No one in this world is more creative than a comically bored child with absolutely nothing to do to pass the time.
And this week, when Reddit user antenonjohs asked, "What is a unique 'game' you played as a child?" it really showcased the endless genius (and weirdness) that is the mind of a kid with no internet connection.
Here are just a few of the most entertaining "games" people invented:
1. The "my horses" game:
"Whenever we were on a road trip, my family members would try to spot horses before anyone else did. You had to shout 'MY HORSES!' and then count them. It was a running tally and whoever had the most was the winner, BUT if you drove past a cemetery, you could yell “BURY YOUR HORSES!” and everyone who had horses would go back to zero except for the person who spotted the cemetery.
It was a cut-throat game, especially if someone had a lot of horses (i.e.: just drove past a farm and my brother has 13), because then the whole family would be on high-alert looking for cemeteries. It was a fun way to pass the time."
2. The "underwear" game:
"It's not what it sounds like: Basically, my cousin and I would go into the laundry room and both of us would grab someone's USED underwear from the hamper. Then we'd fight each other trying to get the underwear over the other's head. Obviously, it was disgusting."
3. The "elevator" game:
"The way you played was that one person would go into the furnace room and shut the door, so that they were in 'the elevator.' The rest of us would hurry to rearrange the family room and bring in different props to demonstrate that we were on a new and different floor. We changed outfits, accents...we played this for a good year."
4. The "bouncy ball" game:
"My brother and I would throw a bouncy ball down the stairs and then try to be the first to track it down. That was it. This kept us busy for hours."
5. The "live-action roleplay" game:
"My friends and I were, basically, inadvertent LARP'ers. My friend lived on a mini-farm and his mom would make up Ziploc bags of monopoly money and hide them all over the place. We would go out, fight imaginary bad guys, find the bags of money, and we could use it to upgrade our 'gear.'
I was the cleric so I started with a staff, which I upgraded to 'silver' (duct tape on the ends) then later to 'metal' (we hammered soda cans as metal end pieces). We also made suits of armor out of cardboard boxes, which we upgraded similarly."
6. The "diamond hunters" game:
"My cousin and I were convinced that his neighbor’s house had diamonds in the garden because we had once found a bunch of shiny, diamond-shaped things in their yard. We would come back again and again looking for them. One day my mom found one of my ‘diamonds’ in the pocket of my trousers and asked me if she could throw it out. I was shocked! Why would she throw away an expensive diamond?
Turns out they were just glass, teardrop-shaped pieces of an old chandelier the neighbors threw away. I was so disappointed because we planned to buy a Lamborghini with the money."
7. The "slug wars" game:
"My sister and I created 'The Slug Wars.' Basically, two combatants got backwards into a sleeping bag so that their feet were hanging out of the head hole, then we'd blindly battle to the 'death.' Great times."
8. The "bomb" game:
"We threw a ball around and, if you got hit, you had to lie on the ground for five seconds before returning to the game. My sister, our cousins, and I would play this against our uncles and, although I'm pretty sure we never actually kept score, we kicked their asses."
9. The "spotlight" game:
"It is basically hide and seek, but with KEY differences. We would don dark clothing and/or camouflage, hide in the forest at night, then wait to be sought out/tracked by the person who was 'it.' Tons of fun."
10. The "screaming toes" game:
"I’m a camp counselor and we play this with our kids. We get in a circle and pick someone in the group’s toes to stare at. Someone counts to three and, on three, you look up at the person whose toes you were staring at. If that person was ALSO looking at your toes, you both scream and you’re both 'out.' The kids love it."
11. The "color copy" game:
"My sister and I would play this. One of us would draw a picture and the other would follow along on their own paper. They’d inevitably both be bad, but always surprisingly close! It’s akin to those 'wine and painting' classes where like 13 women down a few bottles of wine and all try to paint the same tree."
12. The "tournament" game:
"I have a thing for tournaments. I don’t know what it is, but I love brackets. On my summer breaks from school, I would stay up super late, like until 6 a.m., and I would I would write down the names of my friends and fill out a bracket. I’d flip a coin to see who won. After a champion was crowned, I would calculate all the winning percentages by hand and use their overall records to seed them going into the next tournament. I still have notebooks full of these 'tournaments' in my parents shed."
13. The "camera tag" game:
"We made up a game where we'd all be in the dark and each person had a camera. If you thought you spotted someone, you had to take a picture of them with the flash ON for it to count. If they're in the picture with the flash on, they're 'out.'"
14. The "dark man" game:
"My brother, my best friend, and I played played this. It was hide-and-seek in my parents' basement with the lights OUT. The twist was that person looking for the other two wore a glow-in-the-dark Skeletor mask, so the two people hiding could see them, but they couldn't see us. It got really intense at times, trying to find your way in the dark and trying to be as quiet as possible. Also, my parents' basement was unfinished, so occasionally you'd bump into a nail which made it extra dangerous."
15. The "best falls" game:
"Our elementary school had a steep hill on part of the playground. Five or six people would line up at the top of the hill, and another person would be at the bottom of the hill. The person at the bottom would ask the first person at the top how they wanted to be 'killed.' The person at the top would say 'machine gun' or 'bazooka' or 'hand grenade,' then the person at the bottom would make a big show of using that 'weapon' on the person at the top, while the person at the top would make a big show of getting 'killed,' falling, and rolling down the hill."
16. The "hunger games" game:
"We had about 15 people standing in a large circle out in the field of the school. Someone would shout '3, 2, 1' and everyone would run. Sometimes there would be balls in the middle and, if you hit someone with a ball, they'd 'die.' If you touched someone, they'd 'die,' BUT if you both touched each other at the same time, you'd both 'die.' When there are around three people left, the 'dead' came back and required a quick double touch to kill someone. Last one alive won."
17. And finally, the "Stupidland" game:
"We would literally just spin in my father’s office chair (which we weren’t allowed to do) and say the word 'stupid' (which we also weren’t allowed to do). We didn’t know what that word meant at the time, but we figured that it must be great if we weren’t allowed to say it."
Okay, so now you're ~IT!~ Can you top these? What was the strangest, most unique "game" you played as a kid? Share yours in the comments below!
