Red Rover

Red Rover

“Red Rover, Red Rover, send Teresa right over”, the kids on the other side of the playground would shout. In my mind I was thinking how glad I was that they called my name. I knew that I could bust through their line. I was really good at this game.

You would never know it today, since I am one of the shortest women around, but I was one of the bigger and stronger kids when I was in grade school. I also was a bit of a tomboy, so this game was right up my alley.

This was a favorite game when I was in grade school. We would play it a lot during our recess. Here is how the game is played. There would be two captains who would start the game. They would take turns calling out the names of the players they wanted on their team. I was usually one of the first selected because I would give it all that I had. As I think about it, there were probably some hurt feelings at being the last to be selected, but I wasn’t aware of it because I didn’t think about others feelings at that time. After the team was chosen we would form a line and hold hands. Then we would yell Red Rover, Red Rover, send so and so over. The chosen one would run as fast as they could and try to break through the line. If they were successful in breaking the handhold they would choose one of the people whose hands they broke through and that person would join their team. If they didn’t manage to break through, they would become a member of the opposing team. This would continue until one of the teams got down to two players. If the person broke that handhold their team was declared the winner.

I don’t remember this happening but I imagine that sometimes a short kid would get clothes-lined at the throat. I wonder if they would allow kids to play this game today. Probably not, but then the kids might be bored with such a simple game anyway. That is too bad because I’m sure they would enjoy it.