Title: Tag Game

General Information about Item:

Customary Lore, childhood game

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Informant: Charles Wade

Date Collected: 5/20/2019

Informant Data:

Charles (Charlie) Wade was born on March 2, 2000.  He grew up in St. Charles, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and attended public school as a child.  He is the oldest of four children, and he became very close with his neighbors.  Both of his parents (mother and father), encouraged Charlie to play outside and with his friends while he was young, especially during the summer time.  Currently Charlie is a freshman at Dartmouth College and his younger siblings and parents still live in St. Charles, Illinois.  He also still maintains a close relationship with his neighbor friends from home.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: Charlie shared this story as a part of a Folklore collection project for Russian 13.  Charlie lived on a cul-de-sac, so he and his neighbor friends would usually start the game of tag (described below) at the bottom of the cul-de-sac, as it was a natural starting place.  The game also acted as a way to set up an athletic hierarchy for the neighbor kids, as the fastest and most athletic children often could not be tagged.

Cultural Context: Furthermore, the game was played in the suburbs in Illinois, which shows that tag is an element of American suburban culture.  This includes generally safer spaces to play as well as an increased amount of space available for children to play.

Item:

The game of tag could be played really anywhere (in a park, backyard, playground, school, etc.). The person that is “it” can be decided by nose goes (the last person to touch their nose is it) or the group unanimously names someone as “it”.  From there the person that is “it” runs around and attempts to tag someone else in order for the other person to be it.  This continues until an exterior event makes the game end (such as recess ending).

Informant’s Comments:

Charlie said that he still has close relationships with his neighbor friends from home and they still sometimes meet up at the bottom of the cul-de-sac.

Collector’s Comments:

This is a very popular game, a game that I played as a child as well, however certain nuances such as the location or who the game is played with can make the game somewhat localized.

Collector’s Name: Mathieu Freeman