Friday, October 02, 2015

You didn’t say ‘peanut’

One of the most enduring games in Grandson’s school playground is one I played sixty years ago. In the fifties we called ‘tick n’hit’. Grandson calls it ‘tig’ but there are many other names.

From Wikipedia -
Tag (also known as it, tip you're it or tig [in regions of Britain], and many other names) is a playground game that involves one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to "tag" or touch them, usually with their hands. There are many variations; most forms have no teams, scores, or equipment. Usually when a person is tagged, they tagger says, "Tag, you're it".

In the playground this morning one boy managed to tag another but almost before he could run off, the tagged boy shrieked triumphantly ‘you didn’t say peanut’. So that was that, he escaped because he hadn’t been legitimately tagged at all.

The rule was new to me and I've watched them play for a few years now. It still looks like fun, but it also struck me how good the game is for learning about life, for avoiding petty failures via new rules others might not be aware of, for turning an apparent fait accompli on its head at the last minute.

Learn the lesson well chaps - learn it well.

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4 comments:

Sackerson said...

I remember seeing maps of dialect names (? via the Opies) for being left-handed, but also for the get-out phrase, e.g. "fainites". In Kent in the Fifties we had to say "King's Cross one two three" to get free of temporary immobilisation.

A K Haart said...

Sackers - I wonder how old some of these phrases are?

Paddington said...

The interesting thing to me is that children will often make up fantastic games, but which have consistent rules.

Wildgoose said...

My favourite game as a small boy was "Tiggy Hide-and-Seek". The person who was "on" counted to twenty or thirty, whilst the others scattered. He then had to "tig" someone before they got back to the starting base. The last person "tigged" was on next time. If nobody was caught then the person who was "on" was "on" again.

It combined a race with the person "on" having to guard the starting base. Anybody who left the starting base was available to be tigged again, and so people would try and aid others trying to make it back by leaving the starting base and tempting the person who was "on" to switch target.

All great fun!