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Across the Fence:  All Ye All Ye All Come Free!!!  |
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Eileen
True Blue Farmgirl
1199 Posts
Eileen
USA
1199 Posts |
 Posted - May 22 2005 : 10:29:08 AM
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Hi Everybody,
As I was sitting leafing through my new Mary Jane Book last night I was struck by a memory that I just had to share with all of you and get your memories of this also.
I grew up in the 50s and out door games were our main entertainment.
One neighbrhood favorite that we played until our parents made us come in and go to bed was "Hide and Seek." We played it all over the neighborhood for one complete block meaning that the rules said you could hide anywhere in the front or backyard of the houses facing eachother across the street anywhere along the entire block. The person who was "it"  had to count to twenty and then shout "Ready or not Here I come" He or she had to go all over the neighborhood looking for those of us who had hidden. After the warning was shouted out nobody could move unless it was to run from hiding to the porch that was designated as Safe. If you were tagged by the one who was "IT" you were "OUT" and became "IT" for the next round and the previous "IT" would call out " OLLIE OLLIE OXEN FREE" At least that was what we thought you were supposed to call out. It never made any sense to me so I asked my husband what his memories of this game were and he said that they always called out "Allie Allie Auction Free." A few years ago I was having a discussion with a friend about this odd phrase and she told me that she was taught that it was "All Ye ,All Ye , All Come Free" which meant that anyone not found was free to come in to the base without becoming "IT"
It tickled me so much and I laughed for so long about this that tears were running down my cheeks.
Anybody else have one of these memories lurking around?
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 11:04:18 AM
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Too funny! Did you know that "minding your p's and q's" Meant minding your pints and quarts?
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 11:10:35 AM
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Did you know that "Ring around the Rosey, Pocket full of Posey, Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down" stems from the time of the black death plague in the Middle Ages? People would carry "pocket poseys full of flowers and spices to ward off the stench of death, and ashes ment everyone was dying and being burned. Pretty depressing little chant for a children's game, but I remember playing it.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
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Clare
True Blue Farmgirl
2173 Posts
NC WA State
USA
2173 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 11:35:34 AM
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Yes, Eileen! I remember, and I think we had the phrasing wrong for us too. Too funny!
These were school playground games: Do you remember crack the whip? How about the game (whose name I can't remember) where there were two lines of kids joined arm to arm facing each other, and one side would chant "..(something,something)...send Johnny right over" and he would have to run fast and try to break through the human chain. If he did he got to pick someone to come back over to his side with, and if not he had to join that side. What is the name of that game???? Now I'll be thinking about it all day!
Thanks for the memories of a simplier time. 
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
Edited by - Clare on May 22 2005 11:38:09 AM |
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bramble
True Blue Farmgirl
2044 Posts
2044 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 12:41:21 PM
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Red rover , red rover... let Clare come over! I must admit we ollie ollied too! Or what about King of the Mountain(Hill) where you defended your post at the top by basically elbowing people away?!! Manhunt is like hide & seek but at dusk and you work independently trying to find someone and when you do they join your group hunting until every person is found. Often played w/ flashlights, but the older they get they like it DARK! What about chinese jumprope? Double dutch jumprope? Pinecone wars were very popular and still are! The kids played shark attack for a very long time on the playground I remember. It involved a school of "sharks "circling the jungle gym "ship" and the "divers" had to jump off and try not to be eaten before the captain yells "All aboard". The cards are always stacked in this game because the captain let's people be eaten to become sharks! I recently heard kids playing "runaway slave" and I thought Oh no.... but it was actually what they were learning about in school
and they were very creative in their attempts to outwit the overseer.
One child said "Jacob, pretend your coat's the quilt for the safe house". Can you imagine? They didn't play long because no one wanted to be the bad guy, they all wanted to help!
Pretty interesting that a group of 3rd graders took history outside to "play".
with a happy heart |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 2:07:15 PM
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Remember playing the games with string on your hands, or yarn? I could make a good "Jacobs Ladder", and yoyo's and clackers, and pogo sticks.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
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shepherdess
True Blue Farmgirl
359 Posts
Robin
Eatonville
Washington
USA
359 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 3:15:44 PM
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O My Gosh You people are bringing back to many fond memories
Robin In Western Washington
" From sheep to handspun " |
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Eileen
True Blue Farmgirl
1199 Posts
Eileen
USA
1199 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 3:36:29 PM
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Bramble, Here is another funny, We called it Roll Over, Roll Over let "Clare" come over. Otherwise Same Game. We played a lot of dodge ball in the street too. The street was very wide and few cars ever came up our street. How about Hop Scotch? Jacks? We played tug of war with the garden hose. Poor hose. I guess that they must have been tougher then. After my folks got their Olsen Rug we had a wonderful long bamboo pole so we played limbo with it and also something we called Jack be nimble where we would compete to see how high we could jump over it. One on each end and you could take a running start to get over it. I don't see kids playing this sort of games any more.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
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Clare
True Blue Farmgirl
2173 Posts
NC WA State
USA
2173 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 3:50:58 PM
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My grandaughter requested Jacks because she read about Sister from the Berenstain Bears playing with them! When I was there recently I taught her the one thing with them that I remember... and she recently got a jump rope. I think it's a matter of parents saying enough tv/video games, etc... on to using your imagination. It's a VERY good thing! Her Daddy recently finished an outdoor wooden playhouse for her too! Even has her "address" over the doorway! FOUR KIELYN LANE ! Too cute.
Ah, yes, Red Rover... that was it Bramble! Anybody play kick ball? Just like baseball, but with the big ball rolled on the ground? Fond memories!
****Gardener, Stitcher, Spiritual Explorer and Appreciator of all Things Natural****
"Begin to weave and God will give the thread." - German Proverb |
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Eileen
True Blue Farmgirl
1199 Posts
Eileen
USA
1199 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 3:57:34 PM
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Kick Ball here too.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 4:45:57 PM
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WE said "Ollie Ollie Oxen free" too! And we all wondered what the heck that meant. We played red rover on my grandma's lawn (it was a great big soft cushy grass area) with my cousins all the time and hide and seek in the dark..anywhere on my grandma;s place was okay to hide and it was almost an acre...it was great. I hadn't thought about clackers in a long time. My brother cut apart my mom's green ugly bunch of grapes on the coffee table to make some. He couldn't sit down for a week when she found what he had done! And we had marbles tournaments at school every day at recess!
Any body ever get taken on a snipe hunt?? It was interesting to see how everyone has different memories of THAT! I remember taking our city cousins (from San Jose) out to the creek that ran behind my grandma's place and "losing them"..they were out there among the stinging nettles and blackberry vines for hours at night until our Aunt cried so much we went and found them. We all got in big trouble for that one, but I think we would have done it again in a second since it was so dang funny. Around here the girls do it at girl's camp..take out the first year girls (12 year olds) for a snipe hunt..then the next year they help take the new girls. I won't tell my girls the secret ahead since I want them to enjoy it too.
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 4:55:11 PM
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Jenny, I was a senior in high school and a bunch of guys and girlfriends told me about snipe hunting...Had no idea about it or never knew what I was in for! Boy, did they get a laugh when I showed up with some burlap bags to catch the snipes. I was pretty guillable. Does anyone remember the stick horses you could buy in a bin at the grocery store? I was really into the horses. I rode my stick horse all over the neighborhood, had wagon trains, campouts, a homemade stable for my herd of stick horses. All of us kids would mount up on our trusty stick steeds and chase the bad guys! Can you imagine kids doing that kind of playtime now???
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
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westernhorse51
True Blue Farmgirl
1681 Posts
michele
farmingdale
n.j.
USA
1681 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 7:22:32 PM
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Too Funny!! I grew up in the 50's also. We said ollie, ollie oxen free too. I never knew its meaning. What memories!!!! Wasnt it great though, outdoors ALL the time. No computers, mtv, video games. Just fresh and friendship. Dodge ball was favorite. Oh, and in the summer catching lightning bugs till you dropped. Eileen, you have sparked a few memories!! Michele
"she selects wool and flax and works with eager hands". prov. 31:13 |
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sleepless reader
True Blue Farmgirl
1022 Posts
CA
USA
1022 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 8:10:44 PM
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We'd holler "Ollie (All ye), Ollie, all in free!" Loved kick ball because it seemed to be a good one for all the kids, regardless of age. We jumped rope and did Chineese jumprope too. My daughter loves jump rope and the songs that go along with it! I remember the yarn on fingers thing...I can still do a cup and saucer :) Wasn't Dodgeball great? Michele, I so miss the lightning bugs!! We don't get them here. TV didn't come on until evening. Ah...the good old days!
Sharon |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 8:14:56 PM
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We played tether ball too, could get real intense with that game! Whe have lots of fireflys in June here and when my youngest daughter was three she said "Look Mommy, the air is sparkling!" What a wonder for any child, any generation.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - May 22 2005 : 10:23:45 PM
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loved tetherball too!! my kids still do play that at school..I know because 10 year old daughter broke off half of one of her two front teeth last year running into the pole (she is just a LITTLE competitive) we would play it for hours!
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 05:19:58 AM
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Anyone ever play "Swing the Statue"? A leader would use both hands to hold another person's hand and swing them around and around and then let go. The person who had been let go had to freeze in the position they landed in. They had to stay that way until you were tapped. The person who could stay in their position the longest got to do the swinging in the next round. This required a pretty big yard of soft grass!
jpbluesky
O, cease to heed the glamour that blinds your foolish eyes,
Look upward to the glitter of stars in God's clear skies.
from God's Garden by Robert Frost |
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bramble
True Blue Farmgirl
2044 Posts
2044 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 07:44:56 AM
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We played statues where someone moved you into different positions that you had to hold but no swinging was involved thank goodness! I've seen a recent version of this that the kids call "Models". Kick ball is alive and well here, it is THE chosen recess game among 3-5 graders! Did anyone forget to mention Mother May I or Simon Says?
Kids are still playing, if you can just get them outside!
with a happy heart |
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 07:56:29 AM
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Hopscotch and Hula Hoops? And the most fun outdoor game for me - the race to the ice cream truck.
jpbluesky
Heaven gives its glimpses only to those
Not in position to look too close.
from "A Passing Glimpse" by Robert Frost |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 08:04:01 AM
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And building all kinds of "forts", the ones we built outside in summer were the best and most elaborate! I loved hopscotch too, and lemonade and koolaid stands. Kids still do the stands.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 08:09:03 AM
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Oh and I remember building cities and roads with my Little Golden Books. I would do this in our living room, did't want to mess up my books outside. I was a wierd kid....
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
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Eileen
True Blue Farmgirl
1199 Posts
Eileen
USA
1199 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 08:09:38 AM
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Hula Hoops! In our neighborhood we had hula hoop competitions to see how long we could keep it going. some sore muscles from that.
The ICE CREAM TRUCK!! Wooo Hooo. We had one of those too. It had a loud speaker with a carnival toon it played. You could hear it for blocks before it got to our street. We would all race in to get our nickles and gather on the hillside of the front lawn at my house because that is where he stopped on our block. He had a soft serve icecream machine as well as bars and popcicles. He always had a broken cone with a dab of icecream in it for our dog Speckles who would be the first one served at his window.
The nearest teather ball pole was at school a mile away so we didn't go there very often but we played it at recess.
We didn't play statue like you did but we did do a swing thing like you described. We also loved to just spin around and around looking up at the sky until we couldn't stand up anymore and we would fall down and watch the sky spin around and feel the earth move.
Water fights across the street at eachother! we would team up and gather all of the neighborhood hoses and have water fights for hours in the summer. Even the adults would join in this one.
Snow ball fights in winter. Each side would work to build a fort and then stock up ammo and then we would announce the start and go at it until we ran out of snowballs. Then it would become a sort of free for all. Nobody ever really won.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
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Nicol
True Blue Farmgirl
200 Posts
Nicol
200 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 3:45:59 PM
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| Kick the can was HUGE in my neighborhood. And of course we played "Ollie, Ollie, Oxen Free". |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 4:03:23 PM
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Did anyone else have the Helms bakery truck (we called it the DONUT MAN!!) come through their neighborhoods too? He had big shelves of dounuts and other treats that he would pull out at the back or side of the truck so you could choose. He also had candy bars and penny candy. ...real penny candy. I remember being in third grade and my brother and sister and I running down our long dirt driveway to catch the donut man...and he gave us our change in bubble gum. My mom was horrified and went with us the next time so we got MONEY back instead (it was her money!!) but we thought he was a genius to think of it!! Havn't seen a Helm's truck forever!
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
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sleepless reader
True Blue Farmgirl
1022 Posts
CA
USA
1022 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 8:03:54 PM
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We had the Helms truck! I remember some of my classmates using up their lunch money on the Helms man, and then begging food at lunch. It wasn't hard to get fed because, in our lunch room, you could put unwanted food in the center of the table and whoever wanted it could take it. Waste not, want not.
Aunt Jenny, did you grow up in So Cal????
Sharon |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - May 23 2005 : 10:14:31 PM
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Central coast....Arroyo Grande. (connected to Pismo Beach if that helps) Yep. Maybe it was a calif thing.
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
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Across the Fence: All Ye All Ye All Come Free!!! |
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All Ye All Ye All Come Free!!!
