Playground games we use to play...

[Adam West]

We played "Assassin" in school with those toy pistols that shot the yellow bb's or the disks. Big trouble getting caught with those. Everyone who played would pay like a dollar and the winner would get the pot. You drew a name of someone else that was playing and then had to take them out, but only in between classes, at lunch, or on school grounds before or after classes. No one ever considered that they would start doing it for real, like today.

I had completely forgotten about that game but we did the same thing.

Most of the other games have been mentioned. The big thing was to play a large sided game of soccer or football with absolutely no fouls or rules.

I remember playing dodgeball with basketballs and snowball fights that were brutal (they were more like iceball fights and aiming for the face).

I agree with what has been said about smear the queer and what it meant or didn't mean. I grew up in a very sheletered household in a suburban/rural area and had no concept of homosexuality or sex for that matter (at least at the time the game was played). My understanding of the term queer meant that you were not a tough kid. So the way we played the game was to give the ball to a boy who we genuinely liked and wanted to be friends with but felt that he was too soft to play any kind of contact sport. Then you tackled him hard with the idea that he would toughen up like the rest of us and enjoy playing games of tackle football or rough games of soccer.

Looking back on it from an adult's perspective, it was probably one of the meanest and cruelest games I played growing up.

It is what it is which was a cruel game no matter if you understood what the word meant or not.

[Mikey]

You guys were pretty mean

I thought Dodge Ball with a baseball was mean

[Earth 2 Chris]

I just found out this weekend that Dodgeball is "outlawed" in our school system. My son mentioned it because of something he saw on TV, and then I asked him if they played it in gym. He never had, and then my wife informed me why.

I will admit Dodgeball can get too violent and cruel, but that's from lack of proper supervison, not the fault of the game itself.

Ugh.

Chris

[toys2cool]

that sucks,I loved dodge ball what about Kill the man with the ball?

[megoat]

When I was real young we'd play tag games like "TV Tag" or "Stuck In The Mud". We also played a game called "Skill" which was essentially "Two Square". Why it was called "Skill", I do not know. I grew up in central California and everyone called it "Skill".

As I got older, we mainly played pick up games of the big sports--Football (we couldn't play tackle at school), Baseball, Basketball, Soccer etc. etc.

Oh yeah, anyone play "Butts Up"? That game was awesome.

[Mikey]

Now-a-days .... it seems like everything is "outlawed"

Everbody wants their kids to not be fat and stop playing video games... but they don't let them do anything in real life....

I say, Let the kid take a few punchs or hits in a real game........

Years later-- in real life-- it will help them big time.....

I got a few shiners playing some games, and I wouldn't take them back for anything

[HardyGirl]

As far as the school playground goes, the only dangerous thing I could think of was Bump De Bumps. We had see-saws on our playground, the really long kind. Anyway, 2 5th or 6th grade kids would get on each end and pick a bunch of us younger kids to sit in the middle, (a real honor!). The kids one the end would bang one end down really hard so the person on the other end could get airborne. The kids in the middle would keep the see saw from banging so hard that the kids on the ends wouldn't fall off. While the ones on the ends were in the air, they'd do little dance moves. The chant went something like:

"Crazy legs (repeat), good times, (repeat) bump it up, (repeat) bring it down, (repeat)".

We had 2 sets of see saws, so when they got synchronized, it looked pretty cool. I remember those girls getting really high. I used to wonder what would happen if they missed coming down! (ouch!) By the time I hit 5th and 6th grade, I didn't have the guts to try it.

[mitchedwards]

Anyone ever do parachute jumps?

you swing as high as you can get. At that highest point of your swing you let go and go flying out into he playground.

[palitoy]

I really remember "Red Rover" graduating into "British Bull Dog" which was pretty much full contact football without a ball. It got banned pretty quick, it was a pretty easy excuse to throw your shoulder into kids you didn't like.

"Murder Ball" was dodgeball with a tennis ball, I'm pretty sure that got banned as well.

[Mikey]

We used to play this game.........
Our Gym Teacher -- who really resembled Hulk Hogan... called it Bombardment.

Half the class was on the left side of the gym... the other half was on the right.

We just whipped kick-balls at each-other (like 20 at a time).......

If a person caught the ball that you threw--- you were out.

Kinda like dodge-ball, I guess.

It was pretty fun......

He also let the girls not play if they didn't want too... they always wanted too

[huedell]

Anyone ever do parachute jumps?

you swing as high as you can get. At that highest point of your swing you let go and go flying out into he playground.

I laughed really hard that post---for the sheer extreme value of the stunt, I
guess

You swing really high-- and at the highest you "fly out into the playground"

"Parachute Jumps" The kids called it?

Well, they called it that because after you hit the ground you wished you
would have HAD a parachute!

As far as Mike's mention of "Bombardment"? That game...like Dodge Ball
ruled---and LIKE Dodge Ball, if you used kickballs, no one could ever get hurt.

(Apologies, but I'm not into the whole "Hey, what happened to days when
kids could get easily get bashed and bruised on the playground" I'd rather
the kids be safer)

[mitchedwards]

I laughed really hard that post---for the sheer extreme value of the stunt, I
guess

You swing really high-- and at the highest you "fly out into the playground"

"Parachute Jumps" The kids called it?

Well, they called it that because after you hit the ground you wished you
would have HAD a parachute!

As far as Mike's mention of "Bombardment"? That game...like Dodge Ball
ruled---and LIKE Dodge Ball, if you used kickballs, no one could ever get hurt.

(Apologies, but I'm not into the whole "Hey, what happened to days when
kids could get easily get bashed and bruised on the playground" I'd rather
the kids be safer)

Amazingly it never hurt when you hit the ground. That was one of the joys of being a kid, If we tried it now we we would be on our way to the ER.

[theantiquetiger]

Anyone ever do parachute jumps?

you swing as high as you can get. At that highest point of your swing you let go and go flying out into he playground.

I was getting ready to post this stunt just before I read your post. I loved doing this, but the backyard swingsets were not tall enough to get very much hang time. You had to go to the park or beach that had the tall swings, so you could get up around seven or eight feet high. The coolest thing about this, you would actually pull a zero gravity for a split second at the apex of your leap.

I am sure alot of guys here have jumped off their roofs aleast once. I am not talking about with an umbrella (that is just stupid ), I just talking leaping to leap. I did it because I heard that paratroopers hit the ground as if they jumped off a roof, so I wanted to see what it was like.

Even with all the crazy stuff I did as a kid, I never broke a bone or had one stitch. I have only broken one bone in my life time, and it was just a small fracture in my wrist that happened while slam dancing at a Pearl Jam concert when I was 25 or so. I didn't even know it was broke until the next day.

[huedell]

Amazingly it never hurt when you hit the ground.

Actually, I believe that. I just found the whoile description funny to
read---so I was trying to be funny back---but the reality is, frankly,
I think I remember doing this too and not getting hurt either---

That was one of the joys of being a kid, If we tried it now we we
would be on our way to the ER.

No kidding. It scares me just thinking about it
(Maybe after a six-pack!)

[Adam West]

I also used to jump off of roofs pretending to be Superman (thank goodness our house was a one story ranch) and also never broke a bone or needed stitches.

My brother and I used to climb really large 60 ft + scotch pines and see how high we could get climbing the inside branches.

I'm actually pretty surprised none of us had any major catastrophes considering the level of risk and potential danger that we took. I'm sure a fall out of one of those trees to the bottom would have been death but we never gave that any consideration.