What Games Did I Play As A Child?

What games did I play as a child?  Hide and Seek may be the first game I remember playing as I recall playing that quite often at school and at home.  

The above picture shows Cross Ridge School as it looked when I attended grades one through eight there from September 1951 - May 1959.  The school closed in 1959 after I finished eighth grade and this photo was taken as it is being repurposed as a Town Hall.  This building would become the meeting place for the county elected officials, for voting and the grounds would be a place for equipment storage.  But this view of the school is very familiar to me and allows me to mention games we played during our morning, noon hour and afternoon recesses.  

A favorite of our whole student body, somewhere between 24 - 26 students, would be what we called  Andy Andy Over.   The game includes all the students divided into two teams.  The game involved one team throwing a ball over the school house to the other team.  It was always the hope of the receiving team that someone would catch the ball so that then that team could run around the building and tag members of the other team who then became members of the team that tagged them.  The ball got thrown back and forth until a whole team was tagged by the opposing team so that no one was left who could throw the ball over the building.  There is more strategy for this game than I’m  giving in detail here which you can find in a search of Games Your Grandparents Played.

But I think one of the reasons that this game was popular for our school is that it required skill and physical growth to be able to throw the ball over this quite tall building and not hit the windows in the process.  The following photos show the lower side of the building.  These photos were taken a number of years into the time that the school was used as the Township meeting space and no longer was a schoolhouse.  This lower side of the school slopped down a hillside and weeds were mowed or trampled when children played daily around this building.  

I can remember quite vividly that it was a real thrill and “right of passage” moment when I could throw the ball over the building from both sides.  It was more difficult to achieve that on the lower, slopped side.

Before I finish writing about this popular game at our one-room country school, I have to explain something that happened to me during this game one day.  Though it’s not shown clearly in this photo above, the property line of the school is just off on the left in this photo.  The property of the school bordered the pasture for the dairy farm that was across the road from the school.  The fence marking the property line was a barbwire fence with three or four strands of wire fastened to posts about ten feet apart.  I already mentioned that this side of the school sloped downhill.  When the team on the upper side of the school was ready to throw the ball to this side of the building, it was hoped that the ball would go quite far down the hill so that it would land or roll into the pasture across the fence.  That would make it impossible to catch the ball for the lower side team and it would require someone having to cross the fence to get the ball and get it thrown back to the other side.  One day, I was with my team on the lower side of the building.  The ball came sailing across the school house and made it over the fence.  I was a pretty competitive child and knew I could get over a barbwire fence more quickly than another classmate who may have to go under the barbwire to get to the ball.  So I volunteered and hustled quickly over the fence and threw the ball back to a fellow teammate so the ball could get returned to the other side.  Just as I was about to climb over the fence back into the school yard, the teacher rang the bell to end our recess time.  Everyone raced to the school door.  I was planning to race for the door but instead fell over the barbwire fence which caught my leg on the inside just below my left knee.  The result of that was a chunk of flesh being gouged out of my leg with blood that started pouring from the wound.    I hobbled to the door of the school.  Of course I was wearing a dress as all girls wore dresses every day for school.  I do not remember ever wearing slacks for school all the way through high school nor did any other girl.   I suppose the teacher, Mrs. Steltzner, did a swabbing of the wound as she determined I would need stitches.  She called my mother who came and got me and took me to Dr. Skemp's office in Fountain City who put in some stitches.  The wound healed but left a life long scar.  I probably didn’t play Andy Andy Over for the next few days but I’m quite sure I wasn’t sidelined from competitive games for very long.  

Other games I played at school were softball or kickball which were played quite often on a diamond  either in the front of the building or in the back of Cross Ridge School during the fall and springtime.   During the winter months we played fox and goose or follow the leader while tramping through the snow.  We also made "slides" down the hills on which we could run and sail for quite a fun distance.  The school building had a door to the outside not only from the front classroom level of the building but also from the basement.  The basement door was rarely used.  I think students were not supposed to open that door but one day we did.  It was the type of door that opened to a stairway that was kept covered by doors that folded down over them.  That allowed us to inconspicuously get to the water hand pump where we could fill a pail with water, carry it outside and dump it on our "slide" to create a slick, really fast slide.  The winter temperatures in Wisconsin stayed well below freezing every day so the water froze as soon as it got poured onto our slide.  We could start sliding almost as soon as a pail full was poured onto the slide.  And the more pails of water that could be poured onto the slide grew the length of the slide.  It was incredibly awesome until...  My classmate, Noreen, fell face down hitting her mouth on the ice and breaking off a front tooth.  So now we have tears and fears!!!  Of course we all got called inside to sit in our seats and listen to our teacher, Mrs. Steltzner, scold us humiliatingly.  She seemed shocked that we could ever have done such a disobedient, stupid thing.  And I'm quite sure we never did that again and probably the "big kids" of the school had to chop the ice into ruin that same day before it could cause another accident.  

I started this story by saying I played the game Hide and Seek at home. Other games I played at home happened in our big front yard.  There we sometimes played softball, tag, jump rope, catch, Red Rover, Red Rover Won't You Come Over and  in winter played Fox and Goose, went sledding, skiing (if we had skies) and Follow the Leader.  

If the weather was too inclement outdoors, Mom had a few games we played while sitting around the kitchen table without any game pieces.  She had us play something she called, Comegy, Comegy, What do you Come by?  She would start the game by asking that question and then picking one of us five kids.  We would have to respond with an answer.  We had to think of something in the room and reply with this phrase for example.   "Comegy, Comegy, What do I come by?  I come by something that starts with the letter "S".  Then we would take turns responding with a guess about what the person  might be thinking of.  If you guessed the correct thing, it was then your turn to think of another item  and say, "Comegy Comegy, What do I Come by?  I come by something that starts with the letter "D".   This game would occupy us for quite some time and we kids seemed to enjoy the game.  Perhaps we sometimes  would just play a game of "What are you thinking of?"  We would take turns asking questions that could be answered by "Yes" or "No".  Perhaps that was a game like "20 Questions".   

Other games we played at home involved a board or cards.  We had a Carom Board which I think was a family Christmas present one year.  We also played Checkers which I remember playing with my Dad or a sibling.  It was a really big deal when I could beat my Dad.  We played Chinese Checkers if we had enough marbles for the board.  We didn't play cards that were used for gambling so I still don't even know the names of those cards that have an Ace and a Jack and that's as far as I can go.  We played a card game called "Authors".  It was a game in which you had to collect sets of four titles that an author of renown had written.  That turned out to be fun and educational.  We also played "Old Maid".

As a teenager I was active in activities for youth at our church.  There the favorite game of my time was "Pit".  That game can get loud and rowdy but I loved it and so did my friends.  

There is nothing for me to report about school games I played because my high school years came before there were organized, extra-curricular sports for girls.  I loved games like basketball that I played during my PE classes but I didn't play in sports outside of the school classes.  

For a farm kid, there are lots of chores that can occupy one's time.  Year round there are many useful things that a growing child can do to help the family.  There is work with animals, in the fields, in the garden and in the house and yard.  Sometimes it seems as though there's no time for any fun and games.  As I have answered this question about what games I played as a child, I have had many pleasant memories of the times I played games at school, at home and at church.   I am thankful for parents who recognized that a child needs something in addition to 365 days each year of hard labor.  I am grateful for the fond memories of my ability to help with the work of an active dairy farm and the fun I had when I was granted a break from the toils of farm life.