Old school fun - Tag!

16-Oct-07, 09:28 PM

I recently posted this on another fitness website. It gave me a pleasant memory of yesteryear that I want to share it here for the few old geezers who frequent Discuss Fitness.

I remember in elementary school we would play tag, going from one side of the school playground to the other. The safe areas were the classroom wall on one side and the chain-linked fence on the other side. One kid would be "IT" and all the other kids would be safe. Then, starting from a safe area, all the other safe kids would start running across the playground to the other safe area. The person who was IT would try to tag someone and once he/she did, that person also became IT. Now two people were IT. The game kept going and eventually more kids became IT than safe until there was only one person left who became the winner.

At first, if you were fast, it was easy to be safe, but as eventually more kids became IT, it got tougher. Seemed like it was always the same skinny and fast kid. It was never me for sure.

I'd like to play some tag right now!

ajarvis · 16-Oct-07, 09:47 PM

I can't wait til' my son is old enough to play tag! That was one of my favorite games as a kid too. Plus there's so many different kinds of tag. Regular tag, freeze tag, octopus tag, tv tag (although I can't quite remember how we played that one).

16-Oct-07, 09:53 PM

Amanda, you are not quite the old geezer I had in mind when posting this tag thread. But glad to hear that you had fun playing tag too. No game boys or internet to keep us from playing hard in those days.

ajarvis · 16-Oct-07, 09:57 PM

Yea, I'm not an old geezer yet, but I loved tag so I had to comment lol. I didn't even have TV til I was about 7 or so and even then it was only in my parents room cause my mom was ordered by the doctor to watch it to relax! My family never did have cable til' I was like 16. We were too busy playing outside, hiking, fishing, camping - all that good stuff!

**Gooseneck** · 16-Oct-07, 10:05 PM

Loved Tag and Hide and Seek at nighttime outside. I lived outside growing up, climbing trees, building forts, playing war, bikeriding, etc etc. Those things began to fizzle out not long after my generation, and I'm only 29.

16-Oct-07, 10:07 PM

Just to make you not feel so bad about being without a TV, I do not own a TV and have not owned one for about 2 years. Creates alot of time to play tag. Now I just have to find some people who want to play it.

ajarvis · 16-Oct-07, 10:11 PM

I'd play lol. Totally embarass my DH - he doesn't have a youthful spirit or attitude. I take my son to the park and play on the playground with him - doing the monkey bars, and climbing all over, and it's amazing how tiring it is! No wonder kids are full of energy!

**.V.** · 17-Oct-07, 12:09 PM

Tag and dodgeball aren't allowed anymore in shool yards. Somebody might get hurt. Or worse yet...acutally lose and get their feelings hurt.

My 11 year old is now serving a week of detention for "instigating" a game of dodgeball at break. Yeah, instigating is the word they used. Well, it would have been only one day, but the "whatever" she used at the end of the disussion made it a week.

Merrida · 17-Oct-07, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .V.

Tag and dodgeball aren't allowed anymore in shool yards. Somebody might get hurt. Or worse yet...acutally lose and get their feelings hurt.

My 11 year old is now serving a week of detention for "instigating" a game of dodgeball at break. Yeah, instigating is the word they used. Well, it would have been only one day, but the "whatever" she used at the end of the disussion made it a week.

You have totally got to be kidding me!

I remember playing dodgeball in grammar school with HS kids and they would WHIP the ball at us and beat the crap out of us. We'd play squash (anyone remember that one, where you'd all line up against a corner in a wall and the last person took a flying leap jamming into the line trying to push people out so they could be the first person up in the corner?). We always played tag (same rules applied: brick school house wall from my good ole Catholic School days, to the chain link fence on the other side).

But "in my day" they divided the blacktop play yard into the girl's section and the boy's section,....

The only way to intermingle was dodgeball in this little tuck-away hole and man would you walk away with welts. And if you fell, it was on tar, not grass.

What do kids do now, anyway? Does their recess consist of free computer time to play Game Boy (oh wait, now it's the XBox 360 and Halo right? I'm so out of the loop).

**Gooseneck** · 17-Oct-07, 08:16 PM

This Country is slowly becoming sissified.

Merrida · 17-Oct-07, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gooseneck

This Country is slowly becoming sissified.

Couldn't have said it better.

**.V.** · 17-Oct-07, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gooseneck

This Country is slowly becoming sissified.

Not my choice of words. But I really don't want to ban me for saying what I really think.

Too many phytoestrogens in the enviroment I think. Remember the articles on T-nation? Weak eagle eggs were just the first symptom. Now crocidillians are being born with smaller penises, gay animals that don't reproduce...weird stuff in the animal kingdoms...don't you think it would happen to us too?

Merrida · 17-Oct-07, 10:21 PM

Then what would you call it?

We've become so PC that we're DE-evolving.....they're even limiting point spreads on kids' games so no one's feelings are hurt.

I'm lost.....

**.V.** · 17-Oct-07, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merrida

Then what would you call it?I'm lost.....

Something that is not PC and not appropriate for an open forum. Especially one with women and children on it.

Merrida · 18-Oct-07, 12:28 AM

As a woman, I don't feel insulted or disrespected. But hey, that's just me, and I don't want to get banned for agreeing. I didn't take the term personally and think I got the point behind the statement (mainly the frustration of lack of physical activity now a days). Misunderstandings can happen when we all have different words for things.

I just find it upsetting to see what is happening to our kids these days, and to a lot of people in this country avoiding things (primarily physical activities or sports -- notice they don't do it quite the same academically, and we do have academic discussions here),... out of fear of hurting someone else's feelings. I think there's a place where that belongs, without a doubt. But we're talking sports, and sports are competitive.

What would you call it then? These changes that are occuring to our society?