♫Ain't no boogers out tonight♫
October 22, 2016 4:35 PM Subscribe
It’s kind of an old southern version of hide and seek. One of our favorite old fashioned kids games was a game we played at night. It was one of our “scary” old fashioned outdoor games, called “ain’t no boogers out tonight.” Never heard of it, huh? It’s kind of an old southern version of hide and seek. One person is the “booger” (monster, villain). The booger hides, and the rest of the kids try to find him. They travel around in the dark in a gang, chanting, “Ain’t no boogers out tonight; Granpa shot ‘em all last night.” Once the booger is discovered, he tries to catch as many kids as he can before they can return safely to base.
The outdoor group game of choice on my block was TV Tag. (We also used music, movies, and celebrities, among other things.) I was an extremely unathletic kid and a slow runner, but I did know my useless information, so this game worked well for me. : )
posted by SisterHavana at 4:48 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by SisterHavana at 4:48 PM on October 22, 2016
or as Dr. Johnnie Fever would put it...
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:51 PM on October 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:51 PM on October 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
I can't get the video to play right now, but it just seems so clear, yet ignored in the post that I gotta ask, This is just like "catch a tiger by the toe" right? A slightly cleaned up version of the hardcore racist stuff kids used to do?
posted by gusottertrout at 5:07 PM on October 22, 2016 [44 favorites]
posted by gusottertrout at 5:07 PM on October 22, 2016 [44 favorites]
We played a game called "Killer". Sometimes the grown-ups would join us because it was seriously fun, and they were probably drunk.
If you want to play:
Everyone draws a card, one of the cards is a joker, and the person who gets the joker is the "killer".
Then everyone is sent off walking around the house in opposite directions with three-minute intervals.
The "killer" kills people by saying "you are dead", or just blinking. As our game evolved, he or she was allowed to hide the victims behind a bush or in some high grass. It also became possible to change directions under special rules.
The point is to expose the killer before he/she has killed everyone. When you guess who it is, you run to base and shout killer, and everyone, including the "dead", comes to base to hear your argument. If the killer reaches base before you, everyone dies, and the killer has won. Obviously, if your guess is wrong, everyone dies and the killer wins as well.
posted by mumimor at 5:11 PM on October 22, 2016 [5 favorites]
If you want to play:
Everyone draws a card, one of the cards is a joker, and the person who gets the joker is the "killer".
Then everyone is sent off walking around the house in opposite directions with three-minute intervals.
The "killer" kills people by saying "you are dead", or just blinking. As our game evolved, he or she was allowed to hide the victims behind a bush or in some high grass. It also became possible to change directions under special rules.
The point is to expose the killer before he/she has killed everyone. When you guess who it is, you run to base and shout killer, and everyone, including the "dead", comes to base to hear your argument. If the killer reaches base before you, everyone dies, and the killer has won. Obviously, if your guess is wrong, everyone dies and the killer wins as well.
posted by mumimor at 5:11 PM on October 22, 2016 [5 favorites]
Yes gusottertrout, I don't think "boogers" was always "boogers".
posted by ND¢ at 5:15 PM on October 22, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by ND¢ at 5:15 PM on October 22, 2016 [9 favorites]
We called it "pig" and I HATED it. Way scarier than hide n seek, especially cause you only played it outside, at night, where the streetlights did not go.
posted by crush-onastick at 5:23 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by crush-onastick at 5:23 PM on October 22, 2016
I can't get the video to play right now, but it just seems so clear, yet ignored in the post that I gotta ask, This is just like "catch a tiger by the toe" right? A slightly cleaned up version of the hardcore racist stuff kids used to do?
That was my first thought as well.
But in fairness, I can remember as a kid games having reference to the "boogie monster," so it might really be the booger.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:24 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
That was my first thought as well.
But in fairness, I can remember as a kid games having reference to the "boogie monster," so it might really be the booger.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:24 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm pretty sure the "booger" here is cognate to the "boogey monster". I can remember stories about boogers (but not booger bears) from visits to the Folk Art Center (near Asheville, NC) as a kid. I never played that game, though.
posted by janewman at 5:25 PM on October 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by janewman at 5:25 PM on October 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
The Woodbooger Festival was last weekend in Norton, VA. The Woodbooger is the Appalachian version of Sasquatch.
posted by haileris23 at 5:37 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by haileris23 at 5:37 PM on October 22, 2016
We played KIck The Can at my grandmother's house in the Boston suburbs. My Dad was USAF and I don't remember that game existing anywhere except Woburn MA.
posted by COD at 5:39 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by COD at 5:39 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Our version of this was called Ghost in the Graveyard, but worked in a really similar fashion.
posted by PussKillian at 5:41 PM on October 22, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by PussKillian at 5:41 PM on October 22, 2016 [9 favorites]
In our small town Irish CBS we played (bear with me - these are phonetic spellings as I've never seen them written down) Runarooshka, which was basically Red Rover/British Bulldog etc and Suirse, which lines up with this which coincidentally is called Freedom in NE Philly which translates to Saoirse in Irish. That's remarkable uniformity for kid culture.
posted by kersplunk at 5:46 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by kersplunk at 5:46 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Ghost in the Graveyard! Thanks pusskillian, that was going to drive me nuts all night.
Red Rover until sundown first though. But nothing beats the time the Dad next door convinced the snowplow drivers to plow all the snow into his yard.
posted by susiswimmer at 6:01 PM on October 22, 2016 [6 favorites]
Red Rover until sundown first though. But nothing beats the time the Dad next door convinced the snowplow drivers to plow all the snow into his yard.
posted by susiswimmer at 6:01 PM on October 22, 2016 [6 favorites]
I played this as Ghost in the Graveyard too! (Chicago native). I have played it with adults, and it is still real scary fun.
posted by velebita at 6:01 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by velebita at 6:01 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
We played kick the can as kids in upstate NY but it was called Sheep Down and at the beginning you threw a stick instead of kicking a can and when you were caught whoever was it would call out "Sheep down on Amy on top of the garage roof" or some such. I never heard it called that anywhere else, I wonder why we did, not a farming community, no clue. Best place to hide was on top of our garage roof.
posted by eggkeeper at 6:09 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by eggkeeper at 6:09 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
We called this game "gray wolf". One kid was the gray wolf, the others would try to find them, then scream "gray wolf" and try to race back to home base without getting caught by the wolf. Always played at night. Central Florida, 1977 or so.
posted by smcameron at 6:09 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by smcameron at 6:09 PM on October 22, 2016
Ghost in the Graveyard / Kick the Can. Southern Indiana, late seventies.
"It's one o'clock in the graveyard
It's two o'clock in the graveyard
...
It's twelve o'clock in the graveyard
AND THE GHOST IS DRINKING BEER!"
posted by mwhybark at 6:15 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
"It's one o'clock in the graveyard
It's two o'clock in the graveyard
...
It's twelve o'clock in the graveyard
AND THE GHOST IS DRINKING BEER!"
posted by mwhybark at 6:15 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
I can cite yet another naming: Mark and Move. And as to origins and racism, and being from the Southeast and a child of divorce, I know first hand games played by different kids in different neighborhoods were unequally aware of racial emphasis and terms. The more racist neighborhood used slurs as often as possible (I'll choose 'tiger' to sanitize): Tiger Knocking (on a stranger's door) and Tiger-Chasers for Roman Candles.
gusottertrout's knowledge of racist iterations of Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Moe isn't so much about origins as appropriation. Does anyone know the origin of who the fuck put pee-pee in my Coke™?
posted by lazycomputerkids at 6:48 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
gusottertrout's knowledge of racist iterations of Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Moe isn't so much about origins as appropriation. Does anyone know the origin of who the fuck put pee-pee in my Coke™?
posted by lazycomputerkids at 6:48 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Trying to remember the little sing-song thing we said playing Gray Wolf... I think there was a count from 1 to 100 or something and then,
Star light, star bright,
I hope I don't see
A gray wolf tonight
Or something along those lines.
posted by smcameron at 7:38 PM on October 22, 2016
Star light, star bright,
I hope I don't see
A gray wolf tonight
Or something along those lines.
posted by smcameron at 7:38 PM on October 22, 2016
Here in FL in the mid-90s we called it Manhunt. Best played in the early night and late morning hours of a sleepover.
Our most memorable games were when we let my friend's dog, Juno, be permanently on the "hider" team. She was great at sniffing out stalking "seekers" and alerting the group to flee, but chaotic and scatterbrained enough to not be entirely reliable.
posted by penduluum at 8:09 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Our most memorable games were when we let my friend's dog, Juno, be permanently on the "hider" team. She was great at sniffing out stalking "seekers" and alerting the group to flee, but chaotic and scatterbrained enough to not be entirely reliable.
posted by penduluum at 8:09 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh look, a snipe.
posted by clavdivs at 8:29 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 8:29 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
gusottertrout's knowledge of racist iterations of Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Moe isn't so much about origins as appropriation.
Out of curiosity, did anyone else have a neighborhood version that went something like:
Eeny meeny tippa teeny
ah bah boobah leeny
ahchee kahchee boobahlachee
out goes you?
That was adopted in my neighborhood in lieu of the better known version due to some kid's parents, bless 'em, being rightly concerned over its connections to ugly beliefs.
posted by gusottertrout at 8:37 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Out of curiosity, did anyone else have a neighborhood version that went something like:
Eeny meeny tippa teeny
ah bah boobah leeny
ahchee kahchee boobahlachee
out goes you?
That was adopted in my neighborhood in lieu of the better known version due to some kid's parents, bless 'em, being rightly concerned over its connections to ugly beliefs.
posted by gusottertrout at 8:37 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
When we first got to semi-rural Virginia from Canada my sister and I spent a good amount of effort changing our speech so that we wouldn't stand out quite so much (yeah nice try.) One of the words we picked up was 'booger,' which my father somewhat futilely tried to stop us from saying. In his efforts to convince us he posited that it stemmed from 'bugger' and was that really something we wanted to be running around saying was up our noses?
posted by From Bklyn at 8:43 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by From Bklyn at 8:43 PM on October 22, 2016
You can find ads circa the 1920s for "tiger" chasers, i.e. roman candles in contemporary newspapers in the Minnesota north. I'm pretty near positive this was not a local pejorative name. Like other candies and nuts which used the n-word as a matter of course.
However, it seems that 'boogie-man' or booger man is not technically racist in origin. It predates American racism, having an Old English root.
posted by RedEmma at 8:52 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
However, it seems that 'boogie-man' or booger man is not technically racist in origin. It predates American racism, having an Old English root.
posted by RedEmma at 8:52 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
(though I think it became racist in America--being presumed to be a literally black man--though I don't know that it was actually supposed to be a brown-skinned person, rather a pitch black ghost figure.)
posted by RedEmma at 8:54 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by RedEmma at 8:54 PM on October 22, 2016
Yes, evidently the bogey man is a much older European originated concept it seems, but there was some popular culture crossover in the US between bogey man and "boogie" man that took on some racial characteristics at times, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that pun based meaning was the dominant one or defining, likely just another instance of two concepts being tied together that had some background likeness.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:05 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by gusottertrout at 9:05 PM on October 22, 2016
I gotta ask, This is just like "catch a tiger by the toe" right? A slightly cleaned up version of the hardcore racist stuff kids used to do?
[schulz]I KNOW NOTHING[/schulz] about this game, but "booger" really is an archaic term for "ghost" that is/was used in the south (especially in Appalachia?) Anyhow, you can see it in amusing placenames like Booger Mountain or Booger Swamp Road, both in western NC.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:10 PM on October 22, 2016
[schulz]I KNOW NOTHING[/schulz] about this game, but "booger" really is an archaic term for "ghost" that is/was used in the south (especially in Appalachia?) Anyhow, you can see it in amusing placenames like Booger Mountain or Booger Swamp Road, both in western NC.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:10 PM on October 22, 2016
There's a popular opinion in Malaysia that the etymology of boogie-man is from the Bugis people who were fearsome pirates/slavers in the region in days of yore. Sadly, untrue.
posted by BinGregory at 9:25 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by BinGregory at 9:25 PM on October 22, 2016
It's the "Grandpa shot 'em all last night" bit and the soundlikeness that gives me pause, as well as I suppose the bleed over between some of the concepts involved, maybe even like from ghost to spook could be in your example, or booger/boogey/the Cherokee booger dance and some common slurs and stereotypes of blacks from different eras. It may be all coincidental or unconnected, but I'm guessing there's more cross pollination of ideas going on in the continued use of the terms after whatever may have initially sparked the usage.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:25 PM on October 22, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by gusottertrout at 9:25 PM on October 22, 2016 [5 favorites]
my (uncited at the moment) understanding is that the etymology in American, Irish, and British English of "bogeyman" ("bogie","boogie") stems from relatively modern encounters with the remains of stoneage celtic sacrificial execution victims in the bogs and marshes of the UK. Thus the dark appearance; it's what a bog mummy looks like.
I don't by any means assert that inoculates the American usage from racism, though.
posted by mwhybark at 9:42 PM on October 22, 2016
I don't by any means assert that inoculates the American usage from racism, though.
posted by mwhybark at 9:42 PM on October 22, 2016
There's no doubt in my mind that the older you are, the more memories you have of these types of games. My childhood (in the 50's, early 60's) was filled with games like this, we lived on a side road filled with young families, kids would gather at night under a streetlight and play games of hiding, chasing, spooky stories and such. Lightning bugs, the call of frogs and crickets, bats flying overhead, dogs barking in the darkness, the air cooling as the evening waned. As it got darker we could hear mothers call for someone to come home..and, slowly, the group got smaller until we all went home, tired, grass stained, smelling of the outdoors.
I work with kids now, so few of them experience this... their evenings are spent in front of screens, in their rooms, alone.
posted by HuronBob at 9:55 PM on October 22, 2016 [10 favorites]
I work with kids now, so few of them experience this... their evenings are spent in front of screens, in their rooms, alone.
posted by HuronBob at 9:55 PM on October 22, 2016 [10 favorites]
I'm interested in kersplunk's connection of various US kid tag games to UK versions. It would be delightfully spooky of an October to find a village of sweetfaced children along the northwest coast of England chanting about bogeymen and ghosts in their evening games of tag.
posted by mwhybark at 9:58 PM on October 22, 2016
posted by mwhybark at 9:58 PM on October 22, 2016
slowly, the group got smaller until we all went home, tired, grass stained, smelling of the outdoors.
...and then there was just one child among the rustling autumn leaves. As the small figure looked up from the brilliant screen, a sound approached through fading dazzle.
posted by mwhybark at 10:03 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
...and then there was just one child among the rustling autumn leaves. As the small figure looked up from the brilliant screen, a sound approached through fading dazzle.
posted by mwhybark at 10:03 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
We played Ghost in the Grave Yard. When you saw the ghost you had to scream "Ghost in the graveyard, run, run, run!!!" Then book it back to base if you could.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 10:28 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by WalkerWestridge at 10:28 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Who can take a sunset
Sprinkle it with grue
Cover it in screams and a skeleton or two?
The bogey man can...
posted by fallingbadgers at 12:26 AM on October 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Sprinkle it with grue
Cover it in screams and a skeleton or two?
The bogey man can...
posted by fallingbadgers at 12:26 AM on October 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
It would be delightfully spooky of an October to find a village of sweetfaced children along the northwest coast of England chanting about bogeymen and ghosts in their evening games of tag.
It's all fun and games until someone gets burned in the wicker man.
posted by louche mustachio at 1:43 AM on October 23, 2016 [11 favorites]
Another ghost in the graveyard player here. Georgia, early 70s. Also played a lot of kick the can. Now I'm feeling all nostalgic for my childhood. This afternoon I'm taking my daughter downtown to play Pokémon Go in an area full of Pokéstops, but it's not the same. I wonder what she'll be nostalgic for in 45 years.
posted by TedW at 5:06 AM on October 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by TedW at 5:06 AM on October 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
In Cape Cod (Metoxit to be exact ) in the 70's we played a version called "beckon" with the summer cousins, maybe 12-16 of us on a good night. There were two "its". One went out and captured People hiding. The roving "it" called out "Beckon!" And even if you were hiding you had to respond. You were caught when the "it" called out your name. So moving fast and hiding well was crucial. We would even trade coats with each other to confuse the "it". Those captured at the base were watched over by the second "it" but could get off the base by getting tagged by someone not yet caught. The base "it" could also catch you by yelling your name (unless you were tagged off in which case you had a few seconds grace to hide) so there were lots of tactics of those caught to split the focus of the base "it" by standing is separate groups at opposite sides of the base. Real tactical play. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.
posted by asavage at 5:47 AM on October 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by asavage at 5:47 AM on October 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
My girl scout troop in NC met at a big old Methodist church with a big old graveyard, and we used to play Ghost in the Graveyard in the graveyard. It was really scary.
My cousins and I and various neighbor kids would also play these games at our grandparents' house in GA. Kick the Can and Killer, definitely, but our favorite was Sardines. One person hides and everyone else goes off individually to try to find them. When you find them, you hide with them. The hiding together can get pretty ridiculous as the hiding group gets bigger and bigger. The last to find everyone else has to hide first next time.
posted by hydropsyche at 6:31 AM on October 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
My cousins and I and various neighbor kids would also play these games at our grandparents' house in GA. Kick the Can and Killer, definitely, but our favorite was Sardines. One person hides and everyone else goes off individually to try to find them. When you find them, you hide with them. The hiding together can get pretty ridiculous as the hiding group gets bigger and bigger. The last to find everyone else has to hide first next time.
posted by hydropsyche at 6:31 AM on October 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
It's the "Grandpa shot 'em all last night" bit and the soundlikeness that gives me pause, as well as I suppose the bleed over between some of the concepts involved, maybe even like from ghost to spook could be in your example, or booger/boogey/the Cherokee booger dance and some common slurs and stereotypes of blacks from different eras. It may be all coincidental or unconnected, but I'm guessing there's more cross pollination of ideas going on in the continued use of the terms after whatever may have initially sparked the usage.
Like, literally you change one syllable, and it's a cute game about kids running from a scary black man the lynch mob missed. And it's from the American South. Come on, how fucking naive are people here?
posted by tobascodagama at 7:01 AM on October 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Like, literally you change one syllable, and it's a cute game about kids running from a scary black man the lynch mob missed. And it's from the American South. Come on, how fucking naive are people here?
posted by tobascodagama at 7:01 AM on October 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Kick the can was also known in southern NM in the 70s.
Never played this form of hide and seek. Played a LOT of freeze tag and other tag variants, including Sardines which was one person hides and if you find them you join them where they are hiding. The end result being that as the game went on, you'd notice fewer and fewer people also still seeking and the sense of isolation and failure would grow until you were the last one looking and you still didn't find where everyone was and this is a stupid game anyway why do we even play this i just want to go home now.
As far as the whole boogeyman thing goes, that was a popular term for "that thing that your parents warn you about" even in southern NM which didn't really have a black population when I was growing up and I don't think it was a formerly racist term carried into the area from the Southeast US. I think it's a term that has deeper roots. I also think it's entirely possible for those deeper roots of "embodiment of something bad" as boogeyman to have gotten conflated with "tiger" in various parts of the country. Most telling is, we didn't have the game described in the FPP where I grew up, when I grew up there.
posted by hippybear at 7:08 AM on October 23, 2016
Never played this form of hide and seek. Played a LOT of freeze tag and other tag variants, including Sardines which was one person hides and if you find them you join them where they are hiding. The end result being that as the game went on, you'd notice fewer and fewer people also still seeking and the sense of isolation and failure would grow until you were the last one looking and you still didn't find where everyone was and this is a stupid game anyway why do we even play this i just want to go home now.
As far as the whole boogeyman thing goes, that was a popular term for "that thing that your parents warn you about" even in southern NM which didn't really have a black population when I was growing up and I don't think it was a formerly racist term carried into the area from the Southeast US. I think it's a term that has deeper roots. I also think it's entirely possible for those deeper roots of "embodiment of something bad" as boogeyman to have gotten conflated with "tiger" in various parts of the country. Most telling is, we didn't have the game described in the FPP where I grew up, when I grew up there.
posted by hippybear at 7:08 AM on October 23, 2016
Also sitting here wracking my brain trying to remember exactly what was caught by the toe during Eeny Meeny... Tiger (like the cat not the thread-polite euphemism)? baby? More popular was the "one potato, two potato, three potato, four" count-out elimination chant, if memory serves. We did a lot more of that then eeny meeny.
My boy scout troop played a lot of Smear The Queer (Tackle The Kid Holding The Football Or Frisbee) in the 70s and 80s. I'm of mixed minds about that because it was a fun physical game but it contained a pretty negative social message through its branding.
posted by hippybear at 7:14 AM on October 23, 2016
My boy scout troop played a lot of Smear The Queer (Tackle The Kid Holding The Football Or Frisbee) in the 70s and 80s. I'm of mixed minds about that because it was a fun physical game but it contained a pretty negative social message through its branding.
posted by hippybear at 7:14 AM on October 23, 2016
their evenings are spent in front of screens, in their rooms, alone
Says the man typing words on a screen so I can read them on a screen, in my room, alone. I mean I like the virtues of playing outdoors too, but the connected Internet world has its own virtues.
We played a lot of Smear the Queer growing up in Texas. Guess who was always the queer? (I always wonder; how did they know I was gay at age 9?) Playing games online on screens in my room, alone, allowed me to get out and find friends who wouldn't bully me. People with wider world perspectives.
The weird game we played at my school was Butts Up, which I see now is well known enough to have its own Wikipedia page. The reward for winning Butts Up was you got to throw a tennis ball as hard as you could as some other kid's butt, to hurt them. I suppose that kind of constrained violence is part of kids' growing up and learning but geez that was a vicious game.
posted by Nelson at 7:19 AM on October 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
Says the man typing words on a screen so I can read them on a screen, in my room, alone. I mean I like the virtues of playing outdoors too, but the connected Internet world has its own virtues.
We played a lot of Smear the Queer growing up in Texas. Guess who was always the queer? (I always wonder; how did they know I was gay at age 9?) Playing games online on screens in my room, alone, allowed me to get out and find friends who wouldn't bully me. People with wider world perspectives.
The weird game we played at my school was Butts Up, which I see now is well known enough to have its own Wikipedia page. The reward for winning Butts Up was you got to throw a tennis ball as hard as you could as some other kid's butt, to hurt them. I suppose that kind of constrained violence is part of kids' growing up and learning but geez that was a vicious game.
posted by Nelson at 7:19 AM on October 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
Our neighborhood played Kick The Can and Sardines in early-70s Cambridge, MN nearly every summer night. Kids on the other side of town played "Ghosts in the Graveyard"; I never did.
There was also something called "7 steps around the house" and one game that involved throwing a ball over the house.
We called "TV Tag" "Molly went to Hollywood". "Molly went to Hollywood to see ... ABC Thursday nights at 8:00 PM"
posted by chazlarson at 7:37 AM on October 23, 2016
There was also something called "7 steps around the house" and one game that involved throwing a ball over the house.
We called "TV Tag" "Molly went to Hollywood". "Molly went to Hollywood to see ... ABC Thursday nights at 8:00 PM"
posted by chazlarson at 7:37 AM on October 23, 2016
I never heard of this booger stuff, but like others here we played Ghost In The Graveyard. One part I don't see mentioned is that we counted like in Rock Around The Clock, "one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock ROCK!" It was important to count loudly. And the other is that when the hidden person was found we would shriek "BLOODY MURDER!!!!" at the top of our lungs.
There was one neighbor who didn't like this game and would come out and yell at us to shut up. But somehow he didn't have any influence over our parents, and we felt safe ignoring him. Poor guy.
posted by elizilla at 7:43 AM on October 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
There was one neighbor who didn't like this game and would come out and yell at us to shut up. But somehow he didn't have any influence over our parents, and we felt safe ignoring him. Poor guy.
posted by elizilla at 7:43 AM on October 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
However, it seems that 'boogie-man' or booger man is not technically racist in origin. It predates American racism, having an Old English root.
As does the adjective “niggardly”; good luck explaining that one should you be misinterpreted, though. Etymology is not a get-out card.
posted by acb at 7:47 AM on October 23, 2016
As does the adjective “niggardly”; good luck explaining that one should you be misinterpreted, though. Etymology is not a get-out card.
posted by acb at 7:47 AM on October 23, 2016
We played a lot of "smear the queer" too; I don't recall a lot of awareness of the connotations of that name. We were just as likely to call it "tackle the man with the ball" or "kill the man with the ball". Depending on the crowd playing, being the one with the ball (always a football in our crowd) could be a desirable role. If you were one of the older/bigger kids in the group seeing how long you could last against an onslaught of younger siblings and their friends could be fun.
Of course, few of these games ever resulted in a clear outcome. It seemed like they typically devolved into arguments over rules, who cheated, who was teaming up against someone else, and so on, until we decided to do something else or it was time to go home.
posted by TedW at 8:58 AM on October 23, 2016
Of course, few of these games ever resulted in a clear outcome. It seemed like they typically devolved into arguments over rules, who cheated, who was teaming up against someone else, and so on, until we decided to do something else or it was time to go home.
posted by TedW at 8:58 AM on October 23, 2016
You may not have been aware of the connotations of "queer", but I sure was.
posted by Nelson at 9:31 AM on October 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 9:31 AM on October 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, that's kind of the point. These games establish the "queer" or "booger" as an Other to be avoided, punished, or feared, in a way that doesn't require any justification or specificity about the nature of the target.
Even when the actual rules of the games almost certainly have innocent origins (running, chasing, and tackling are the most basic forms of play, after all), the trappings around them can very easily turn a simple game into a form of bullying at best and at worst into training for other activities the kids will be inducted to as adults (which is, after all, the origin and original purpose of play).
posted by tobascodagama at 10:13 AM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Even when the actual rules of the games almost certainly have innocent origins (running, chasing, and tackling are the most basic forms of play, after all), the trappings around them can very easily turn a simple game into a form of bullying at best and at worst into training for other activities the kids will be inducted to as adults (which is, after all, the origin and original purpose of play).
posted by tobascodagama at 10:13 AM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
//My boy scout troop played a lot of Smear The Queer (Tackle The Kid Holding The Football Or Frisbee) in the 70s and 80s. I'm of mixed minds about that because it was a fun physical game but it contained a pretty negative social message through its branding.//
We played a lot of Smear The Queer in elementary school, and this may be simple childhood naivete, but I don't remember any negative connotation to being the queer, who was simply the kid with the football at the moment. In fact, if you wanted to prove you were tough, you hung on to the ball for as long as you possibly could. The kids that took the verbal abuse were the kids that avoided being the queer.
Which looking back on it, is really kind of fucked up.
posted by COD at 10:56 AM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
We played a lot of Smear The Queer in elementary school, and this may be simple childhood naivete, but I don't remember any negative connotation to being the queer, who was simply the kid with the football at the moment. In fact, if you wanted to prove you were tough, you hung on to the ball for as long as you possibly could. The kids that took the verbal abuse were the kids that avoided being the queer.
Which looking back on it, is really kind of fucked up.
posted by COD at 10:56 AM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I work with kids now, so few of them experience this... their evenings are spent in front of screens, in their rooms, alone.
I often think about this. I grew up in a working class neighborhood Waukesha, WI in the 80s*, and we had neighborhood wide games like this. Smear the Queer, Ghost in the Graveyard, Kick the Can, variations on tag, freeze tag and hide and seek. Even though this was about 4 "blocks" worth of kids, we generally declared one block the one we played in.
Those are honestly some of my fondest childhood memories. I was a shy, socially awkward kid with a bad home life. I didn't have a lot of friends in school. But the neighborhood games had kids from a wide variety of ages and abilities, a no one cared the social hiarachy that was rigidly enforced in schools (also, because I lived right on the boundary of the school district, I ended up at a different school that many of the neighborhood kids in middle school. That sucked.)
It was a time when most neighbors didn't care that kids were tromping through their yards after sunset. Sure, we had a few we avoided because the home owners complained. But mostly, it was a free-for-all.
I know times change for everyone, but I do wonder how much kids are missing out- both on the social cohesion that these activities created, and the physical problem solving these games had. Our team hide and seek had some of the craziest solutions and hiding places; and because we were young and learning, once one clever hiding place was exhausted, it was immediately the first place everyone looked, so you had to find another. I can't help to think modern kids are missing out on something great.
*I make the distinction because I have the sense that this was around the time there was a change and more affluent middle class neighborhoods didn't have tolerance for these big gangs of unruley kids squealing in the night.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 12:27 PM on October 23, 2016
I often think about this. I grew up in a working class neighborhood Waukesha, WI in the 80s*, and we had neighborhood wide games like this. Smear the Queer, Ghost in the Graveyard, Kick the Can, variations on tag, freeze tag and hide and seek. Even though this was about 4 "blocks" worth of kids, we generally declared one block the one we played in.
Those are honestly some of my fondest childhood memories. I was a shy, socially awkward kid with a bad home life. I didn't have a lot of friends in school. But the neighborhood games had kids from a wide variety of ages and abilities, a no one cared the social hiarachy that was rigidly enforced in schools (also, because I lived right on the boundary of the school district, I ended up at a different school that many of the neighborhood kids in middle school. That sucked.)
It was a time when most neighbors didn't care that kids were tromping through their yards after sunset. Sure, we had a few we avoided because the home owners complained. But mostly, it was a free-for-all.
I know times change for everyone, but I do wonder how much kids are missing out- both on the social cohesion that these activities created, and the physical problem solving these games had. Our team hide and seek had some of the craziest solutions and hiding places; and because we were young and learning, once one clever hiding place was exhausted, it was immediately the first place everyone looked, so you had to find another. I can't help to think modern kids are missing out on something great.
*I make the distinction because I have the sense that this was around the time there was a change and more affluent middle class neighborhoods didn't have tolerance for these big gangs of unruley kids squealing in the night.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 12:27 PM on October 23, 2016
Also, omg I'd kill to find adult versions of these types of games.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 12:28 PM on October 23, 2016
posted by [insert clever name here] at 12:28 PM on October 23, 2016
As to the booger/racial slur thing, as a child we did the Ghost in the Graveyard version in the early 80's in Middle Tennessee, but I do have a clear memory of sitting with my grandmother in her/my ample back yard in the early 2000's: something rustled off in the woods and my dog sat up to attention. My grandmother laughed, and "You hear a booger? Ain't no boogers tonight." She then sang ND¢'s version of the song which I had never heard before. Anecdotally, my grandmother was not known to shy away from racial slurs of any sort, and used them (embarrassingly often) in my presence. She also spent a lot of time in the Appalachia, the Peidmont and the Low Country, so her linguistic background was quite varied.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 12:32 PM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by 1f2frfbf at 12:32 PM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Kids still play Ghost in the Graveyard in my middle-to-upper-middle-class neighborhood on summer nights, and my kids did as well when they were younger (now they're teenagers and they date and hang out at the iHop).
posted by cooker girl at 1:04 PM on October 23, 2016
posted by cooker girl at 1:04 PM on October 23, 2016
We also played "tackle the man with the ball". In daylight. Very different game than "gray wolf". We (or at least I) didn't know it by the name "smear the queer".
posted by smcameron at 9:18 PM on October 23, 2016
posted by smcameron at 9:18 PM on October 23, 2016
I grew up in Asheville, NC and we played Hide and Seek a little and, once older, a game called Duck Duck Football (for the tackling), but mostly in my neighborhood everything had a Star Wars theme. There were no boogers that I remember (outside of the snot variety), but we were a neighborhood that skewed pretty heavily nerd/children of relocated Yankees.
posted by thivaia at 6:02 AM on October 24, 2016
posted by thivaia at 6:02 AM on October 24, 2016
Two games we played in our neighbourhood, (in addition to many of the ones above), that I don't see many references to nowadays were what we called Dragon's Treasure and World War.
Dragon's Treasure was kind of a reverse tag or keepaway game, where the players would try to touch a ball at the dragon's feet and the dragon would try to protect it. (The dragon could dribble the ball or kick it away, but couldn't pick it up.) Anyone getting too close would be frozen in place until the end of the game if the dragon touched them first. Most of the local kids knew it, but I never met anyone else who did, so it may have been from an inspired primary school teacher.
World War was played in the street, (one of the advantages of growing up on a quiet crescent), where the players would draw a rough map with chalk (or more often a handy rock), and claim their spaces. (Every player's space had to be connected to at least one other - no islands). One player then declared war on another and bounced a ball into their "country." They ran until the declaree had control of the ball, at which point the declaree had to hit them with it. Winner got a slice of territory. I picked this one up at Scout Camp, but again, it seems to have not travelled well.
posted by Chuckles McLaughy du Haha, the depressed clown at 8:35 AM on October 24, 2016
Dragon's Treasure was kind of a reverse tag or keepaway game, where the players would try to touch a ball at the dragon's feet and the dragon would try to protect it. (The dragon could dribble the ball or kick it away, but couldn't pick it up.) Anyone getting too close would be frozen in place until the end of the game if the dragon touched them first. Most of the local kids knew it, but I never met anyone else who did, so it may have been from an inspired primary school teacher.
World War was played in the street, (one of the advantages of growing up on a quiet crescent), where the players would draw a rough map with chalk (or more often a handy rock), and claim their spaces. (Every player's space had to be connected to at least one other - no islands). One player then declared war on another and bounced a ball into their "country." They ran until the declaree had control of the ball, at which point the declaree had to hit them with it. Winner got a slice of territory. I picked this one up at Scout Camp, but again, it seems to have not travelled well.
posted by Chuckles McLaughy du Haha, the depressed clown at 8:35 AM on October 24, 2016
World War sounds like a fun variation on Capture The Flag and now I need to find a dozen or so other people who want to play it.
posted by hippybear at 9:26 PM on October 31, 2016
posted by hippybear at 9:26 PM on October 31, 2016
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