Category Archives: Game

Riddle

Nationality: German
Age: 54
Occupation: NICU Nurse
Residence: Stevenson Ranch, CA
Performance Date: Sometime in 2000
Primary Language: English

Doodle riddle, Riddle doodle…A Droodle!

The above shape was set before me by my mother as a challenge. She told me to draw the picture without going back over my lines and without picking my pen up off the paper. At first the object appears simple to draw but can actually be quite challenging. My mother knows quite a few of these droodles but for some reason, this is one she likes in particular. The point of droodles is simply to test ones skill and creativity, a fun game that works as a practical riddle. It still involves thought but one must think outside the box in order to complete most droodles.

I think droodles are fun and they can even function in another way. Sometimes droodles appear as a picture and instead of having to draw it, a person may just be challenged to figure out what the image is. Most often, the answer is something far-fetched and meant to make the person laugh. In essence, droodles really are just riddles put in picture form, for they can be tricky and the degree of difficulty depends on the creativity of the artist. Mostly though, the answer can be however a person interprets it, which makes them even more enjoyable, because there can always be more than one answer. As a matter of fact, the more silly and crazy the interpretation, the better the droodle becomes.

Tongue Twister

Nationality: German
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Pennelleville, NY
Performance Date: During youth
Primary Language: German

Tongue Twister

“Excited executioner exercising his excellent excising powers excessively.”

Whenever I would visit my Grandparents’ house, I would make sure to spend time with my Grandpa because he always had something interesting to tell me. Sometimes it would be a funny joke, a tough riddle, or my favorite: tongue twisters. Although I only knew my Grandpa for a short time, he died in 1996; I talk about him with my Mom from time to time because she of course remembers his knowledge of interesting verbal lore. We agree that of all his tongue twisters, the one above is probably the hardest to say. This is probably because it uses an unusual letter in the alphabet, the letter “X,” which is rarely spoken in colloquial language and therefore somewhat foreign to the mouth, especially is such a continuous string. Even when said slowly, the mouth stumbles over the “X” and “S” sounds, which are so similar that it only makes the sentence even more difficult to pronounce.

Tongue twisters do not really appeal to me anymore though, but as a kid, I loved the challenge of trying to ramble off a complex tongue as fast as possible. I believe tongue twisters mostly appeal to young kids because they turn them into games, chants, or even playground mantras.

Catch Riddle

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Barbara, CA
Performance Date: March 25, 2008
Primary Language: English

Instructions in performing the Catch Riddle titled “Stop & Pots”:

  • Subject 1 asks Subject 2 to do two things
    • When Subject 1 says “stop”, Subject 2 must spell out “S-T-O-P” out loud
    • When Subject 1 says “pots”, Subject 2 must spell out “P-O-T-S” our loud
  • Subject 1 randomly alternates between saying stop and pots, nearly ten times.  Throughout this time, Subject 2 is constantly spelling the two words repeatedly.
  • Finally, Subject 1 asks Subject 2, “What do you do at a green light?”
    • Subject 2’s tendency is to say, “stop” even though that is the wrong answer, thereby being the catch riddle.

Eric, now a student in Santa Barbara, “learned this catch riddle in elementary

school when another boy pulled the catch riddle on me [him].  I fell for the catch riddle and actually said stop.  Most people actually fall for it.  I tried it out on my family when I first found out about it, and everyone except my mom fell for it.  The funny thing is that I haven’t forgotten the riddle and have actually used it as I have gotten older.  And still, even when people aren’t in elementary school and are more intelligent they still fall for the catch.  Anytime I say the riddle it brings back vivid memories of when I actually first heard it on the blacktops of my school where we played basketball at recess.”

When I first asked Eric if he knew of any forms of folklore, specifically jokes and riddles, he responded by beginning the process of this catch riddle.  I fell for it myself and then he went into detail about how and when he learned it.  It seems appropriate that these catch riddles would spread throughout elementary schools because kids find them extremely fascinating.  However, I am not certain that most originate at elementary schools.  One theory I have is that most originate amongst older children, anywhere from middle school to high school students, and they proceed to try out the catch riddles on their younger siblings.  Then, the younger siblings find the catch riddles amazing and cool, only to spread them across elementary schools.  This catch riddle seems appropriate to say to people of all ages, which isn’t always the case.

Game – Korean

Nationality: Korean
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 02, 2008
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Korean Jacks – Gongi

“This is how you play Gongi, which means Korean Jacks.  The game contains five very small plastic cubes.  Each player alternates turns and goes as follows: you throw the five jacks out of your hand and then grab one jack, throw it in the air, and pick up another jack.  You then proceed to throw both jacks up and collect another jack from the ground.  Keep doing this until all five are picked up.  Then throw them down on the floor again, and pick them up in sets of two’s.  Repeat and then do sets of three’s, four’s, and then all five.  You cannot touch other jacks when scooping up particular jacks.  If you do, then it is the next person’s turn.  If you drop any of the jacks in the air then it is the next player’s turn.  When you go through a complete series you receive a point and can play up to whatever you chose.”

“I learned this game back when I lived in Korea.  It was popular amongst children of all ages, ranging from 6 year olds to teenagers.  When I moved to the United States in Middle School, I brought the game over and several of my Korean friends from the States knew the game, too.  We played the game during nutrition and lunch at school and it actually became very popular amongst students.  Gongi pieces could be purchased in Korea Town in Los Angeles.  This game reminds me of my childhood growing up in Korea, and although I stopped playing it as I got older, every now and then I play by myself to get rid of stress.”

I sat down and played a game of Gongi with Brian and it resembles American Jacks somewhat.  It is interesting how two games can resemble each other when they are coming from two completely different countries.  Many childhood games serve as memories of youth to those who are too old to play them; however, the reason these games live on is because older adults pass them down to their children and even older children pass games down to younger children.  This is how other folk games such as Tic-Tac-Toe, American Jacks, and in this case Korean Jacks have lived on throughout the years.

Game

Nationality: African-American
Age: 77
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Marion, OH
Performance Date: March 25, 2008
Primary Language: English

Children’s Game: My Father Owns a Grocery Store

Anne learned this game from her older sister when she was about ten years old. The method of this game goes as follows:

Person #1: My father owns a grocery store and in it he sells __. Person #1 will say the first letter of an item that is found in a grocery store

Person #2 will first say “and in it he sells…” and then they would have to guess what the item is that the person #1 is thinking of based off of the first letter Person #1 gave them. Person #1 is allowed to give hints if person #2 asks for a hint. Person #2 gets five tries to guess the correct grocery item. If they guess correctly they will become the designated person to lead the game. If they lose, person #1 gets another turn to lead the game. This game can be played with 2 or more people. Anne says that the more people that participate in the game, the more fun the game becomes.

Example:

Person #1: My father owns a grocery store and in it he sells “A”.

Person #2: and in it he sells apples?

Person #1: No

Person #2: and in it he sells apricots?

Person #1: Yes

Person #2: My father owns a grocery store and it he sells…

Anne said this children’s game is usually played in cars during long road trips, when an adult needs to keep a bored child busy, or with fellow friends and family at family get-togethers.

Anne, my grandmother, has passed this game down to her children and her grandchildren. This game holds sentimental value to me because I of the memories that go along with playing this game. The long road trip to the Grand Canyon or the nights spent around laughing while playing this game at the dinner table after a Sunday dinner are some of the few memories that I share when I remember playing this game. This shows that the deeper context of this type of folklore lies beneath the superficial framework of the game; it is more so the memories and anecdotes that accompanies childhood games that make them so important to my culture.