We called it Anti-I-over but I don’t know the real name. Xenia Stanford’s book Pigtail Times at Taimi mentions anti-I-over.
This book is about her experiences attending a one room school in Alberta – a great read that brought back memories for me. I attended a one room school in Saskatchewan for grades 1 to 3. Maybe it was “Annie I over” and we Sask/Alberta people had it mixed up!
Anti-I-Over involved throwing a ball over the peak of a building, two teams, one on each side. The team that threw the ball would call out “Anti, Anti-I Over”. The opposing team would try to catch the ball before it touched the ground. If they caught the ball they would swarm around to the other side and try to tag the other team who would be scrambling to the opposite side to safety. If you were caught you joined the other team.
Other games mentioned in Xenia’s book: skipping, hopscotch (nine, ten, do it again), Red Rover, swinging on the saplings.
Scrub was a pickup softball game. My mom remembers just having to run to first base and back in scrub. To choose which team started first, the bat would be tossed from one team captain to the other. He or she caught it, then each captain would alternate their hands climbing to the top of the bat. Last hand that fit on the bat was the team that was up to bat first (by getting the ‘upper hand’). At least that is how we remember it!
We also played Fox and Goose in the snow in the winter time. We would make a circle in the snow with intersecting paths across the circle. One person was the fox and his/her job was to tag the others. The ‘geese’ had to stay on the paths as they ran to escape being tagged by the fox. Once tagged they became the fox.
This walk down memory lane is thanks to Lorine Massey from her Week 33 theme of Sharing Memories – A Genealogy Journey.
What games did you play? What version of the above games did you play?
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Resources:
(includes an explanation of another fun game: What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf; also Red Light, Green Light and others)