

    • Comments (14 Responses)

    1. mikeDecember 30th, 2009 at 9:10 pm

      Yup,
      I recall doing all of those things except for Hot Lava and Four Square. Skully was short-lived on our block in Brooklyn, but we did play it for one summer.

    2. KidCraveDecember 30th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

      I grew up in Brooklyn as well. I’d buy wax bottles filled with juice from the ice cream truck when he came around (they had lips too) and would use the wax to fill the bottle caps afterward.

      We also played stoop ball. Throwing a ball at the stoop attempting to hit the corner of a step to send the ball flying into the street.

      Good times!

      -Tim

    3. SimonJanuary 2nd, 2010 at 3:53 pm

      Hot Lava, Four Square, Red Rover Stick Ball :) . I remember playing all these games as a kid. It was always great fun, and i think still better than video games. We have broken many windows playing stick ball.

    4. Old DogJanuary 5th, 2010 at 12:21 am

      All great games… I might add some others we played in the early 70’s:

      Freeze Tag – One person is “it” and runs around the yard tagging people who have to freeze in the position they are tagged in. They can be “unfrozen” by being touched by one of the “non-its”.

      TV Tag – another tag variant we played where you could avoid being “it” but dropping to the ground and blurting out a TV show name before being tagged. If you panicked or named a show already used, you became “it”.

      Capture the Flag – I grew up in a neighborhood where there we played games of CTF with 20 kids or so over two or three streets… each team creates a base in their territory where they put their flag (usually a shop rag or bandana). Some of the team protects the base and the other part searches for the enemy base. If you were tagged in enemy territory, you were kept in their base and had to be freed by a tag from a teammate. Games would last for hours.

      We also used to play much more dangerous games… with dirt clods and metal trashcan lids. It’s amazing that no one lost an eye or got sued.

    5. HIPSTERS W/KIDSJanuary 7th, 2010 at 9:11 pm

      UM!!! What about Flash light tag? OR HopSCOTCH?? or Cowboys and Indians???

    6. NemsJanuary 18th, 2010 at 4:44 pm

      Tree tag! You were only safe from being tagged if you were touching the tree.

    7. Marvin8January 30th, 2010 at 2:43 pm

      Yeah, the bottom line is that no one ever DID lose an eye or sue anybody. If you got hurt, you sucked it up and either never played again or you got back on the horse. Capture the Flag was the best of the best games, involving speed, strategy, and teamwork. As for stickball, that was mostly a New York game. We in the midwest used bats, of course. Kick the can was before my time, and I think another NY game. I grew up in the 60’s. Tetherball was always great, as was hopscotch, but that was mostl a girlie game. 4 Square was awesome, as was Red Rover, but only with guys. I was fast, so I always broke thru. We would never even DREAM of clotheslining somebody in the neck, though. That would’ve ended the game with dirty looks from all the kids at whoever perpetrated it.

    8. Marvin8January 30th, 2010 at 2:45 pm

      Oh, and my dad bought some awesome bean-shooter hard plastic straws and a bag of bean for the kids one time. Lasted for all of 15 minutes before I shot my dad in the ass (it HURT), then heard mom screaming at him that he was NUTS for giving them to the kids. All the bean shooters were taken from dad within 15 minutes. Best 15 minutes of my childhood. :D

    9. CatherineFebruary 11th, 2010 at 10:57 pm

      Weird, I’m only 15, and I spent my childhood playing those games (Except for Skully). So much more fun that video games or T.V.! Makes me think of when I was small. It’s a shame they don’t play anymore. :/

    10. Robbie CMay 3rd, 2010 at 2:39 pm

      Growing up as a kid in El Paso during the late 60s and througout the 70s, we played a lot of the above mentioned games.

      Foursquare and Wallball were two of my favorites.

      It’s unforunate that today’s kids spend more time indoors playing video games or watching TV than they do playing outside, using their imagination, and playing with other kids. So many valuable life lessons (on how to behave as an adult) were learned on the playground. Kids today are truly missing out.

    11. NicoleMay 22nd, 2010 at 5:25 pm

      Kids played (most of) these games a lot less than thirty years ago. I’m 23 and played most of them, and I still see kids now playing a lot of them.

    12. MikeJune 4th, 2010 at 3:42 pm

      you forgot Buck-Buck. It was amazingly fun and violently fun.

      wikipedia rules…

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_buck

    13. youngAugust 16th, 2010 at 2:03 pm

      i’m tired of this old generation looking down on the new generation…when you guys were kids i’m sure you were still lucky enough to be able to do some of these things YOUR parents couldn’t do, and so on and so forth. it’s pointless and so played out at this point to bring up the whole “back in my day…” retort. not to mention, im 19 and played the majority of these games when i was younger. hell we played hot hands in the football locker room after practice, and kids my age still put together games of capture the flag.

    14. JonAugust 26th, 2010 at 3:51 pm

      We used to play Burn (Butts up) on the side of my grandparents house up the street. It was perfect because there were only two windows and they were high up…and the wall was huge. And to top it off the ground (grass) would always throw the ball around at different angles. It suuuucked getting burned!!!

      I’m 26 and besides Release (Capture the Flag) that’s the only game we played on the list…just really a tag variant of kick the can. We all had video games growing up and loved playing them…but we were always outside. Our parents MADE us go outside and play. We mostly rode bikes around the neighborhood looking for new jumps (some could have killed us!). Today, my parents make the grandkids play outside all the time…and they WANT to be outside because of it. When I eventually have kids, they’ll be outside playing…and when they’re done…they can come inside and play video games with me :)