What are some childhood games you always used to play and miss?

Jarts and tether-ball.

Visi Misi Mosca.

It is played with any odd number of people exceeding 8. The idea is to form a tunel of people, with everyone facing inwards. If there are 21 people, the tunnel will have 10 people on each side. The odd man out who is chosen at random has to walk the tunnel.

As a player enters the human tunnel, players are allowed to slap and kick the tunnel walker, however, if the tunnel walker can identify who it was that hit them, because they saw them, that person must then take their place walking the tunnel.

Walk the tunnel 3 times without catching anyone, and you have to run the tunnel, same deal, except it does not matter if you see anyone or not, you still have to walk again. It’s kind of like a penalty.

Kick-the-Can, Capture the Flag, Kick Ball, badminton and croquet.

@bubba3778

We called what you’re calling ‘Sardines in a Can’: “Pack of Sardines”
and I LOVED that game. We played it in the dark, whole house, big ol’ gang of kids hiding.

Also after dark we played: “Ghost in the Graveyard”
One person was “it” (the ‘Ghost’) and went off to hide outside. The rest of us counted to 100 and then in a group walked around the house in a circle shouting: “1 o’clock and the ghost’s not out…2 o’clock and the ghost’s not out..” and so on..
The Ghost had to pop out of their hiding place and chase us before we got to midnight in our count.. and whoever got tagged running back to the “Safe” spot (usually a big Oak tree in our front yard) was the next ghost.

We had whole neighborhood talent shows, too. I’ll never forget watching the neighbor boys giving the whole neighborhood a rock show dressed as KISS (full face makeup, but all of us dressed in our pajamas) from their front porch at dusk one night.

Hahahahaha. Butt Wars. :)

I miss Baseball and Football. My old ass would break if I tried either now.

Video games: Definitely Lego Island II and Roller Coaster Tycoon.

I still play those sometimes.

@Cruiser said it all.

Oh, and Wallball of course.

Hide and seek for me. It was fun when my kids were younger (4 until 7 or 8), and we would play hide’n’seek.

I like kick ball too. There is an adult kick ball league in San Francisco, but my schedule doesn’t allow for me to participate.

Kickball, dodgeball, tag, and red rover.

Chutes and Ladders. Embarrassingly, Barbies.

Tag.

I loved Wallball. I tried to play it again in my late 20’s, and was sore for days.
That is a hard sport!

We used to have a big trampoline that I loved to jump on with my sister. It was and still is the best Christmas present I have ever received. Four square (also modified to two square when four people weren’t available) was definitely a favorite. We also used to play Mother May I?. Where one person was the Mother and the others stood away from them and asked questions like, “Mother may I take two large steps forward?” or “Mother may I take four small steps forward?” and then the Mother would reply with either a, “Yes, you may.” or a “No, but you may blah, blah, blah instead.” First one to the Mother wins and becomes the new Mother. I’m really not sure how it was fun, but it was.

We also liked to play Keep Up whenever we had balloons. And Barbies, house, and dress-up were faves as well. Ooh, ooh, and pogo-sticking!

Bombardment a variation on dodge ball.

Three on three – half court basketball.

No holds barred tackle football, no pads, no parents, no rules…..we played for 3 straight hours to the point of exhaustion, and there were no nosy buttinsky government do-gooders trying to make it sound like a death trap. I feel sorry for the kids of today with their lives so needlessly controlled.

Double-dutch jump-rope.

Street baseball.

I lived in Florida from age 8 to 18— our summer clothes were our swimsuits. My favorite game was Sharks and Minnows (which I’ve seen called Wolf and Sheep for landlocked folks). We trained ourselves to hold our breaths as long as possible and were really adept at darting and dodging underwater. The fun part about Sharks and Minnows is you could go up, down, or to either side to dodge. We’d also play Capture the Flag and Marco Polo.

I didn’t do much outdoor games when I was a kid. My parents were the type of business people who left their kids at home with all sort of video games and comics.

I will always love to play Pokemon! among many other old video games that I’ve forgotten their names.

SPYRO THE FRICKIN DRAGON. I’m about ready to dish out the cash to buy an ancient Playstation 1 on ebay just to play that game again. Gahhhh

Capture The Flag! :D

Ohh. I forgot this one… Climbing trees!! To the highest possible point. Can you imagine a poor little 8 year old moving from Alabama, where trees were deliciously climb-able, to Florida? Damn those palms.

@linguaphile, I still climb trees at least once a week. :)

Hide and Seek
Cops and Robbers
Hungry Hungry Hippos (My favorite)

Sharks and minnows. :O

Ohhh…just remembered: Marco/Polo in the pool. Another fun game I miss…