Title: Backyard Football

General Information about Item:

Customary Lore, childhood game

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Informant: Linda Farber

Date Collected: 5/17/2019 

Informant Data:

Linda Farber was born on April 27, 1967 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Linda has an older brother, and they both grew up in an apartment in center-city Philadelphia with their mother and father.  As a child, she attended a private school in Philadelphia, however she became very close with the other children that grew up in her apartment complex, and they would play outside almost every day, especially in the summer.  Her parents would let her play with her brother and the other children at the park near the apartment complex, however they were expected to be home before dinner.  Currently, Linda lives in Shelton, Connecticut where she is a mother of three children and works as an organic chemistry professor at Sacred Heart University.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: Linda shared this story as a part of a Folklore collection project for Russian 13.  As a child, she would play many games outdoors with the other children that lived in the apartment complex, and one of her favorites was backyard football.  She was usually one of the few girls that played because she was faster and tougher than some of the boys that played.  They would always go to the park next to the apartment buildings to play football.

Cultural Context: Also, the rough nature of the game, given that it was tackle football with no pads, is representative of the “tough” culture that comes with growing up in the city.  Culturally, her parents were both immigrants who raised them with the idea that academics was the most important.  Therefore, Linda only played sports offered at school or ones that could be played in a backyard.  It was much less prevalent for parents to sign their children up for various sports leagues, lessons, etc. during that time in the city, than it would be today.

Item:

Backyard football has all the same rules as regular football except there are no pads or helmets.  The game started with players being picked at the beginning by a captain for each team (captains were usually unanimously elected by the group and were the more senior and better players in the group).  Each captain would go back and forth picking one person for their team until there was no one left.  It also meant that on offense there were only two positions, receivers, those who would catch the ball, and a quarterback, one that would throw the ball (to receivers).  On defense, there were only defensive backs that would cover and tackle the receivers and at times rush the quarterback.  The defense would have to chant to 5 Mississippi (i.e. One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, etc.) before they could cross the line of scrimmage, which separates the offense and defense, and rush the quarterback.  Your team would score when the receiver caught the ball in a defined area on either end of the park – this was called a “touchdown”.  The winner of the game was the team that scored the most touchdowns by the end.  The end of the game was usually determined by it being close to dinner time and therefore having to go inside.

Informant’s Comments:

Linda remembers playing all day long outside, especially in the summer, and sometimes resents the amount of time spent inside by today’s youth.

Collectors Comments:

All of these rules are exactly the same as the one’s I used, however we played “two hand touch” as opposed to tackle football in the backyard.  This is interesting because I grew up in the suburbs, which makes me think that playing tackle football might be more prevalent in areas like the city.

Collector’s Name: Mathieu Freeman

Title: King of the Hill Game

General Information about Item:

Customary Lore, childhood game

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Informant: Ryan Cashman

Date Collected: 5/20/2019

Informant Data:

Ryan Cashman was born on December 11, 1999.  He grew up in Belle Mead, NJ and attended public school as a child.  He has two younger sisters that both still live in Belle Mead with their parents.  As a child, Ryan would take the bus to school, which allowed for him to become closer friends with the other children that would ride the bus with him.  Ryan is currently a freshman at Dartmouth College, and he still maintains a close relationship with his childhood friends from school.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: Ryan shared this story as a part of a Folklore collection project for Russian 13.  Ryan took the bus to school, so before the bus arrived at the bus stop, he would interact and play with the other kids at the bus stop. This created a new group, which were the kids that played King of the Hill, as described below, in the winter at the bus stop Ryan went to every day before school.

Cultural Context: This game was seasonal because it was only played during the winter, and therefore is an aspect of Northern American Suburban culture.

Item:

Children that attended public school with Ryan would play King of the Hill at the bus stop before school.  This occurred only during the winter after snow plows would leave large piles of snow by the bus stop.  The game worked so that before the bus arrived, one child would go to the top of the snow pile and therefore would be deemed “king of the hill”.  Subsequently, the rest in group would try to knock that person off the top so that they can become the new “king of the hill”.  This cycle would continue until the bus arrived at the bus stop.

Informant’s Comments:

Ryan still has fond memories of playing before the bus came, and it made the experience in the cold much more enjoyable.

Collector’s Comments:

I was familiar with this game as well, however in my hometown it was played year-round and at different location instead of one specific place and time, as was the case with Ryan.

Collector’s Name: Mathieu Freeman

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

Tree Home Game

Informant Data:

Dylan Mao was born on October 13th of 1998 in New York City. When she was very young her family relocated to Brooklyn where she lived until moving away for college. Dylan is an only child but she grew up playing with same close-knit group of childhood friends for many years, as they all attended the same private school from kindergarten through high school. During the fall and spring seasons Dylan’s mother would take her and her childhood friends to Prospect Park after school on days when Dylan did not have after-school activities like soccer practice or rehearsals for the school’s musical theater program. At the park they would get ice cream and then play until dinnertime. In the summertime, Dylan would also play in Prospect Park every afternoon after attending various day camps. Dylan is now a second-year undergraduate student at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania where she studies French and education.

Contextual Data:

I spoke with Dylan on May 15th of 2019 when she came to visit Dartmouth College’s campus in Hanover, New Hampshire upon completing her spring term at Gettysburg. She shared this story as part of a Folklore collection for Russian 13. When I asked Dylan about her favorite childhood backyard game, she immediately brought up what she calls “the tree home game.”  The game involved access to a park with clusters of nearby trees. While Dylan remembers playing many outdoor games with various groups of children and in various locations, she played this specific game only with one group of kids—a group of five of her closest elementary school friends who functioned almost like siblings for her. This group of children created the game together while playing in Prospect Park after school one day in June (Dylan believes it was the last day of first grade). It was played frequently that summer and during the subsequent summers. Dylan also mentioned that this game was almost always played in the surrounding area of a particular meadow in Prospect Park. Additionally, although this game was played by children growing up in a city, it required access to a large outdoor park and is thus more similar in nature to popular American suburban children’s games than to children’s games associated with urban culture.

Item:

The “tree home game” is usually played with at least three children. Each child participant has a few minutes to select their favorite tree, which is then considered their “home” for the duration of the game. After each participant selects his or her tree, all of the children playing the game then gather together again and take turns visiting each child’s “home.” In order to properly visit each home, all of the children playing must climb each given tree. Once everyone has successfully climbed or gathered around the tree, the particular child who picked it out then gives the other children a “tour” of their tree home. Participants also usually engage in a pretend dinner party at each tree home.

Collector’s Comments:

When I asked Dylan about the emotions associated with this game, she recalled that sometimes tensions among the child participants would arise when multiple kids wanted to select the same tree to be their “home.” She remarked that usually such an issue was settled by a game of “rock-paper-scissors,” which resonated with me in particular. Using “rock-paper-scissors” as a way to settle issues that came up during play dates is something I did all the time as a child (whether the issue revolved around deciding who was going to be “it” for a game of tag or hide-and-seek, or deciding who got to pick out what game was being played in the first place).

Collector’s Name: Ella Ketchum ‘21

“Ice Cream Soda” Jump Rope Game

Informant Data:

Alexandra “Ally” Batter was born on April 22^ndof 1999 and grew up in the suburbs of Connecticut. She and her younger brother were raised in the town of Wilton where they had the luxury of entertaining themselves in a large backyard in which they would frequently run around and play with children from the neighboring families. An extremely active kid raised by parents who emphasized exercise and athletics, Alexandra grew up swimming competitively as well as playing soccer and tennis. She attended the local public school until she entered high school and maintained close friendships with her elementary school peers. She is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College where she studies psychology and is involved in Dartmouth’s Women in Business club.

Contextual Data:

I spoke with Ally on May 10th of 2019 in the lobby of Dartmouth College’s Baker Library in Hanover, New Hampshire. She shared this story as part of a Folklore collection for Russian 13. When I asked Ally about childhood games she and her friends would play, said replied “I guess something I remember doing a lot during recess is jumping rope. A lot of the times the boys always wanted to play tag but a lot of us girls loved all the jump-roping games and the songs that went with them.” Jump-rope games are a type of childlore, but more specifically they also contain elements of verbal folklore as they often involve rhyming songs that are chanted by surrounding children while the jumping child relies on the beat of the song to jump over a rope. Although many children’s backyard games are specific to suburban culture, jump-rope related games are not. Variations of jump-rope games have developed across cultures worldwide and still persist in all types of regions today. For instance, double-dutch (a game involving two ropes turning in opposite directions) is said to have originated in New York City as a form of urban entertainment for girls and has historically been associated with street entertainment among African-American communities. On the other hand, this informant reports jump-rope games being frequently played in her predominately white and upper middle class suburban community. I asked Ally if she could remember any specific jump-roping game in particular, or if she had a favorite. She then proceeded to tell me about “Ice Cream Soda.” Although Ally does remember the boys at her school jumping rope occasionally during recess, she only remember this particular game being played by the female students—perhaps, she thinks, because it involves a line containing the word “boyfriend.”  The game often ends in laughter, with the participating children making jokes about the jumper and their alleged boyfriend (which is established by the rhyme and the nature of the game).

Item:

“Ice Cream Soda” is usually played with a single rope, although in other versions of the game, two ropes can be used. The rhyme associated with the game goes as follows:  “Ice cream soda, cherry on the top, who’s your boyfriend I forgot? A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H…” Children then continue chanting the letters of the alphabet continuously until the jumper stops jumping (either because of exhaustion or due to tripping). The letter of the alphabet that is being chanted at the particular moment that the jumper stops jumping holds special importance as the tradition of the game holds that the surrounding children must quickly think of the first person they know whose first name begins with that letter. Whichever person is thought of first is considered the “boyfriend” of the jumper in the context of the game.

Collector’s Comments:

Although I never grew up playing the particular game “Ice Cream Soda,” I did often jump rope during recess with my friends. Notably, like this informant, I distinctly remember jump-rope games being played more frequently by the girls at my elementary school than the boys. It is interesting that jumping rope (traditionally associated with the image of a young girl in pigtails) is still coded as feminine even in this day and age and despite recent increased efforts by many parents, teachers, and schools to eliminate the harmful gendering of specific children’s activities.

Collector’s Name: Ella Ketchum ‘21

“Quack Diddly Oso” Clapping Hand Game

Informant Data:

Julia Stevenson was born on March 22nd of 1996 on the Upper West Side of New York City. She moved to Westchester County at a very young age where she grew up with her younger sister. Both her and her sister were avid readers from a young age and enjoyed going to the library together. Julia also loved to play badminton, Wiffle ball, as well as make-believe games after school with her neighbors and cousins. She also holds fond memories of the summers she spent as a child on Cape Cod with her extended family and the camping trips she took with her mom at the end of each summer. As a child, Julia also received intensive training in ballet and was featured in New York City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker for several years.Julia attended Hackley, a private school in Tarrytown, from kindergarten through the 12th grade. She is currently a pre-med student at Dartmouth College where she runs for the Cross Country team.

Contextual Data:

I spoke with Julia on May 8th of 2018 in a residential hall at Dartmouth College. She shared this story as part of a Folklore collection for Russian 13.As Julia recounted all the games she used to play with her neighbors and cousins growing up after school and over the summer in Cape Cod, she emphasized rhyming and clapping hand games in particular. She started playing hand games when she was in elementary school when she and her friends were bored during recess. While she does not remember from whom specifically she first learned these hand games, she believes they might have been introduced and passed down by her teachers and her peers’ older siblings.  When asked to recall a specific rhyming hand game that she played a lot, and she responded with “Quack Diddly Oso”—which was her favorite one. This specific hand game has aspects of both verbal lore and customary lore (as it served a specific function for Julia and the children she played it with). Julia reported that they would play this game a lot in order pick a person to be “it” for hide-and-seek or to assign teams for bigger games. Once Julia learned “Quack Diddly Oso” at school, she taught her younger sister and her cousins to play over the summer in Cape Cod, which is where she remembers playing it the most. She and her cousins would usually play together before a big game of hide-and-seek, and they would all stand in a large circle with overlapping hands and pass the clap around while they sang the song that goes along with the game.Julia also noted that often times some of her younger cousins would get upset when they played the game, either because they did not know the rhyme or because they felt left out once they were eliminated from the game.

Item:

“Quack Diddly Oso”can be played with at least two people, although it is usually played with a group of at least three to four children who stand in a circle with their right hand on top of the left hand of the person their right.As the rhyming song that accompanies the game is chanted, the participants proceed around the circle clockwise clapping the hand of the person to their left with their right hand. They pass the clap around in the circle to the beat of rhyme and eliminate one person with every round.The cycle continues until the song ends, and if at this particular point a person’s hand is slapped, they are considered “out” and they then must stand or sit in the center of the circle, or leave the circle and watch from the edges. However, if the player pulls his or her hand away quickly enough and avoids being slapped, the person who attempted to slap their hand is eliminated instead. The rhyme that the informant played with goes as follows:

“Quack diddly oso quack quack quack, Señorita, your mama smells like pizza, so give it to your teacher, Dolora, Dolora, I’ll meet you at the door-a with a 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10…”

Collector’s Comments:

I also grew up playing  “Quack Diddly Oso” during recess with my friends, however I played a slightly different version of the game. The rhyme that I played with started in the same way but included different words after the initial “Quack diddly oso quack quack quack” line. I think that rhyming hand games speak to the complicated nature of childlore. Many of these games are at once a shared staple of American culture—many with the same name are played by kids all over the country—yet the rhyming songs that accompany them can vary dramatically depending on region and specific place, and in that way they can also be quite localized and unique. Nonetheless, the widespread popularity of rhyming hand games as a form of entertainment for children is hardly surprising given their simplicity and convenience. All that these games require are the participants’ hands, and thus they can be played almost anywhere. Lastly, Julia’s comments on the younger children feeling left out resonated with me in particular. I distinctly remember that once rhyming and clapping hand games started to become wildly popular at my elementary school, the kids who were left out of games from the start or became eliminated early on would often become very upset—so much so that sometimes teachers had to get involved.

Collector’s Name: Ella Ketchum ‘21

Jump Rope Game                                                                                                            Alexa Jennings

“Helicopter”                                                                                                                        Dayton Ohio

September 2006

Informant Data:

Alexa was born in Dayton Ohio on May 17th, 1997. She has one older brother and is very close with both of her parents. Growing up, Alexa attended the Normandy Elementary school from grades 2-5. Alexa always loved going to school and especially playing outside during recess. She had a very close group of 6 friends that also attended the elementary school, of whom she would play with at recess. They are still friends to this day. The playground of the elementary school had a massive black top, a big grass field and a play structure. Alexa and her friend’s would always play on the blacktop. Alexa is currently a senior at Dartmouth college, majoring in engineering. Her parents still live in Dayton. Whenever she has a chance to go home, she always tries to meet up with her 6 friends from elementary school.

Contextual Data:

Alexa shared this story as part of a Folklore collection for Russian 13. When Alexa was in elementary school, she would have recess after lunch. Alexa loved this time because it allowed for her to let her energy out after having to sit still all day. The elementary school had a bin of toys that included soccer balls, frisbees, kickballs, chalk, and jump ropes. Her and her friends would always grab a jump rope so that they could play helicopter. The rules are described below. They would play this game every time they could get a jump rope from the bin. Alexa loved being the one to spin around with the rope because it was fun to try to get people out and it also meant that she had won the previous round. Alexa remembered the pain of when the jump rope would hit your ankle and the urgency it created for you to jump over. Sometimes the person spinning with the jump rope would accidently swing it above ankle length. Alexa remembered this being extremely unfair and usually started fights with her friends.

Item:

The game helicopter started with the person in the middle holding one end of a jump rope. They would spin with one end of the jump rope in one hand, and the other part of the jump rope flying close to the ground. People would form a circle around the person in the middle and jump over the one end of the jump rope as it come around. If the jump rope hit them, causing it to stop, that person would be out. This process continued until there was only one person left. The winter would become the next jump rope spinner.

Informants Comments: “I still remember the marks on my ankle that the jump rope would leave!”

Collector’s Comments: I also played this game when I was in elementary school. However, I remember the teachers made us stop playing because people were getting injured. I wonder if this game is no longer allowed to be played because of the safety hazards and the increasing protection now placed on children and more regulated play.

Isabelle Giordano 20

Dartmouth College

Russian 13.02

Spring Term 2019

Informative Chant                                                                                                  Rachel Ludwikowski

“Olly Olly Oxen Free”                                                                                                            Suffern, NY

July 2009

Informant Data:

Rachel Ludwikowski was born in Suffern New York on June 22, 1999. She has one younger brother. Her nine cousins lived in the same town as her, and are on her mom’s side. The age gap between the youngest cousin and oldest is 7 years. Her family would have dinner together every Sunday. The kids were always encouraged to play outside in the summer. Her parents emphasized the importance of being close with her cousins and therefore she was very close to them. Rachel is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth college, studying economics. Her parents still live in Suffern, but her cousins moved to Massachusetts. They still see each other as much as possible, especially on holidays.

Contextual Data:

Rachel shared this story as part of a Folklore collection for Russian 13. When Rachel was younger, her cousins would go over to her house every Sunday for dinner. This was one of Rachel’s favorite days of the week, because she loved to play with her cousins. Rachel only has one brother, so this allowed her to play with a bigger group. She and her cousins would play backyard games while the parents prepared dinner. Rachel’s favorite game was man hunt. To play manhunt, the eldest cousin, Mary, would divide up the other children into two even teams. One team was considered “it” and the other team would go hide. The goal of the hiding team was to get to a designated base without being tagged. If you get tagged, you go to jail. To get out of jail, one member of your team needs to tag you. The “it” team wins by having everyone in jail and the hiding team wins by having everyone get to the base. When a member of the hiding team would get to the base, they would say the chant described below. The chant was used to let the “it” team know who was at the base and as a bragging right. Rachel loved to scream the chant because it meant her team was winning and she had done her part. This game was way for the children to let out their energy before dinner.

Item:

To let the “it” team know that that a member of the hiding team had made it to the base, that member would shout, “Olly Olly Oxen Free”. The person yelling made sure to scream it very loud, so that every child was aware that they had made it to the base.

Informant’s Comments: Rachel commented about how she loved to be the first person on her team to say the chant.

Collector’s Comments: I found it interesting that I had also used this chant, but for a different game. The chant had the same purpose (to let the other team know you had made it to the base). When I did some research, I found that it has been used in many games, such as hide and seek, capture the flag, and kick the can.

Collector’s Name: Isabelle Giordano

Isabelle Giordano 20

Dartmouth College

Russian 13.02

Spring Term 2019