Category Archives: Game

Game

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: Geologist
Residence: Grand Junction, CO
Performance Date: April 18, 2008
Primary Language: English

Original script/version:

Game:

“We call the game the Ammo Can game. What you do is, you take two old military ammunition cans, the rectangular box-like ones, and you set them 20 or 25 feet apart. Then you get a rope that’s about 30 feet long. Now one person stands on each of the ammo cans and each has an end of the rope. The point is to get the other person to fall off the ammo can. You have to be quick, by pulling and letting go, you can cause the other person of fall off and its really funny. “

“I became a river guide when I was 20, back in 1967. I’ve learned all sorts of things from other river guides and river runners. The whole community is really pretty close. I probably learned this game 25 years ago from another guide. I used to play this game all the time. When I would take big groups of 17-25 down the [Grand] Canyon, while the guides were setting up tents and cooking food, the guests would be down on the beach with a couple ammo boxes and some rope. It sounds easier than it is. When you get those ammo boxes set up in sand, they are already pretty unstable. It was popular because it was really quick and easy to set up, and everyone could play. You’d have 12 year olds playing adults, guys verses girls. Its really just a good group game.”

I actually played this game a little bit a few years ago. It is definitely a game that originated from the supplies on hand. When on a week long or multiple week long river trip, you don’t have the room to pack lots of games to entertain people. You do however have a lot of air-tight ammunition cans and a lot of rope. The neat thing about this game is as you raft passed other camp sites on a river, you can see other groups playing this game, sometimes with minor variations. A few times there have been drinking rules involved.

This game is also fitting for the rafting culture because it tends to be a more competitive crowd. There is also an element of outsmarting your opponent involved. Rafters tend to be every egotistical and think they are always the smartest. So while this game is not only a duel of strength and balance, but also a battle of wits.

Game – Colorado

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: Geologist
Residence: Grand Junction, CO
Performance Date: April 18, 2008
Primary Language: English

Game:

The Rope Game.

Rope game. For the game, you need two 4-5 foot pieces of rope and two people.  First, you tie rope around the wrists of player one.  Rope should not be too tight on the wrist.  Then, tie rope to wrist of player #2 and then pass the rope through the arms of player #1 before tying to player #2’s other wrist.  Object is to get separated without removing the rope from the wrists.

To simplify the instructions, one person makes a big O with their arms. Then the second person makes another O, interlocked with the first person. Then both players have their wrists tied. Then they try and get separated without untying each other.

Peter says, “Like the Ammo box game, this is another game I learned from other commercial river guides in the 1970’s while guiding trips through the Grand Canyon. It was popular once again because of its quick, easy set up and minimal supplies needed. I don’t actually remember how to get untangled, I’m sure I could figure it out if I played around with it.”

This game is another example of the culture that has developed around the sport of white water rafting. Although the sport has changed quickly in the last several years, it has a long and colorful past on such rivers as the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, or the Snake River in Idaho.

This game would be played as camp was being set up or as post-dinner entertainment. Rafting is a very social sport and any activity that gets multiple people involved is usually popular.

Hand-Clapping Game/Rhyme

Nationality: British, Scottish
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cleveland, OH
Primary Language: English

Miss Suzie had a steamboat/?The steamboat had a bell (ding ding!)/?Miss Suzie went to heaven/?The steamboat went to/?Hello operator,?Please give me number nine/?If you disconnect me?I’ll kick you from/?Behind the refrigerator there was a piece of glass/?Miss Suzie sat upon it and cut her little/?Ask me no more questions/?Tell me no more lies/?The boys are in the bathroom zipping up their/?Flies are in the meadow/?The bees are in the park/?Miss Suzie and her boyfriend are kissing in the/ D-A-R-K, D-A-R-K, DARK DARK DARK/ Dark is like a movie/?A movie’s like a show/?A show is like a TV screen/?And that is all I know!

Sarah said that she would sing the “Miss Suzie” song when she was younger while playing a hand-clapping game.  She said she would do it for fun and would play the game with other girls her age during recess.  Although the clapping itself was fun, Sarah told me that the main reason she enjoyed playing the game was the play on words in the lyrics.  As a little kid, she said that she felt sneaky and cool when she would almost say the word “ass” but instead actually would say “ask”.  Also, Sarah noted that even though she did not actually use any cuss words, she would try to avoid singing the song in front of adults because she did not want to get in trouble.  However, whenever older kids were around, Sarah said she would try to play with them because she wanted to be cool and sing the song with them.  Once Sarah graduated to middle school, she stopped playing the game but to this day still remembers all of the words to the “Miss Suzie” song because she used to sing it so much as a kid.

The “Miss Suzie” song clearly seems to be a way for younger children to experiment with more “mature” concepts like intimate relationships and faux-vulgarity of words that sound like cuss words.  Technically they are not saying anything inappropriate, but they come very close, which emphasizes how immature singing the song is, since genuinely mature people would not sing such lyrics.  The childish nature of the song is further illustrated by its simple rhyme scheme and use of repetitively spelling out words.

Sarah said she liked to sing the song when older kids were present, thus showing how the song was used as a method of being accepted by others in the community.  For Sarah, being deemed “cool” by older kids was something desirable, and she felt that the play on words in the song would help her achieve a higher social status.  Her position within her group of friends was very important to Sarah as a child because it helped her form her identity and establish herself as a member of a certain group of people.  As Sarah grew up, though, she no longer needed to rely on acting cool via hand-clapping songs in order to make friends and eventually stopped signing those types of songs.  Even so, the song is such a memorable part of her childhood that even today she can recite the words.

I remember singing this song when I was younger, and like Sarah, I felt cool to almost say cuss words and be able to get away with it.  Most importantly, I remember this song made me feel like a part of a special group, since only certain people knew the rhyme and the clapping game that went with it.  The song contributed to the formation of my identity in elementary school and helped connect me with others that could sing the song with me.  Also similar to Sarah, as I grew up, I found other ways to form bonds with people (and I also realized that it was not very cool to sing clapping game songs) so I abandoned the practice of playing these games.

Game – Clermont, California

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Claremont, CA
Performance Date: April 19, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: German

Leg Wrestling Game

Objective: For fun or to determine winner by who has stronger legs.

Play: two participants lay down on floor facing opposite directions of each other. The participants count to three then raise the leg that is closest to their opponent and lock legs.  The person who is able to flip outwards with their opponent’s leg locked is declared the winner.

Beginning position:

The Struggle:

The Win:

The informant normally did this when she was younger, age six to about age ten.  The game was played with her friends during Physical Education for fun when she attended school in Pasadena, California.  She said that it was a game just for fun when the kids wanted to goof off in P.E. and not do what they were told.

Although the informant said the game was just for fun, I think this game is similar to something like arm wrestling or rock paper scissors that could be used to determine seniority a separate game, chores, etc.  I think mostly kids do it because it’s encompassed by a physical playfulness that is common especially among children, but becomes less acceptable later in life.

Game – Claremont, California

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Claremont, CA
Performance Date: April 19, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: German

Drinking game: Silent Football

This drinking game is typically played with rum.  Participants sit in circle and choose a Mr. Commissioner who acts like the leader in the game.  First, everyone participating gives themselves ridiculous names.  The game progresses in rounds and at the beginning of every round, all players take a shot.  Mr. Commissioner gets the first move, and then sends his move to someone else in the circle.  Play continues by knee slaps around the circle.  The number of knee slaps determines where play lands and who makes the next move.  For example, on your turn if you slap your knees three times, then clap, play passes three people to your left around the circle.  Players cannot respond to anything going on outside of the circle.  No one in the game is allowed to speak without permission from Mr. Commissioner.  The hardest part of the games is not talking.  If anyone talks out of turn Mr. Commissioner can make them do whatever he/she wants them to do.  This can vary from taking a shot to running around outside half-clothed.  Mr. Commissioner decides when new rounds start.

This game is played when alcohol is available and several people are present, typically played by people of high school or college age.  The informant says the game is just for fun and that the involvement of alcohol makes the simplest things, like counting and clapping/slapping coordination difficult, which proves to be quite comical.

I think this game plays off the fact that people’s inhibitions go down when they are drunk.  What makes this game fun is the fact that it gets so confusing and becomes hard to talk.  In addition, someone is more likely to carry out some crazy punishment when drunk because their inhibitions are down.  This displays the novelty of alcohol for young Americans and how it is used as a tool for fun.  It also shows how alcohol is perceived as an essential element of socializing and bonding within a group of young people, while the dangers of abuse are not really acknowledged.