Category Archives: Game

Kick The Can and Other Old Kids Games

Age: 74
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Oregon
Performance Date: 4/28/21
Primary Language: English

Intro

The following is a game called kick the can from my grandpa that played the game when he was a kid. My grandpa grew up in the northwest United States and went into the Navy when he was 18. He is now 74 years old. I was told about this game when asking about any possible stories that his family had when he was growing up, as he had lived an exciting life, doing many crazy things with his time. He now enjoys fishing and gold mining. I recorded him via phone call. This is a direct transcribed script of what was said in the story, with the various “umm’s” and “uhh’s” omitted.

The Game

“Oh we used to play kick the can all the time. There was rules for it. There was one person who was the can-master, you might say. And in order to be safe, there were another four or five guys and one who was the can-master, and the other four or five guys would go hide. And then the can-master had to go out and find these four or five guys. Well, if he was looking for one person and someone else came up and kicked the can then that guy was safe. And so he would set the can back up and he would go back out. And if he was able to find somebody then come back to the can and he kicked the can then that other guy would now be the can-master. We also would play stickball in the alley, we didn’t have baseball bats. We had some old baseballs though. 

There was a lot of kids in my neighborhood. We were all the generation after the war. And so most of the women got pregnant and had a lot of kids. So we had a lot of kids around there and we would play together. We had another game we would play and that, these alleys were like three blocks and they weren’t paved or anything. We would pull up the dirt clods and throw em at each other, we had wars. One of the rules was that we had to make sure that when you’re making the dirt balls, you had to make sure that there was no rocks or glass or anything like that. And so this one afternoon, we paired off, there must’ve been six or seven to a side, and we’d make all these dirt clumps and we’d rush at one another and throw them suckerrs at each other. There was this kid about my age, his name was [name], he rolled this dirt clod up and threw it at me and it hit me right in the head, whack, and right when it hit me I knew there was something in there. So I went running after him. I was gonna punch his lights out. I went running after him and got about five feet from him and blood started dripping down my forehead and I put my hand up to my forehead and there was blood. And I started running and yelling. I was like, ‘mom look at my head!’ And I had to go to the hospital and get stitches in my head. So we didn’t play that game that much anymore.”

Analysis

I always knew the game kick the can growing up and knew that people actually played it. But for me it was also just that game that parents always told their kids to go play but nobody actually knew what it was. Hearing my grandpa tell me that he played it as a kid was cool because it sounds like it was just a general game that kids around the country all knew how to play. I’m not sure how different or similar his rules of the game are to the rest of the world, but I would imagine that they aren’t too far off, the name of the game is like one of the only rules after all. 

The second half of the piece is not as much folk games as it is just things kids did outside back in the day. I find it interesting how much fun kids were able to have with so little stuff. I mean, they threw dirt around in the roads. Nowadays I can’t drive in my neighborhood without seeing a children at play sign. Where did all the fun of just making up your own games go?

Bloody Mary, but make it Jewish?

Nationality: United States of America
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/26/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Main Piece:

How did you learn about Bloody Mary?

“When I was in Hebrew school, a teacher told me that Mary was related to Jewish history. She was a Jewish figure that would haunt you, and the teacher was trying to connect it to Jewish curriculum. I was like ‘why are you trying to ruin this story’, like yes, I was genuinely afraid but that was so stupid (laughs).” 

How do you play Bloody Mary?

“You get into a bathroom, close the door, turn off the lights, look into a mirror, say bloody Mary 3 times, she’s supposed to appear and do something bad.”

Context/Background: 

My informant is my roommate. She was raised in Conservative Judaism and attended Hebrew School from elementary school through high school. This story was collected when we were talking about Judaism during dinner. 

Analysis: 

Many young children are taught a version of Bloody Mary. Various accounts can be seen in Alan Dundes’ article “Bloody Mary in the Mirror: A Ritual Reflection of Pre-Pubescent Anxiety.” In my own experiences, I’ve been told that Bloody Mary is a wife who got killed before her wedding or a woman who died in a bloody car crash. However, in the case of this specific account, the person teaching this game to my informant tried to alter the backstory so it would fit into her religious education. My informant’s Hebrew school teacher saw the value in this myth and its impact on children, so the teacher tried morph it to fit her agenda. My informant saw straight through this attempt, but still ended up fearing the figure, Bloody Mary.

Dundes, Alan. “Bloody Mary in the Mirror: A Ritual Reflection of Pre-Pubescent Anxiety.” Western Folklore, vol. 57, no. 2/3, 1998, pp. 119–135. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1500216.

Murder: The Game

Nationality: United States of America
Age: 56
Occupation: Microbiologist
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/25/2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

How do you play Murder?

“High school kids all over play murder, I think. It’s the one where you wink to kill people. We did this on speech and debate trips. There would be 30 of us stuck in a hotel room, and we would have a deck of cards and whoever got the jacks or something, they would be the murderer, and the way you would kill people is by winking at them, which would lead to some very dramatic death scenes. And you have to figure out who the murderer was, and the key was you had to wink at people without being caught. It gets easier towards the end.”

Context:

The informant is my father. He attended public school for his entire life. This information was collected during a family zoom call where we were checking in with each other.

Analysis:

This kind of game is always a big hit amongst kids who like to act and investigate. I have encountered many variations of this game.  Some involve shaking hands instead of winking, some involve voting people out, and some involve multiple set rounds with different rules. The one thing that is constant is that there is a murderer, and every person who dies must act out a very dramatic death. There is something enjoyable about playing a game that is based on taboo topics like murder and death. This game allows people to act out things that they would never do in real life, but enjoy doing in a fantasy setting.

Spanish Names

Nationality: United States of America
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/25/2021
Primary Language: English

What is Spanish Names?

“This game is full of cultural appropriation but here we go: You can only play it with a new person, and you say ‘hey, let’s play Spanish names,’ and someone is in charge and they assign everyone a Spanish name. And the new person, you name them ‘Arted,’ and the other people, you name ‘Maria’ or ‘Rosa’ and stuff like that. And then you go around and you say “Eif” and then your name, so the person names Arted says ‘Eif Arted’ which is like ‘I farted.’ And then you go around and say it louder and louder and faster and faster until the poor new kid is yelling ‘I farted.’ (laughs) It’s totally not real Spanish.”

Where did you play it?

“(laughs) Hebrew School! At our very PC synagogue.”

Context:

My informant is my twin sister. She is Jewish, attended Los Angeles public school, and is currently a USC student. She attended Hebrew school from third grade through high school. This information was collected during a family zoom call where we were checking in with each other.

Analysis:

Spanish Names is a game where there is an obvious in-group and out-group. There are those who have played the game before and understand the joke, and then there is the one person who has never played and is unknowingly going to end up as the butt of the joke. It plays into young children’s senses of bathroom humor through fart jokes, plus it humiliates a new person through a made-up Spanish word places between stereotypical Spanish names. The entire game is a set up to embarrass a single person, which brings a lot of joy to those who are in the know throughout the entire game.

Chopsticks: The Game

Nationality: United States of America
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/25/2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

How do you play?

“Ok, so each player put out their pointer finger on each hand, ok, wait I know this. So… hmmm wait… the goal of the game is to get your partner to have five fingers out on both hands. And then they lose. And the way you play is you stick out your pointer finger on each hand, and you tap one of your partner’s hands, and they have to add a-as many fingers as you currently have out to that hand.”

Do you have any special rules?

“Yes, so let’s say you have three fingers out on one hand and one on the other, and then you want to switch, you can hit your hands and make them two and two. You can transfer as many fingers as you want to your other hand. And even if your hand is out, you can, like, still redistribute fingers to it and bring it back in.”

Context:

The informant is my twin sister. She is Jewish and attended public school her entire life. This information was collected during a family zoom call where we were checking in with each other.

Analysis:

My informant’s account of Chopsticks’ rules was quite difficult to understand, which emphasizes that this game is best taught visually and learned through practice. Chopsticks is an engaging and competitive game that lets children exercise their mental math and strategy skills. It’s complicated enough to warrant fierce competition, but simple enough to master after only playing a few rounds. I even established social groups in elementary school through playing chopsticks and similar games.