Playground Games
Feb. 7th, 2010 10:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowI've moved on from Forge of God to the sequel, Anvil of Stars, and just ran across a casual mention of playground games - dodgeball, in particular - and it got me to reminiscing.
Dodgeball has a reputation of being a game for sadists. (Cf., for example, the Buffy episode "The Pack".) But I always enjoyed it. Don't say it; I rarely tried to catch the ball, let alone throw. I dodged, and I was good at it. I was a skinny little kid, and I've always had good reflexes. I got hit, of course, but not as often or as hard as other people.
The playground game I enjoyed most, though, was British Bulldog. The idea is this. All of the players but one line up on one end of a roughly square field; the other, the Bulldog, waits in the middle. On signal, the other players try to race across the field, while the Bulldog tries to catch one. Anyone who is caught and lifted completely off the ground has to join the Bulldog for the next round. Once there's more than one, they can work together or separately, adding to their number. The last person caught, after however many rounds, gets to be the lone Bulldog for the next game. We used to play it after Scout meetings, sometimes.
I got to be the Bulldog a lot. I wasn't that strong, but I was wiry, and I'd keep a foot, a hand, an elbow on the ground until I could twist free - and a lot of the time, I could. I'm still kind of proud of that (long since lapsed) ability.
Anyone else have fond memories of playground games?
Dodgeball has a reputation of being a game for sadists. (Cf., for example, the Buffy episode "The Pack".) But I always enjoyed it. Don't say it; I rarely tried to catch the ball, let alone throw. I dodged, and I was good at it. I was a skinny little kid, and I've always had good reflexes. I got hit, of course, but not as often or as hard as other people.
The playground game I enjoyed most, though, was British Bulldog. The idea is this. All of the players but one line up on one end of a roughly square field; the other, the Bulldog, waits in the middle. On signal, the other players try to race across the field, while the Bulldog tries to catch one. Anyone who is caught and lifted completely off the ground has to join the Bulldog for the next round. Once there's more than one, they can work together or separately, adding to their number. The last person caught, after however many rounds, gets to be the lone Bulldog for the next game. We used to play it after Scout meetings, sometimes.
I got to be the Bulldog a lot. I wasn't that strong, but I was wiry, and I'd keep a foot, a hand, an elbow on the ground until I could twist free - and a lot of the time, I could. I'm still kind of proud of that (long since lapsed) ability.
Anyone else have fond memories of playground games?
