I
wake early, and am downstairs when I hear granddaughter's feet running
into our bedroom. Then shrieks, and more-non-stop-pounding and
commotion and giggling. As improbable as it is, my mind's
eye saw
granddaughter and MoSup playing stink tag. Stink tag?
Horry clap. Stink tag? I haven't heard that, even in my head, for
about 90 years. Back then, in Chicago, stink tag was when one kid
would touch someone and yell "you stink," and run off. The
only way
to get rid of the stink was to pass it to somebody else. Usually
someone was left crying. So, yes,
tag. But
we called it stink tag. Never heard the phrase since, and we
raised
four kids. Was that game peculiar to our block in Chicago?
Did one of
us spontaneously make it up? I Googled, and the nearest I could
come
was this
preposterous variation. And some others that are way too
sophisticated for us kids to have conjured.
I'm just wondering. |
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Originally from Cleveland, OH, and, yes, I do remember stink tag. Might be a Midwest thing.
ReplyDeleteIt was "Cooties" when I was in the third grade, and that soon degraded to cooties for a particular kid in our grade. That kid was out sick one day and our teacher read the whole class the Riot Act abut hurting others with the Cootie business. It never happened again, and I am still ashamed that I took part in it fifty-something years ago.
ReplyDeleteWe were more of a "Kick the Can" neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a youngster growing up in Arizona, the game was to tag one of your brothers I had 7, and 2 sisters,) hard enough to 1)knock them down, 2)make them cry, or 3)draw blood.
ReplyDeleteMore often than not, Mom or Dad were the winners, 'cause someone would go whining (or bleeding,) into the house, and Parental Authority would end the game!
We were lucky. Boxes of Tide detergent came with an orange rubber ball, which was used in the game "grenade". There were no bounds for the play, and you couldn't tag the person that just hit you with the ball. Those with a good arm, accuracy, and patience, could play at leisure and tag someone from over one hundred feet.
ReplyDeleteLindaF, excellent, now what can you tell us about the "Cleveland Steamer"?
ReplyDeleteCasca