Tag Archives: games

Pondy

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: United States
Performance Date: March 20th
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

The informant: “I’d always play pondy in the winter, I never played hockey though”

Background:

The informant grew up in a small, midwestern town on the Great Lakes where winters were always below freezing and lakes were of easy access. The informant’s high school also had a very competitive hockey team. Hockey was ingrained into the town as something all kids would play for at least a year, according to the informant.

Context:

The informant was telling me about her hobbies she had when she was younger.  I thought she played hockey, but the prior quote is how she corrected me.

Thoughts:

This demonstrates a piece of folk speech that has been created to differentiate one activity. Outdoor hockey is exclusively known as pondy while indoor, rink hockey is just hockey. From context clues, this word is easy enough to understand which lends itself to being used by young kids out playing games. Pondy also implies a sort of casual play to the game instead of competitive hockey. It is interesting to see the same sport be defined by its location through a colloquial expression.

Pikachu

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Residence: California
Performance Date: 3-27-2020
Primary Language: English

Background: Informant is a 22 year old American who has lived in California his whole life.

Main Piece:

Interviewer: Do you remember any games you played during your childhood?

Informant: I remember a hand game I use to play with my sister. It was called Pikachu.

Interviewer: How do you play pikachu?

Informant: Pikachu is considered a hand game that goes along with a little song. You play with another person and you hold one of your hands against each other and the other hand would touch above and below, then side to side. Then you would play rock paper scissors and whoever won would pinch your cheek. You would do the song again and play rock paper scissors again. If the same person pinched both cheeks you get to slap them at the end. The song “Pikachu going up, going down. Pikachu going side to side” At the end of the pinching and slapping your cheeks would be red making you look similar to Pikachu.

Context: Interview with a family member, asking them about childhood games they remember

Thoughts: Pikachu sounds like a fun game. I like the fact that it incorporates more than one game, because it has rock paper scissors as well but the added twist of pinching and slapping seems mischievous enough for a children’s game.

Slide

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Residence: California
Performance Date: 3-27-2020
Primary Language: English

Background: Informant is a 22 year old male who has lived in California his whole life.

Main Piece:

Interviewer: Did you play any hand games that were not based off of a musical riddle?

Informant: Yes, I remember playing a hand game called Slide. Well at least thats what we called it in school.

Interviewer: How do you play slide?

Informant: Slide is a game where you slide hands with whoever your playing with and then you clap, then clap your left hand to their right and and then your right hand to their left hand. You then clap again and then using your backsides of your hands clap against the backsides of their hands. You also count when you clap, so if you are at 2 then you clap each hand twice before clapping the backsides. You also clap the backsides the same amount of times as the number you’ve counted up to. It seems really easy but when you go at a fast pace it gets really hard.

Interviewer: How do you win?

Informant: Whoever messes up first loses.

Context: Interview with a family member, asking him about any childhood games he played with friends or family.

Thoughts: It is interesting to see how clapping can be such a fun game for kids. It is funny that it is also competitive. I think the game Slide has a proper name. I find it fascinating that the game requires you to multi-task, counting and clapping. Kids get really creative with games.

Los Encantados

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 77
Occupation: none
Residence: Los Angeles and Mexico City
Performance Date: April 24, 2020
Primary Language: Spanish

Main piece: 

The following was transcribed from a conversation between the informant and interviewer. 

Informant: Well a popular game we played back then… I don’t know if you guys play this since everyone is on a screen now but back then we played outside. Have you heard of los encantados?

Interviewer: Oh yes that’s still a thing. I played with my cousins and with my sister in Mexico. 

Informant; Oh that’s good. So you know how it works. Do you want me to still tell you? 

Interviewer: Yeah I want to hear it from you. Can you describe how it’s played? 

Informant: Yeah of course. So you start in a circle and everyone puts their toes in and you do the little song to randomly pick the person who’s it. The other people have one minute to hide and after that minute… the person counting… she ends up or he… he or she starts searching for the others. The person who’s it must touch the person hiding and if they do then they freeze them. So they can’t move until someone else touches them. And the game ends when all the hiders are frozen or tagged. 

Background: My informant here was my grandma who’s staying with us during COVID-19. She was born in Guadalajara, Mexico but lives in the U.S. with us for the most part. She says that she did not have a lot of time to play outside because her parents wouldn’t let her out and would keep her busy with house chores, but that los encantados is one of the few games that she did play, especially with her 2 sisters. She’s known this game since she was a teen and encourages us to play outside like this game requires. She does not like that very young kids are on screens all the time. 

Context: On the last day I asked my grandma for any games in particular that she remembers from when she was young. Or a game that is played a lot in Mexico. And she said that she did not know of games but then she remembered los encantados. She proceeded with the game rules while outside. 

Thoughts: I find it curious that this game, which I think is the Spanish version of “freeze tag” still exists because it has been around for a long time. Times change and less and less young kids and teens do outside activities. Most of the time, they find some kind of electronic device to entertain themselves but I loved this game when I was younger. And I still see my younger cousins playing it so I feel like it’s a traditional and simple game that has withstood technological innovation. I find it pretty cool that it’s still known and people still play it. 

Pompyang: A Filipino Children’s Game

Main Piece: Pompyang happens when you want to choose someone to be “it” for a game like tag or when we have to choose someone to do chores. It is a quick and easy game for choosing someone. First, everyone puts their hands in the middle after making a circle. On one person’s signal, everyone lifts their hands and positions their hands either facing palms up or down. The odd ones out are considered safe until you get down to three people then it is repeated. Once there are three people, the odd one out of those three is considered the loser.

Context: The informant lived the majority of her life in the Philippines. She then immigrated to the United States when she was 24. She learned about the game when she was in grade school in the Philippines.

Thoughts: I already knew about this game but I think it’s a really simple way to settle debates. Because it’s so simple, it’s a way to settle disputes for kids or even adults. By only giving two options it makes the game much simpler but the only time when it becomes remotely complicated is when there are an even amount of people and there are an even amount of upward and downward palms.