Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

In Philadelphia, they call this game Hot Bread and Butter.

Children's games are social fantasies. They are shared dreams in which certain themes are being toyed with - investigated and manipulated for the sake of some future reintegration into a world view. They are reconstructions of relationships - simulations - which are guided by individual players, instituted by the groups in which they are played or abstracted by the traditions of generations of children.

In "Hot Bread and Butter" you gain power through risk and luck - not through direct confrontation - but only once the power has already been abdicated. As a child grows towards adulthood, he is approaching the time in which adult power is left to him - if he can take it. It is the opportunity that he must seize, not the person that he must confront. The power of the adult cannot be taken from an adult, it must be discovered within the person of the child.

Most children who play "Hot Bread and Butter" are between the ages of nine and fourteen. When I tried to play it with younger children, the equilibrium was lost. Many children didn't leave the base. Those who found the belt either hit too hard or spent the round trying to keep the belt for themselves. I had to teach the game I had to control. I had a lousy time, and so did most of the children. "Hide and Seek" however, which is related in structure to "Hot Bread and Butter." was a total success.

In other words, when children chose to play a particular game - when they establish a contract for what they are going to play with - they do so because the game is related to other experiences, because it provides them with a platform upon which they can create and explore a model which helps them define their relationship to other experiences, experiences which they are beginning to perceive as themes in their daily lives. They call this pursuit "Fun."

The cartoon that illustrates this little story is by Donald Jefferes. It's one of several he made for the Streetplay website, in an online slideshow called Extreme Streetplay. Take a look. It might remind you what some kinds of fun are for.

Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: fun, street games

A recent article in the Contra Costa Times reports on a new documentary that was featured featured at the Alameda Film Festival last weekend. The documentary is the work of Dutch school teacher/film maker Jules Oosterwegel, who spent 15-year documenting children's street games from around the world. The entire project reportedly shows of over 300 children's games, including "Vietnamese variations of blind man's buff, a Bolivian stone-tossing game much like jacks without the ball, and a Dutch clapping game familiar to youngsters the world over."

Osterwegel explains about his project: "You try to find out the real idea of why children play and how they play, and every place it's different. You have a lot of games that are universal, but the way children from the northern countries play is very different from children in tropical countries."

There should be much more about this project on the Internet, but I could only find a disappointingly few references to what seems to be, according to my particular passions, a very significant contribution to global fun. Hopefully, I'll have more to report on it soon.

Here, from the article, are descriptions of some of the games in the documentary:

From Vietnam:

Cuop Co

Needed: Four or more players, a red scarf and a piece of chalk with which to draw a circle in the center of the playground.

How to play: The object is to snag the red scarf from the circle without getting tagged. At a signal, the first pair of kids dashes in and tries to fake each other out, lunging and feinting until someone can grab the scarf and sprint back to their team without being tagged. Every few minutes another pair joins them, until someone successfully grabs the scarf and gets away.

From the Netherlands:

Muurball

Needed: Four or more players, a bouncy ball and a wall.

How to play: In this variation on wall ball, everyone lines up behind each other, with feet placed slightly apart. The child closest to the wall sends a low throw so the ball shoots straight back toward the players, who must jump over it. If the ball hits you, you're out. If no one is hit, the second child in line moves to the front and starts the game again.

From Denmark

Tag Sat

Needed: Four players, an open field.

How to play: In this clever variation on tag, children play the role of target, tagger and bodyguards. The target and two bodyguards hold hands and spin around the field, as the tagger tries to capture his prey by running around them or reaching through their triangle.

From Zimbabwe:

Filling the Bottle

Needed: Two teams of three players, a soda bottle, a ball and a sandy play area.

How to play: The bottle is placed in the center of the play area and sand is heaped up around it to hold it steady. In this dodge ball-like game, one team races to fill the bottle with sand, while ducking and attempting to avoid -- or catch --the ball that is thrown at them. If a bottle-filler is hit, he's out, but if he catches it, he may throw it in any direction. The team wins a point each time the bottle is completely filled.