If you played Hide-And-Seek as a kid, what phrase did you use to call in hiders that you couldn't find?

Alli-alli-atsen-free (whatever the heck that means).

Ally-ally oxen free.

Ally Ally in,which was slightly confusing as Al is my name.Quite often we’d leave the best hider & all go home.I wondered how long they’d stay hidden before they realised no one was seeking.Cruel but fun.

Ally Ally In Come Free

We knew the“oxen” version but it made no sense

The phrase we yelled sounded like “Ollie, ollie, oxen free”. According to Wikipedia, it’s a slured form of “All ye all ye outs in free” which makes marginally more sense.

FIRE!!!

I said “Come out, come out, where ever you are!”. When I met a new friend, she was totally surprised that anybody would say that instead of “Ollie ollie oxen free!”. So I said that too. Ah..the good ol days. :)

@ChocolateReigns “Come out come out whereever you are” sounds more like what the killer says while looking for his next victim in a horror movie…

I guess the variation isn’t as great as I thought it was. I wonder where the playwright got “Outspenskaya”.

“You’re not my friend anymore”

AA—ooooo!
That’s the Russian equivalent anyway.

“I have your sister and a knife. Surrender now, or face the consequences!”

Come out, come out, where ever you are!

I have never, ever, heard these other versions. Maybe we were really sheltered, living out in the country.

“Mom says the food’s ready!”

I believe they are still hiding.

“Come out come out wherever you are!”

Then when really frustrated: “C’mon guys!”

“Come out come out wherever you are!”
I’m in the rural Midwest.

I’d cluck like a chicken ;)

Ally Ally Outs In Free

or

Come out Come out Where ever you are

“Mr Frosty’s giving out free ice-cream!”

“Olly Olly oxen free”—though I have pondered this over the years and I have no idea what it means or why we said it.

Nothing, we just left them there :D

@lilikoi – I am glad I am not the only one.

I give up

OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE! :) but I like your version better ;P

Come out!

Ally ally IN free! (Some kids yelled “Ally ally ENTRY.”) This was in Massachusetts. I never heard “oxen free” until I was grown up and moved to the West Coast. I think “in free” makes sense. It tells people they can come in now without penalty.

@MrItty, the explanation you found makes complete sense: all of you (all ye) who are out, come in free.

I always said ‘here I come and you’re not gonna like it!’...

The thrill of hide and seek for me was always inciting fear in the hider. I don’t know why.

I’m not a psychopath, really

@wtfrickinfrack, wasn’t that at the beginning of the game, before you start looking for people? This call (“Ally ally in free” or whatever) is what comes at the end, when the seeker gives up and calls in everyone they haven’t yet found.

At the beginning, we always shouted “Here I come, ready or not. Anyone found round my base shall be It.” The first one caught was It (the seeker) for the next game.

We said, “Holly holly oxen free…” but that’s because it’s my first name. We knew it was “ollie” but just liked to joke around.

come out come out where-ever you are

@Jeruba true, true… I never knew that you could make a call for them to come out when you couldn’t find them…maybe that’s why I always lost :P lol

I did the hiding, not the looking.

Ollie ollie oxen free. I have no idea what it was supposed to be, but thats the phrase we used.

Hey, found it on Wiki!

Come out Come out wherever you are. they still didn’t come out tho

come out, come out wherever you are, and in Finnish luovutan, which means I give up.

We always said “Whisel Sing or Shout or I will send all my men out”

When I was a kid in the 50’s in Anaconda, Montana, my mom (born in 1909) said it had been “All the other outs in free,” the “outs” being the kids who were still out hiding.