What were the popular recess games in your elementary school and how was the “catcher” chosen?

7 comments

1. A game that may or may not be specifically Swedish was known as “dunken”, hard to translate exactly but somewhere along the lines of “the thump” or “the smash”. Basically hide and seek, but the catcher has to touch or hit a specific item (we used the flagpole, I’ve seen a ball being used and so on) while yelling something like: “Person X is out, one two three!” in order to get them out. Of course the catcher had to see the other player to do so.

   If the person hiding beats the catcher to the pole, they win by hitting it and yelling: “Smash for me, one two three”. Usually, those who had been found would have to stand in the vicinity of the pole, but could get back in the game if they managed to hide when the catcher was looking away or was at another part of the yard. The last person hiding could also “unsmash” all the others by beating the catcher to the pole, so he/she would have to count again.

   The person who touched the pole last after recess had started was the catcher, which led to some wild rumbles in the cloakroom. We weren’t allowed to use outdoor shoes in class, but people cheated by putting them on right before recess while “going to the bathroom”. Some also grabbed them in their hands and ran barefoot to the pole, others untied their laces really loosely to get their feet in fast. Usually, there were five minutes of actually putting jackets, shoes and hats on properly before the game could start, since everyone just grabbed what they could and ran as soon as the recess bell rang.

2. Portugal: We played marbles a lot. But I don’t think it was the same game that you see on TV and all, with a circle of some sort. It was just 3 little holes and you’d flick the marbles between the holes, or you’d hit an opponent to advance automatically. After you did the sequence of holes you were supposed to, every time you hit an opponent he would be out of the round. There are additional rules but I dont know how many were “official” and how many were just invented since we were all kids

3. I was born in the 80s. From your list, these were all popular in the UK:

   > marbles

   I remember a big craze for marbles at one point.

   > the kind of very long elastic put between 2 girls and another one had to jump in, don’t know the name

   > jump ropes

   Skipping stuff was mainly a girls’ game.

   > Pokemon

   No Pokemon cards in the 80s, but Panini football stickers were always popular.

   > singing endless songs while clapping hands fast

   Another thing the girls did.

   > football or traditional ball games with or without “prisoners”.

   I remember the boys monopolising most of the yard playing football. If you weren’t into football you could usually find a few other boys to play Tag or something.

   > traditional games like “loup” (wolf) where we had to touch someone else or a color

   There was [“what’s the time Mr Wolf?”](https://www.wikihow.com/Play-What%27s-the-Time-Mr-Wolf) and “Queenie, Queenie”, where you could only cross an imaginary river if you were wearing a certain colour (tricky to do when everyone has the same colour uniforms!). Multiple variations of “tag” or “it”, too.

   > hopscotch

   Again, mostly a girls’ game but a few boys might join in sometimes.

   [“British Bulldog”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Bulldog_(game)) was always popular, usually someone got hurt so teachers banned it.

   Girls were quite into gymnastics stuff like doing handstands and cartwheels, too.

4. Pallo paikalla (ball on the spot) was the most popular one for sure. It’s like hide and seek, but a few major differences.

   At first a one of the hiders kicks a ball and the time to hide is until the seeker retrieves the ball to the starting point. Then the seeker has to find the hiders while also guarding the ball.

   If a seeker found a player, they’d have to return to the ball and shout ”X’s name in the ball”. If the hider touched the ball before the seeker, he’d yell ”own name in the ball”, which would allow him to kick the ball when everyone is caught, starting a new round with the same seeker.
   Alternatively, if a hider could kick the ball away from the point before the seeker can call his name, he could rescue everyone that had been caught so far, and give them a new attempt to hide. The first one to be caught in a round where the seeker wins would be the next seeker. If the seeker couldn’t win in a while, there’d be a round without the ball where the first one to be caught is the new seeker.

   It was an incredibly fun game. There was a certain amount of strategy, as you could choose a hiding spot that is close to the ball so you can rescue or get your own name, or you could choose a hideout which the seeker can’t reach without compromising the ball. Man those were the days.

5. The game known as ‘Tag’ was usually called ‘Dobby’ where I grew up but I think this is a local name. It was fairly popular.

   Clapping and singing games and using skipping ropes was very much a girl’s thing so I couldn’t really name many specific games.

   Football pretty much took over half the playground, but at my primary school if nobody had bags or another marker to make a goal opposite the established goal between two pipes on the wall we just used another set of two pipes, resulting in goals next to each other on the same wall. Good for throw-ins and corners I suppose.

   British Bulldog was very popular but the fun police usually try to ban it. Of your group one or two players start as the bulldogs. You have to run across the playing area without being caught by the bulldogs, who catch you by tackling you until you are stationary. Then you join the bulldogs for the rest of the game, last one to be caught wins. I last played it while drunk at the beach a year ago and I’m well into responsible adulthood lmao.

   I have a scar on my elbow from a bad scrape on tarmac while playing bulldog aged about 8. Helped build my character, moral fibre, and resilience along with the other dozen or so scars childhood games and accidents left me.

6. > If they were a “wolf” we would choose them by making a circle, every one had a foot in the middle and a kid would sing a song that eliminate kids’ feet one by one, here are the 2 most popular songs

   – “am, stram, gram, pic et pic et colegram, bour et bour et ratatam, pic dam” (which mean nothing)

   – “une bague en or c’est toi qui sort ” (“a golden ring you’re the one living”)

   I’d add that those songs are somewhat regional: in my area, we sang “trou trou une alumette qui craque, pitch”

   (trou-trou, a matchstick cracks, pitch)

   or “trou-trou, une vache qui pisse dans un tonneau c’est rigolo mais c’est pas beau [add more verses as needed] au bout de 3, 1, 2, 3.”

   (trou-trou, a cow peeing in a barrel is funny but not pretty, on the count of 3, 1, 2, 3.)

7. I was in elementary school in the late 2000s-early 2010s. Fortunately, this was before smartphones or cell phones at all were in the hands of kids. I’m glad to have been a kid at that time. We had all that you listed and then some:

   – circle games, especially tomate-ketchup, which is the French equivalent of duck duck goose

   – Pokémon cards and beyblades of course, I know you already included these but they were just soooo popular

   – like you said, loup (tag in English), often with special rules. The most common at my school was boys against girls and if you caught one you had to kiss them (yeah wasn’t a fan of that one). Another one was if you’re touched, you freeze and can’t move. We had only one loup for that rule which was decided by « plouf, plouf », the equivalent of « eenie meenie miney mo ».

   – the girls especially would play horses. Some of us would be « horses » and the others would be the « riders ». We used jump ropes and wrap them around the « horses » and the « rider » would hold and run behind them. We used the small shrubs along the fence as stables and would close the stable with the jump rope with the « horse » inside. I have fond memories of that one

   – hopscotch and hoola hoops of course

   – some brought their DS to play Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/platinum although I’m pretty sure it was against the rules

   – figurines/toys like plastic Pokémon and bakugans (less common and underrated imo)

   I’m sure I’m forgetting some, if I remember more later I’ll add them. Thanks for bringing back all the good memories of a more simple time OP!