Tag Archives: Game

Trial game riddle – Trains

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 2/14/2023
Primary Language: English

D is 19 years old, she’s a college student. She heard a lot of trail games and riddles, and shared one that she learned on a camping trip in high school in California. She says that only people from California have ever recognized it. 

“There’s a riddle called trains. The riddle has one person who’s the teller, usually the teller knows the riddle and no one else knows it. Someone says “I’m going to tell you guys about a bunch of trains going to different places, and you have to figure out the pattern.” You have the guess the answer. If I were to say this riddle, I’d say “There’s uhh one train in Los Angeles, zero in San Francisco, there’s like uhh… uhh you could say there’s two trains in Utah. There’s uhh one train in Florida” and it keeps going like that. The answer to the riddle is that every time you say “uhh” in your leadup to the state, that’s how many trains there are.”

I recognized a familiar riddle that I had learned as a child in California, another one that leads you on a long confusing journey while people try to keep up with a pattern, but the answer ends up being something stupid. The informant said that people tried to think about letters or vowels, but the real answer is “just so stupid.” When it comes to riddles, some people want to solve them to see smart, especially once you get a bit older. You want to seem smarter than the kids who normally hear this riddle, so people think of really complex potential answers. In the end though, the answer is just something silly. People sometimes take themselves too seriously when playing silly games and riddles, trying to prove that they are smart and capable of figuring it out easily. Often it’s little kids who are able to get the answer because they’re not overthinking it. Riddles like this encourage people to get back to their childish roots.

Elementary School Rhyme 

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 2/23/2023
Primary Language: English

M is a 19 year old college student. She grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and shares a rhyme she learned in elementary school when she was in the cafeteria at lunch.

“Like elementary school on the playground you and your friends would draw a little teddy bear on one hand and scribble on the other and you’d say “This is Teddy. Teddy says hi” then you’d SMACK the other hand and say “this is Teddy when a car goes by.””

I’ve heard the same rhyme, except in California we drew a stick figure and would say “This is Steve.” This and other childhood games actually reveals a morbid fascination kids seemed to have. A lot of childhood rhymes are actually very violent in nature and play on really dark humor. I think this may be a way for kids to feel like they’re rebelling, to feel more mature. They joke about taboo things that their parents and teachers might not like them talking about because it makes them feel more adult. Maybe it also helps them make light of real topics that are actually quite frightening for children. They know death is a real thing, but they don’t want to think about it, so they make light of it.

Hand Slap Game

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Barbara, California, United States
Performance Date: 2-16-2023
Primary Language: English
Language: spanish

Text:

Two people face each other. Their hands are connected palms together with fingers together and thumbs upward. They extend their arms to connect their middle fingertips together lightly.  (see image below)

One person will try to take one of their hands away from the other and slap their partner’s hand. The partner with try to pull their hands away before they can be hit. 

(Though the informant assigned no such roles, I will refer to the partner aiming to slap as the offensive partner and the partner pulling back as the defending partner for ease of communication.)

If the defensive partner succeeds in avoiding the hit, both players will reset their hands to the starting position and the offensive partner will try again to hit the hand. This repeats until the offensive partner wins. If the offensive partner succeeds in hitting their partner’s hand they win, and the defensive partner loses. The original hand position is taken up again and this time the partner who lost will take on the offensive role (trying to slap their partner’s hand before they pull away.) and the partner who won will take up the defensive role (trying to pull away). Play proceeds like this for as long as is desired.

Context:

The informant learned this game at a young age from her father who is from Murcia, Spain.

Analysis:

This game reminds me of many other hand games primarily children will play. specifically, it reminded me of a very similar game I learned as a child. The game I know features the same goal of trying to slap the partner’s hands before they pull away, and also the same system for switching roles. The difference is the starting position. As I learned the game, the offensive partner would place their hands out palms up and the defender would lightly rest their hands over the partner’s hands palms down.

These hand games indicate resourcefulness among people and children especially. This game is a way to have fun without the need for any materials. it is also very quick to learn.

Quarters

Nationality: American
Age: 49
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: California
Performance Date: 2/18/23
Primary Language: English

Text: (the drinking game known as “quarters”).

Context: My informant learned the game “quarters” from the older members of his fraternity at UCI about 30 years ago. He and his fellow pledges played the game very often before social gatherings. In the game, players try to bounce a quarter off of a table and into a short glass of hard liquor; if a player succeeds, the next player must drink the contents of the glass. My informant now has passed the game onto younger generations of drinkers.

Analysis: The game of quarters hails from the ancient Greek game of “Kottabos,” in which players would toss sediment remaining in their wine glasses onto a plate in order to make other players drink. After years of evolution in European pubs, my informant played the modern game. The game stems from a tradition of drinking, which is also prevalent in the Greek Life system at universities in America. I interpret the game as a method by which one gets drunk quickly in a social setting, and it is more typical in pregames than in the main social event or afterparties.  

Tumbang Preso

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Residence: San Gabriel, California
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

M is 54, and grew up in Manila, Philippines, and currently resides in San Gabriel, California.

M described to me a game that was played among the children in his neighborhood called tumbang preso. The rules as he recalled them were, that someone “guards the can” while the other kids take turns ‘“trying to hit the can with their slipper.” And that the object of the game was the “knock down the can” and avoid getting tagged by the “can guardian.” This game was corroborated by M (50) who said that she also grew up playing the game. I asked them both why slippers were utilized specifically. M replied that it was the “only thing they had” and that it was easier to play games with household objects.

Upon further research, I learned that the game name, tumbang preso, is also known as Kick the Can. It has a lot of similarities in its rules and the way that it is structured, compared to other tag-based games, like capture the flag. I find it interesting that most countries have some sort of variation of tag, albeit with different items used, according to where the children grow up.