Ten Fingers

My friend Jillian, who I played basketball with high school, taught me the game ten fingers as we were riding a school bus to one of our basketball games.  We played with some of our teammates who were sitting near us on the bus.  Jillian said that everyone has to first hold out both hands with their fingers spread.  Then you go around in a circle saying, “I never…..” and complete the sentence with something that you have never done before.  Everyone playing the game listens to what that particular person says that they have never done and then they if they have done it before they put down a finger.  Once you lose all you fingers you’re out of the game.  The object of the game is to be the last person with fingers in tact or to have the most fingers left.  The game is similar to truth or dare in the sense that it the idea behind it is for people to be truthful and reveal things that they might not ordinarily tell others.

This game seems to be a variation of another game I learned about from a friend called the spoon game.  The spoon game is also documented in this folklore collection.  Please refer to Item 11 of this folklore collection for further analysis.