# Games during our childhood/traditional ones



## cute angel

Hello every body:

Each one of us was a child one day and I'm sure he/she played some games so we want to know what kind of games do you have I mean *traditional games in your countries*


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## Fernita

I remember we used to play Tag, Hopscotch, Jumping rope, Hide-and-seek, to name a few.
Oh, and marbles, too.

I live in Argentina.


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## ascension

In New York we played pretty much the same games, with the exception of marbles. I would also add basketball.


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## cute angel

Please ,if you can explain for us how you play all these games because we don't know them .


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## ascension

Tag is a game with a group and one person in the group is "it." Everyone runs around and the person who is "it" tries to tag (touch) someone. When someone is tagged he then becomes "it."

Hopscotch involves drawing numbers one the ground (usually in chalk) and jumping from one to the other.

Hide-and-Seek also involves someone who is "it." This time everyone else in the group hides while "it" counts to a certain number. He then yells "ready or not, here I come." He then goes looking for the others. The first person to be found becomes the new "it."


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## Fernita

You'll have the explanation by clicking on each game.
*tag* 
*Hopscotch*
*Jump rope*
*Hide and seek*
*Marbles* Although the picture looks very old, I'm not. 
Cheers!


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## nami_nohana

Fernita said:


> I remember we used to play Tag, Hopscotch, Jumping rope, Hide-and-seek, to name a few.
> Oh, and marbles, too.quote]
> 
> hi to all!
> 
> in Spain we also played (and still play) these games. and also play with dolls, little kitchens, and others for which I don't know the english name -if they actualy have an english name!
> 
> one of this is churro mediamanga mangotero, complicate to explain, maybe if you google it you may find it. and 'pica parar' in catalan, which is a little like tag but the 'it' is facing a wall and the other players are behind him/her, and must get closer, avoiding to bee caught moving when the 'it' turns his/her head.
> 
> and I used to play 'gomas' which involves doing certain movement with your legs, kind of a choreography, with elastic ribbons. I think there is an english word for that but I don't know it
> 
> some people will agree that some of the games you played depend on how old you are. youngest people (and not so young, like me) play with computer games. and in my country, people who were 10 to 15 years old during the 80's were the first ones to enjoy roleplaying. I know it through my husband, who is 30 now.


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## gurseal

And then there was the "patty cakes" sing-songy high-five-style hand-slapping thing that little girls did (and still do, I suppose). I can't remember the name. I don't even know if it can be called a game.


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## gurseal

I remember that boys played _cowboys and Indians_. Perhaps some Canadians can speak to this game's having existed (or not) in Canada. Add to this branch of games _cops and robbers_. Both seem like precursors to today's laser- and paintball-style fighting.


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## nami_nohana

in my case, they were mud-patties, I must have been a little piggy


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## gurseal

nami_nohana said:


> in my case, they were mud-patties, I must have been a little piggy


nami nohana, the patty cakes were rhymed lyrics--spoken, not sung--while the two girls slapped palms together.  However, as you suggested in your post, making mud pies happens in lots of places.


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## nami_nohana

here in spain patty cakes are sung, and as you well say they are still en vogue. I saw two young girls playing them only last week.


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## ascension

nami_nohana said:


> and 'pica parar' in catalan, which is a little like tag but the 'it' is facing a wall and the other players are behind him/her, and must get closer, avoiding to bee caught moving when the 'it' turns his/her head.



This sounds a lot like "red light green light" in the US. The person who is 'it' faces a wall and says "red light green light 1 2 3." Everyone runs towards the person who is 'it' and tries to tag him. But after '3' he turns around and if he sees you running you need to go back to the beginning. The idea is to be the first person to touch the person who is 'it.'


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## alexacohen

gurseal said:


> I remember that boys played _cowboys and Indians_.


Yes, here in Spain we used to play cowboys and Indians too. And pirates.

And the ones Fernita mentioned: Tag, Hopscotch, Jumping rope, Hide-and-seek, Red light Green light (we called it "the English hide and seek, but don't ask me why).

In fact I've been playing hide and seek with the village children last week. I won .


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## Diablo919

In Ohio, we played 4-square, hide and seek, Red Rover, tag, truth-or-dare, and cops and robbers at night.


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## cute angel

wOW really I'm surprised we have the same games we play rope_jumping,marbles;tag;hopscotch;dolls;hide and seek (cache_cache) of course with different names we play also chess but using stones or any thing else and we draw the table on a piece of wood or on the ground 

WE have also as Diablo said truth or dare''(action ou vérité) and others like playing with small bolls for girls like in the circus.

Thakns for all of you


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## Hakro

All those games were played in Finland, too. In the wintertime we had snowball wars, of course.

Then we had a game called _Neppis_ race. It was an automobile race with toy cars and with very strict rules. The racing track was made of sand (or snow in wintertime), but for the heavy die-cast cars we sometimes gave the sand track a "tarmac" finish with dissolved clay that was left to dry.

The cars were driven by a short push (a nudge?) of the crooked front finger. Too long pushes were disqualified. Usually the driver was allowed to give three pushes in a row. 

In the beginning of the fifties we used the "Dinky Toys" die-cast cars (1:43) but later (in the seventies) kids had an "official" racing car model, a plastic car looking like a Grand Prix car of the fifties. As everybody had a similar car it was only the "driving skills" that counted. The shape of the tail made the car very difficult to steer with short pushes.

Even official Finnish Championship races were organized, controlled by adults.

I wonder if there has been similar races in other countries.


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## Sarasaki

We used to play board games like Snakes and Ladders, Chinese Checkers, Mancala and Ludo

We also played something called "Dark room". We used to turn off the lights, draw the curtains, close the door and make sure the room was as dark as possible. (We played this at night). One of us would stand outside the room and the rest would hide in the dark room. When we were ready we would call out to the one outside who had to come in, shut the door, find and identify each one correctly. The one who was caught first would be the next to go. For added effect, make funny, scary noises!

We also played an outdoor game called "Lagori" These days kids even call it "Seven tiles". (The link says its for teenage kids, but I remember playing when I was as little as 8 years old!)

Chain game - Similar to tag, but instead of a new "it", the person caught by "it" and "it" hold hands and run after the other kids. Each kid is caught and added to the "chain" and it goes on till the last one is caught by this "chain".

Kutti Donne - usually played by boys using two sticks but I do not know the rules of this game.

Pagade - Information available here

Marbles are called "Goli"

There are many more, but I cannot remember them all


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## Hakro

We have a different variation on "Dark room" game. This is not for kids but rather for adults:

Everybody exept one go into hiding under a large tarpaulin. The one who's left out takes a thick piece of wood, about one metre long (a baseball bat will do), and hits hard on the tarpaulin. The one who is hit, screams of course. If he/she recognizes the voice of the person who was hit, this person has to come out and take the bat and the first hitter goes under the tarpaulin. The games goes on.

It's not so easy to recognize the voices that come from under the tarpaulin.


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## alexacohen

Sarasaki said:


> We also played something called "Dark room".


 
Here in Spain it was "escondite a oscuras", "hide and seek in the dark".


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## EmilyD

One game I played as a child (but was taught to a group of us kids by an older relative and was, I suspect, more common for that generation) was: *Sardines. *It's easily found via google...

*One person hides...*and then everyone goes in search of that person, and quietly joins that individual, until the group is squished together like *sardines* in a can[giggling]and eventually only one is left...

_Nomi_


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## Etcetera

Fernita said:


> You'll have the explanation by clicking on each game.
> *tag*
> *Hopscotch*
> *Jump rope*
> *Hide and seek*
> *Marbles* Although the picture looks very old, I'm not.
> Cheers!


We played all that, except marbles. 

My sister, who is ten years my junior, says she played all these games, too.


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## nanel

alexacohen said:


> Here in Spain it was "escondite a oscuras", "hide and seek in the dark".


 Really? I knew that one as "tinieblas" (darkness).

I remember playing the chain game too! I have no clue how it was called, but I know I've played that one. Of course we played tag, hopscotch, jump rope, hide and seek, marbles, churro, la goma (see HERE where you'll also find a lot of other games). Now I remember playing "a la zapatilla por detrás". See that same link. We also played cops and robbers.



> "red light green light 1 2 3."


 This stroke me as funny because we say "1 2 3, al escondite inglés" (1 2 3 to the English hide and seek). Did we all play the exact same games?


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## sokol

alexacohen said:


> In fact I've been playing hide and seek with the village children last week. I won .



Well, shouldn't you at least have tried letting _them _win? (Just kidding. )


But in earnest, I played pretty much the same childrens games here in Austria in my childhood (note, this was in the seventies, before computer games were invented ;-):

- variations of Tag, Hide & Seek, Hopscotch and others

- there's also a variety of Hide & Seek where someone is hiding and the other children all are seeking this one person, or where one person hides a thing which other people are searching, and you help them by crying 'warm' or 'hot if they get nearer and 'cold' if they don't

- then we played 'there flies there flies XY' (German: 'es fliegt es fliegt XY') where you keep tapping with your fingers on the table until the object = XY is mentioned: if the object is a 'flying one' (a bird, a plane, etc.) you continue tapping, if not you stop - and if you guess wrong you've lost

- another game was 'blind cow' - 'blinde Kuh' (I haven't seen my nephews and nieces play that one, ever): someone is blindfolded and tapping around the room (or the garden), trying to catch someone who then will be blindfolded; of course children will hazard being nearly touched by the blindfolded one, and therefore, inevitably, the blindfolded person (even though at a huge disadvantage) will catch someone; this game probably never would work with adults 


There were more, but I can't remember them all. You have to take into account that there wasn't much children programme on TV, then - at least not in Austria, and that we had no computer games.


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## Topsie

In the playground at school : Hopscotch, skipping, Grandmother's footsteps,
French Elastics, various clapping games, marbles...

Typical birthday party games were "Pass the Parcel", "Pinning the Tail on the Donkey", "Musical Chairs", "Blind Man's Bluff", "egg & spoon race"....

Sleeping over at friends' houses we (girls) played at "dressing-up" - this involved a lot of make-up! And then there were always the Barbie dolls and their Barbie world...


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## nami_nohana

I remember having played something like _Neppis_ race here in barcelona (spain), but with bottle caps instead of cars. we used the metal caps of coke glass bottles or similar ones.

and yes, definitely 'pica parar' is the same as 'green light red light', but the 'it' saying '1 2 3 pica parar'. I had no idea it was the same as 'escondite inglés', I had heard the name many times...

my father, who was born in 1933, used to play wooden swords with his brother, with the added fun of being chased by the park guard: they made their swords out of tree branches!  it was not so fun the day the guard caught my father, and made him drink a lot of castor oil


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## nami_nohana

now I remembered another one which my mum loved it when she was a child, in the late 30's.

it involves small pieces of paper with a printed drawing on it. you must put them on a table with the drawing facing down, and tap the table in order to upturn them and reveal the drawing. usually they were thematic, I mean, all of them were dolls, or butterflies, or whatever. 

not long ago I saw some of this printings in a shop, so I assume that if they still print them, somebody plays with them.

the game must have a name but I ignore it.


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## sokol

Another one here in Austria: 'Stille Post' - literally 'silent post' where you whisper something into the ear of another child, this one whispers into the ear of the next and so on - and the last one says out loud what he or she thinks having been told by the last-but-one.

As you can imagine, many times the word changes dramatically. (But then children also tend to provoke their neighbours not hearing properly, to make the game funnier.)


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## Topsie

There were also several paper & pencil games: 
Someone would draw a head and fold the paper over so it was hidden then exchange with someone who would draw a body, then fold again. The next person would draw the legs and the last person the feet! (I can't remember if this game had a name!)
Fortune-tellers were also popular!


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## Topsie

sokol said:


> Another one here in Austria: 'Stille Post' - literally 'silent post' where you whisper something into the ear of another child, this one whispers into the ear of the next and so on - and the last one says out loud what he or she thinks having been told by the last-but-one.
> 
> As you can imagine, many times the word changes dramatically. (But then children also tend to provoke their neighbours not hearing properly, to make the game funnier.)


Chinese Whispers!


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## gotitadeleche

In addition to most of the games already mentioned, we also played Simon Says, Mother-may-I, Pickup Sticks, and kickball. (By the way, the girls played Cowboys and Indians too. With my long hair, I thought I made a great Indian! )

We also played with little plastic figures of horses, soldiers, dinosaurs, and cowboys and Indians.


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## Bilma

Topsie said:


> Chinese Whispers!


 
Teléfono descompuesto


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## sureño

Hakro said:


> I wonder if there has been similar races in other countries.


 
Yes, in Argentina we had similar races too. The skill was (besides the driving of course)fixing cars for the best performance.
I think computers and other modern games have done it sounding as obsolete nowadays.


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## sureño

Bilma said:


> Teléfono descompuesto


Yes, it's known as "teléfono descompuesto" in Argentina too.


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## Hakro

sureño said:


> Yes, in Argentina we had similar races too. The skill was (besides the driving of course)fixing cars for the best performance.


Good to hear about this, Sureño! Did you have a special name for these races, as we say "neppis" in Finnish?

The tune-up of the die-cast cars that I used to race was impossible. Instead, the handling of the plastic cars could be helped by cutting the body and adding weights.



> I think computers and other modern games have done it sounding as obsolete nowadays.


This is unfortunately true. I believe that when driving "real" toy cars one could learn some facts of the physics; in a computer race you can crash totally and go on racing (and it seems that young drivers on the roads think that it's same in real life).


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## sureño

Hakro said:


> Good to hear about this, Sureño! Did you have a special name for these races, as we say "neppis" in Finnish?


We called it just “jugar a los autitos” (small cars playing) or “carreritas” (small racings)



Hakro said:


> The tune-up of the die-cast cars that I used to race was impossible. Instead, the handling of the plastic cars could be helped by cutting the body and adding weights.


Yes it was what we did. We also changed the wheels in order to improve its performance and stuff like that. In addition, we spent a lot of time building the car tracks. 
In contrast, children nowadays have the more realistic toy cars; but all things are offered to them done. They can’t develop their creativity and therefore they look bored, unenthusiastic. 
I’m sure that we, with our poor things, enjoyed very much and better than they are enjoying these amazing modern toys.


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## Etcetera

sokol said:


> Another one here in Austria: 'Stille Post' - literally 'silent post' where you whisper something into the ear of another child, this one whispers into the ear of the next and so on - and the last one says out loud what he or she thinks having been told by the last-but-one.
> 
> As you can imagine, many times the word changes dramatically. (But then children also tend to provoke their neighbours not hearing properly, to make the game funnier.)


I know this game too! We called it "broken telephone". And it's still played by kids.


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## kyrin

Fernita said:


> I remember we used to play Tag, Hopscotch, Jumping rope, Hide-and-seek, to name a few.
> Oh, and marbles, too.
> 
> I live in Argentina.


 
We play exactly the same games here... Does anyone also play "Chicken and Eagle"? 

At the beginning, one chosen player is chosen to be the EAGLE. Another is chosen to be the HEN. The rest are CHICKEN. CHICKEN hide in line behind HEN and hold the shoulders of his(her) preceding player with both hands. EAGLE tries to capture the CHICKEN at the end of the line and the HEN tries to block the EAGLE from her children.


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## sokol

Etcetera said:


> I know this game too! We called it "broken telephone". And it's still played by kids.



Well, here in Austria I fear _real _mobile phones already have begun to replace this game.

Same seems to be true for many other of our childhood games; some are still played, yes, but not nearly as often as we once did.


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## Etcetera

sokol said:


> Same seems to be true for many other of our childhood games; some are still played, yes, but not nearly as often as we once did.


That's very true. When I was in my sister's age, I spent more time outdoors than she does now. There were computer games already in my childhood, but they weren't so widespread.


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## Nanon

Topsie said:


> There were also several paper & pencil games:
> Someone would draw a head and fold the paper over so it was hidden then exchange with someone who would draw a body, then fold again. The next person would draw the legs and the last person the feet! (I can't remember if this game had a name!)



It has - it can be called an "exquisite corpse" ("cadavre exquis" in French). It is said to have been invented by Surrealists. They played the game with words, sometimes with drawings too, and the first sentence they created was beginning with "The exquisite corpse"...
We used to play this game with drawings, questions and answers or whole sentences (showing only the last word).

About paper games - we played rock-paper-scissors, too.
About word games - there was one in which the words "yes" and "no" (alternatively "yes, no, white and black") had to be avoided when answering questions.



Etcetera said:


> I know this game too! We called it "broken telephone". And it's still played by kids.


 
 This game is called "Arab telephone" in French!...
 Why Arab? A classical explanation says that Arabs are supposed to use oral communication more than writing. I fear there might be a racist connotation to this name, though  (Arabs were suposed to be illiterate in French - there may be also a syllogism here: words lose their meaning in oral communication, Arabs use oral communication, therefore Arabs talk nonsense!)

 Back to the topic : the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia lists several translations for this game.


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## Chaska Ñawi

We played many of the games named above - Red Rover, Cowboys and Indians, Sardines, and such as kids.  Sometimes we played quiet games like Rock Paper Scissors, but mostly we were on the move.

Fox and Geese is one that hasn't been mentioned yet.  You stamp out a big spoked wheel in the snow.  It's a kind of tag, where the geese may move anywhere in the wheel, while the fox is restricted to the rim.

Back when hay bales were rectangular and stackable, instead of the giant things they've become, we made amazing forts, accessible only by secret tunnels, through the hay mows.  _Everybody _had forts.  The kids who didn't have barns had their forts in trees, in thickets of prickly ash, or under the verandas if necessary.  In the winter, everybody had a snow fort.  We stockpiled our ammunition and had regular snowball fights.  These days the forts remain a part of school life, but the snowballs have been banned.

Being Canadians, we also played a LOT of hockey.  We played road hockey, pond hockey, parking lot hockey, and driveway hockey.  In addition to pucks, we used tennis balls, baseballs, road apples (frozen horse poop) and anything else that could be depended on to slide nicely over the ice.  This is one feature of Canadian life that has not changed (except for the availability of road apples).


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## alexacohen

nanel said:


> Originally Posted by *alexacohen*
> Here in Spain it was "escondite a oscuras", "hide and seek in the dark".
> 
> 
> 
> Really? I knew that one as "tinieblas" (darkness).
Click to expand...

Yes, really. Andalucia is still part of Spain.

We didn't get snow by the sea, what we played was _a run against the waves_. When the wave receded we followed it, and the one who stayed longer at the border of the water before another wave struck was the winner.

I shoud have said the one who stayed longer at the border of the water without getting his/her feet wet was the winner. However, I know of no one who ever accomplished that.

I should have said, too, that the game was played in winter after school - while we were still wearing our school clothes. That was the fun.


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## Sarasaki

Chaska Ñawi said:


> ....Being Canadians, we also played a LOT of hockey. We played road hockey, pond hockey, parking lot hockey, and driveway hockey. In addition to pucks, we used tennis balls, baseballs, road apples (frozen horse poop) and anything else that could be depended on to slide nicely over the ice. This is one feature of Canadian life that has not changed (except for the availability of road apples).


 
I can say the same about cricket - we call it "galli cricket" (Galli = lane)and its played by all boys since the time they start walking . Galli cricket does not need a playground. A small lane/road, driveway....whatever.....


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## sokol

Chaska Ñawi said:


> Back when hay bales were rectangular and stackable, instead of the giant things they've become, we made amazing forts, accessible only by secret tunnels, through the hay mows.


We did that too - only that hay here in Austria wasn't (and, mainly, still isn't) stacked in bales but loose: we 'dug' our tunnels and caves into huge haystacks.
We also had kind of a 'fort' - more precisely, a small hut in a wood nearby (we even asked the owner for permission). There was even kind of a 'war' with the 'fort/hut' of neighbouring children (in the course of which our hut finally was destroyed; the cowardly neighbour kids did so on a day we weren't on watch).

Nowadays parents are discouraging that much initiative in their kids, they're too worried something might happen to them in haystacks or huts outside; instead many parents in rural Austria [obviously, in cities you couldn't build huts anyway, it wouldn't be allowed to do so in public parks] give their children substitute mini huts in the backyard where the kids stay close to them and are more easily supervised.

But the caution of today's parents really is understandable to a degree, if I am looking back - those days really were a little bit wild, I'd say.


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## alexacohen

sokol said:


> We also had kind of a 'fort' - more precisely, a small hut in a wood nearby (we even asked the owner for permission).


My children and my next-field neighbour's children have exactly the same hut under a tree near the brook.
Of course their hut is much better constructed and much better situated than the hut built by the silly children from the village at the other side of the brook.

I can't judge, because adults are forbidden there. 

It seems country kids haven't changed that much.


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## Zsanna

Let me join with some Hungarian memories to this cheerful topic!
We played most of the classic games mentioned (hide and seek, hopscotch, skipping rope, ball games, mud pies, etc.) and probably most of you played also cat's cradle, and sleighing (in winter) and one that I liked a lot (an individual game): 
firstly, you had a drawn picture of a girl/woman (sometimes you had a whole family) cut out from a tough cardboard "whom" you "dressed" with cut out dresses fitting the figure (by little flaps you could fold around the figure so that the dress doesn't drop). The whole kit was sold individually, you just had to cut it out and it was ready to be played with!
I don't know whether others did it but after a time I drew, coloured, cut out all the dresses myself, later even the figures themselves. (That way I could present dresses from different angles!)

And a group game nobody mentioned yet so I don't know how typically Hungarian it may be, called "Give (us) soldiers, king!" (= Adj király katonát!). 
We played it especially in the schoolyard and I always found it slightly barmy, nevertheless it involved some "energy-spending" so kids liked it.
It went like this:
Kids formed two, facing lines by standing one next to the other, holding their neighbour's hand on both sides. The game started off with a dialogue between the two lines (one representing the "king", the other well ... I don't really know who, say the claimers?):
claimers:Give (us) soldiers, king!
king: No, I won't!
claimers: If you don't, I'll "tear" one. 
king: Tear, if you can!
claimers: Who do you wish? 
king: (the line had to name somebody from the other line)

The chosen person dashed madly at the "king's line" and tried to break the chain of holding hands between two kids he thought it would be easiest (by bashing at the two holding hands with his own). 
If he managed (to "tear" somebody "out" from the king's line), he could take that person (he had to say which of the hand owners he wanted) with him to the other line which then became the king's line for the next round. If he did not manage to break the holding hands he bashed, the line he came from stayed the "claimers' line". I think. And the whole thing went on until one of the lines ran out of kids holding hands.

I gave all these details just in case someone recognises it.

Hakro, that game you mentioned, when you had to find out who you bashed under the tarpaulin, did it really exist? It sounds more like a joke! 
Otherwise there was something like you racing car competition among boys in Hungary, too. I have vague memories seeing plain wooden boards with real (little) wheels attached to them somehow, however, there was no track building involved.


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## Hakro

Zsanna said:


> Hakro, that game you mentioned, when you had to find out who you bashed under the tarpaulin, did it really exist? It sounds more like a joke!


Sure the game existed, but it was practically impossible to find anybody to play it.


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## sokol

Zsanna said:


> And a group game nobody mentioned yet so I don't know how typically Hungarian it may be, called "Give (us) soldiers, king!" (= Adj király katonát!).



It's "Der Kaiser schickt Soldaten aus" - "Caesar (The Emperor) sends his soldiers"*) in Austria and it was (and probably still is) very common, we played it often at home (but not in the schoolyard); the dialogue I don't remember any more, but I think it was rather similar to the Hungarian one.
_*) You certainly would know that Hungary once had a king, while Austria had an emperor (even though both king and emperor were the same persons), but for the benefit of persons not familiar with the history of the Austrian-Hungarian Habsburg monarchy I add that piece of information which seems for me the reason for choosing king in Hungary but emperor in Austria.
_ 
(Your dressing game I don't remember, I surely didn't play it - but then I'm a boy, in my times you couldn't possibly play that sort of game and not become laughed at - but I think my sisters neither did.)


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## Chaska Ñawi

Zsanna said:


> And a group game nobody mentioned yet so I don't know how typically Hungarian it may be, called "Give (us) soldiers, king!" (= Adj király katonát!).
> We played it especially in the schoolyard and I always found it slightly barmy, nevertheless it involved some "energy-spending" so kids liked it.



The children here still play this game; it's called Red Rover.  The children from one side call, "Red Rover, Red Rover, we call Anna over!" and then Anna has to run at the other team.  Strategies involved calling over the other team's weakest person, or maintaining an inviting-looking gap between two of your strongest players until it was too late for the opposition to change course.


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## alexacohen

Zsanna said:


> firstly, you had a drawn picture of a girl/woman (sometimes you had a whole family) cut out from a tough cardboard "whom" you "dressed" with cut out dresses fitting the figure (by little flaps you could fold around the figure so that the dress doesn't drop). The whole kit was sold individually, you just had to cut it out and it was ready to be played with!


Mariquitas.

My great-granny played with them, and my granny, and my mother, and myself. 
And my children.

Anyone collected stickers (cromos)?


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## Topsie

alexacohen said:


> Mariquitas.
> 
> My great-granny played with them, and my granny, and my mother, and myself.
> And my children.
> 
> Anyone collected stickers (cromos)?



Paper dolls - my sister & I spent hours designing clothes for them! We also made furniture from matchboxes, yoghurt cartons etc. for our trolls' house!
Kids these days aren't so creative (sigh!)


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## Etcetera

alexacohen said:


> Mariquitas.
> 
> My great-granny played with them, and my granny, and my mother, and myself.
> And my children.


Paper dolls were very popular when I was a kid. There were whole kits with one or two dolls, a lot of dresses, and sometimes there could also be a set of furniture (cardboard, of course). 
My sister had such paper doll, too, but she didn't like it as much as "real" dolls. 



> Anyone collected stickers (cromos)?


I did. I had two albums for stickers - _Barbie_ and _Tom & Jerry_, and a few years later I bought one more - it was an album dedicated to Russian music stars. In the 1990s, almost every kid had such an album.

It seems that such albums are still sold, but they aren't as popular nowadays as they used to be some 10 years ago. Neither my sister nor her friends have such albums.


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## Hakro

alexacohen said:


> Anyone collected stickers (cromos)?


In my youth coffee was packed in bags of 500 grams and there was (for some important reason, I guess) a cardboard card, about 3 x 3 inches, with rounded corners, on top of the coffee. In the mid-fifties a coffee company got the idea of printing car pictures on those cards. Very soon every boy collected these cards, and I know that there was serious quarrels in the families if the parents preferred a coffee brand without car cards.

Other coffee companies followed, but the first company also published an album where the cards were glued, and they promised a fair prize for anybody who had the album full. They were clever enough to print some pictures far less than others, so in the end everybody was missing the same cards. I remember that one of the rarest pictures was Ford Crown Victoria of model year '55, the one with glass roof. These rare cards were sold between kids in high prices. Otherwise, one could get the cards only by buying coffee.


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## Topsie

Hakro said:


> In my youth coffee was packed in bags of 500 grams...
> ...Otherwise, one could get the cards only by buying coffee.



My brother collected _Brooke Bond _cards in special little albums! I'd forgotten all about them! (They're probably worth a fortune now!)
The boys also made (and played with) _Airfix _models a lot!


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## Topsie

Etcetera said:


> Paper dolls were very popular when I was a kid. There were whole kits with one or two dolls, a lot of dresses, and sometimes there could also be a set of furniture (cardboard, of course).



Yes, but they were ready-made! We drew & cut out our own!


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## Hakro

Topsie said:


> My brother collected _Brooke Bond _cards in special little albums! I'd forgotten all about them! (They're probably worth a fortune now!)


Those 50-year-old coffee cards are today sold at 5 to 10 euro a piece.


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## Topsie

Hakro said:


> Those 50-year-old coffee cards are today sold at 5 to 10 euro a piece.


Wow!!! I'm talking about late 60s/early70s, tho', so perhaps they're not worth as much as that!


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## Zsanna

Kids' activities can be fruitful in many ways! 

Just one - seemingly - counter example:
I collected paper serviettes (until I found a bit more intellectual passtime) but only really decorative "stuff". (It was not for the sake of collecting, rather another way of expressing my "decorating inclinations" because I did not hesitate to do "improvements" on some of the serviettes I had...) 
The nicest was a Chinese or a Vietnamese sort which was all white (but already the paper was special - or it seemed to me) and pattern was imprinted into it with scenes of village life and nature. 
Even though I liked it as it was, I found out that it was big fun colouring lightly some of the figures on it - I could spend hours doing it in different ways...


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## alexacohen

Hakro said:


> Other coffee companies followed, but the first company also published an album where the cards were glued, and they promised a fair prize for anybody who had the album full. They were clever enough to print some pictures far less than others, so in the end everybody was missing the same cards.


Yes, that was the trick.
Some stickers were sold here inside chewing gum packets. One of the subjects was "female dresses through the centuries", beginning with Eve and ending with the flower children.
Ever girl chewed gum like mad, but no matter how much gum one chewed, there was one dress that was never to be found: Eve's.


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## Forero

A few we used to play when I was young and I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Origami birds, paper airplanes, rubberband balls, cut-out dolls in a row (lots of different designs), paper snowflakes, folding a paper football and "kicking" it (by thumping) over a "goalpost" (someone else's hands held high).  Dominoes ("sniff"), and cards: Old Maid, Go Fishing, Authors.

We played "house": the houses were outlines made by rows of rocks (large stones), and "families" lived in them.  Great for role-playing.  I thought it was interesting that sweeping the ground seemed to make it cleaner.

We played "adventure".  Mostly make-believe.  We made trails through the little forest around the schoolyard, and the different types of vegetation, the creek, the rocks, the ups and downs and winding trails, all were sites of the various adventures: hunting the dragon, recuing the damsels in distress, being chased by the child-eating witch, ... an endless series of whatever adventures kept us all amused.

One of my favorite games, "Marco Polo", required a lake or swimming pool.


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## vittorius

Etcetera said:


> That's very true. When I was in my sister's age, I spent more time outdoors than she does now. There were computer games already in my childhood, but they weren't so widespread.


 
A very good one for outdoors is called "nations". Before starting this game each player has 3 lives and need to chose a country or nationality, after this one guy in the middle of the group throw a ball up and says just the name of any nationality involved. Everybody begin to run away but the person who hear the nation which previously has chosen run trying to catch the ball and if he can so, has the right to throw the ball again and says another nationality, if he doesn’t (i.e. the ball touch the floor) he says "stop" and nobody can keep moving, then the guy who has the ball is allowed to do 3 jumps from the place he caught it and he will try to hit someone. If the ball touches anybody, the hit person lost one life; in the opposite case the person who threw the ball lost his own

I hope you enjoy it!
Carlos


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## Sarasaki

Forero said:


> ..... One of my favorite games, "Marco Polo", required a lake or swimming pool.


 
I am just back from the pool and was pleasantly surprised to see this game being played by a group of boys! May be a new import, nevertheless, it is played here too!!


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## Esca

I loved the "broken telephone" game--we called it "Whisper Down The Lane" where I grew up, but I think the more common American name is "Telephone."
Other "talking" games include "I Spy" and "Twenty Questions."

I don't think "Duck, Duck, Goose" has been mentioned: the players sit in a circle, and the person who is "it" walks around and pats everyone on the head as they go by, saying "Duck, Duck, Duck..." until they pat someone on the head and say "GOOSE!"  Then they run around the circle and the "Goose" has to tag them before they can sit down in the empty spot.
Speaking of which, musical chairs is a classic children's party game, as is Pin the Tail on the Donkey.
Nobody has mentioned Capture The Flag, either, or Freeze Tag (when you're tagged, you can't move until someone "frees" you).

I saw fortune-tellers go by, but we also would play hangman (try to guess a mystery word), tic-tac-toe, and other paper games.
At school, kids would play Dodgeball, and also a game called "Wall-Ball" by bouncing a ball against the wall... I never played that, so I don't know the rules!

During my childhood, there were fads like collecting stickers, and playing various games where you tried to collect something ([Magic] cards, "Pogs" (cardboard discs), or plastic pieces) and would try to win them from your friends.  The hand-clapping games were huge as well.

Most of the time, though, my sister and I would dress up, play with Barbies, Legos, etc, play fantasy games, build forts, and make scavenger hunts, among other things.

At parties we would always play this game (could it be called a game?) where a person would lie facedown on the floor, and someone else would pull the person's arms up and hold them there for a long time.  Then they would slowly lower the arms to the ground, which gives the person the sensation that their arms are going through the floor.


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## Topsie

Esca said:


> At parties we would always play this game (could it be called a game?) where a person would lie facedown on the floor, and someone else would pull the person's arms up and hold them there for a long time.  Then they would slowly lower the arms to the ground, which gives the person the sensation that their arms are going through the floor.


We had various "sensation" games too - one was "room-go-round", you had to spin around (sitting or standing) as fast and as long as possible, and when you stopped you had the impression that the room was spinning around you! There was a strangling game called "le jeu du foulard" in France a few years ago, it made headlines when a child died. Some of these types of games can be really dangerous... but kids always try to push things to the limit, that's all part of growing up!


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## susantash

Here in uruguay we played practically all the same games as in spain, which is not strange at all considering our origins as a spanish colony.
Las escondidas, teléfono descompuesto, la bolita (marbles); all the ones that spanish members have mentioned, but maybe some with different names. For example the "it" game here was called "la mancha" or "el manchado" and every time "it" touched a person he or she called out "mancha!" and that person "la queda" (has to be "it").
We also play duck duck goose here. (pato ganso. we call it the same but in Spanish) 
The game about turning the print outs that were face down also exists here and we call it "la tapadita"


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## anothersmith

We played most of the games that have been mentioned.  One that hasn't been mentioned is "Marco Polo," which you play in a swimming pool.  One kid wears a blind-fold.  He shouts out "Marco!" and then all the other kids shout "Polo!"  He keeps repeating this until he can find and touch one of the other kids.  Then _that_ kid puts on the blind-fold, and the game repeats.


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## susantash

I've just remembered; There's a game that we used to play with my brothers when we were children, which I think was invented by one of them. (Maybe he got the idea from somewhere else, but I don't know of anyone else who played it)
It was called "ni sí ni no" (neither yes nor no), and it consisted in one of us asking questions to the others -obviously yes or no questions, who couldn't answer using yes or no. The thing is that at that time we obviously didn't think about language and there's something in spanish that makes it quite easy to lose in this game, and it is the fact that "yes" and "if" are said practically in the same way. one is "s*í *(with an accent)," and the other one is "s*i*"(no accent). Of course they are considered different words, but for us at 10, 8 and 5 years old, it was the same word, and therefore if you said it you lost.
It was really fun for me and my brothers! 
I wonder if it was really their creation.


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## rainbow84uk

Really interesting to see how similar games are around the world! I played almost all the ones mentioned, and many more: wink murder, bob-down tig, scarecrow tig, ball games like time-bomb, donkey or sevensies (which might have been the wall game maybe?), the farmer's in his den, and more card games like snap and slam.

Also one Spanish game not mentioned is Sopapo (Slap) which the kids have played in the swimming pool at every summer camp I've worked at here. It consists of a bunch of kids keeping a ball up in the air, shouting 'so!' on the first touch, 'pa!' on the second, and then on 'po!', the ball is slammed down into the water aimed at one person. If it manages to hit them, the rest of the kids crowd round giving them (gentle) slaps! Very fast, with lots of dodging, shouting and splashing!


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## Sherlockat

La Silla Musical:                     *Musical chairs*

                                    Poner la cola al burro:   *Pin the tail on the Donkey*

                                           Prueba del Huevo:   *Egg-and-spoon race*

                                                 Tirar la Cuerda:   *Tug-of-war*

                                                                Piñata:   *Piñata*

                                                         La Momia:   *Musical statues*

                                                  Llevar al hapa:   *Carry Piggyback*

                                       Caballito de Bronce:   *Buck-buck (aka "Johnny on a Pony")*

                                                Las escondidas:   *Hide-and-Seek*

                                              Jugar a la brisca:   *playing brisque*

                                                La gallina ciega:   *Blindman's Buff*

                                                        Las bolitas:   *Marbles*

                                                      El columpio:   *Swings*

                                               Saltar la cuerda:   *Jump rope or skipping rope (BrE)*

                                                       La capacha:   *The slammer*

                                                          El run-run: *Give-and-take game*

                                                          El trompo:   *Spinning top*

                                                      El emboque: *Ball and Cup*

                                                 Palo ensebado:   *Greased Pole (or stick)*

                                                       Cara y sello:   *Heads-or-tails (tossup of a coin)*

                                                           Cachipun:   *Rock-Paper-Scissors*

                                        La rayuela (El tejo.):   *Pitch-and-Toss*

                                                          El Pillarse:   *Playing to Catch Someone*

                                                             El Luche: *  Hopscotch*

                                   El ahorcado/quemado: *Hangman*

                                                                   Gato:   *Tic-tac-toe*

                                                         La payaya:   *Knuckle-bones*

                                                  Corre el anillo:   *Pass-the-Ring*

                                   Encumbrar el volantin:  *Flying kite*

                                                           El Rodeo:   *The Rodeo*

                                Corre, Corre la Guaraca:   *Run- run Guaraca*

                                   Quien fue a Melipilla..:   *Who-went-to- Melipilla- lost-the-seat*

                                                           Al Gallito:   *The Arm-wrestle*

                       Carrera de Sacos (Ensacado):  *Sack Race*

                                         Prueba de Gincana:   *Obstacle course*

                               Hacer patitos en el agua:   *Skipping Stones*/ *play ducks and draques.*​


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## Red Arrow

How are these games called in English? 
*
WHO'S AFRAID OF FAT BERTHA?*
You have to play this with at least 20 people or so. Two persons (the fat Berthas) are standing in the middle of the field. The others are standing on one side of the field. The duo screams: "Who's afraid of fat Bertha?" and the others say "Not meeeee!!" and have to cross the field. The two persons have to lift as many of the group as possible. If you're lifted, you also become a fat Bertha.

You win if you're the last person who isn't lifted.

*ONE, TWO, THREE! PIANO!*
Person X (random name) is standing on one side of the field, everyone else is standing on the other side. They have to cross the field, but they have to stand still like a statue every time person X turns around. If X sees you're moving, you have to get back. You know X will turn around when he says: "One, two, three! Piano!"

You win if you're the first who can cross the field.

And let's not forget origami fortune tellers


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## Topsie

Red Arrow :D said:


> *ONE, TWO, THREE! PIANO!*



This looks like Grandmother's footsteps!


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## AutumnOwl

Topsie said:


> This looks like Grandmother's footsteps!


I remember something similar at the school yard, but it involved the person facing the wall to tell those wearing a certain colour to take a number of steps forward or backward, the steps could be normal, ant, giant, jump or some other kind of steps.

I also remember collecting and exchanging "Victorian scraps", bokmärken - Sök på Google and these "ess", chrisleklada.blogg.se - Manicklar

Also playing with Barbie dolls, I had one doll looking very much like this one but with chestnut hair, and I also owned the green dress she is wearing. Barbie docka med kläder och tillbehör | Stockholms Auktionsverk Online


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## Cheburator

We played a game the name of which could be translated as "the 12 little sticks". It's played outdoors, usually in a forest, and is a bit like Hide-and-seek in this variation:

_...the seeker counts at "home base"; the hiders can either remain hidden or they can come out of hiding to race to home base; once they touch it, they are "safe" and cannot be tagged. Hide-and-seek - Wikipedia _​
But with a difference: the seeker ("it") has a small seesaw (just a small board put on a small log) at the homebase and "it" has to put 12 sticks on on one of its sides. When "it" finds a hider, "it" runs to the seesaw, calls the name of the hider and hits on the empty side of it, making the 12 fly about all over the homebase. The found hider becomes "it" and has to find all the 12 sticks and put them on the seesaw before starting counting. But that's only part of it! Any hider can approach the seesaw (usually unobserved by the seeker) and hit on it (shouting something to the seeker to make him notice this unleasant fact), thus making the seeker come back to the homebase and look for the 12 sticks again. And the hider who has just been found still has a chance not to become "it" - he/she has to run up to the seesaw faster than "it" and hit on it before "it" does. If the found hider succeeds in it, "it" has to continue his role after getting the 12 sticks back on the seesaw.


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## snarkhunter

Esca said:


> I don't think "Duck, Duck, Goose" has been mentioned: the players sit in a circle, and the person who is "it" walks around and pats everyone on the head as they go by, saying "Duck, Duck, Duck..." until they pat someone on the head and say "GOOSE!"  Then they run around the circle and the "Goose" has to tag them before they can sit down in the empty spot.


We used to play a very similar game at school, during playtime. But instead of patting a player on the head, "it" would drop a handkerchief behind a player's back as quietly as possible and keep moving around. If he could walk a full circle without the other player noticing he had been "tagged", then the "tagged" player would become "it" and a new round would begin. But if he noticed, then he would start chasing "it" and try to catch him before "it" could sit at the free spot left by the tagged player.

But I'm no longer sure what this game was called in French.

Trading "Panini" stickers to try and fill-up the latest album published was also in fashion!
I myself never completed any and always ended up with huge sets of duplicates!

Oh... and that "Grandmother's footsteps" kind of game is called "1, 2, 3, soleil" in French: That's what the player facing the wall keeps repeating a number of times before he eventually turns back to spot any moving player.


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## RM1(SS)

AutumnOwl said:


> I remember something similar at the school yard, but it involved the person facing the wall to tell those wearing a certain colour to take a number of steps forward or backward, the steps could be normal, ant, giant, jump or some other kind of steps.


Mother, may I?

That, red rover, red light/green light, tag (regular, statue, and shadow), and duck, duck, goose were the games we played most often.


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## RM1(SS)

sokol said:


> - another game was 'blind cow' - 'blinde Kuh' (I haven't seen my nephews and nieces play that one, ever): someone is blindfolded and tapping around the room (or the garden), trying to catch someone who then will be blindfolded; of course children will hazard being nearly touched by the blindfolded one, and therefore, inevitably, the blindfolded person (even though at a huge disadvantage) will catch someone; this game probably never would work with adults


Blind mans' buff -- and I have seen it played by adults.


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## snarkhunter

snarkhunter said:


> We used to play a very similar game at school, during playtime. But instead of patting a player on the head, "it" would drop a handkerchief behind a player's back as quietly as possible and keep moving around. If he could walk a full circle without the other player noticing he had been "tagged", then the "tagged" player would become "it" and a new round would begin. But if he noticed, then he would start chasing "it" and try to catch him before "it" could sit at the free spot left by the tagged player.
> 
> But I'm no longer sure what this game was called in French.


... This game is called "le jeu du mouchoir" (The Handkerchief Game) or "le jeu de la chandelle" (The Candlestick Game).


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