"I'm going out to smoke my pipe I won't be back til Saturday night and don't let the witch in!"
Sound familiar?? I haven't ever heard of anyone else playing this game - I don't know if someone in our neighborhood made it up or if it was a "Canada" thing or a "Manitoba" thing or something more local.
From what I can remember this is how it was played.
You need a large group of kids. We grew up in a neighborhood where every 2nd house or so had young kids our age, so this worked great for us.
Characters:
Witch
Pipe Smoking Mama
Babysitter
Plethora of Children
The mom is going out (to smoke her pipe as said above...I guess if you are a mom with lots of young kids you don't want to be smokin' that pipe around home) and she hires a babysitter. When the babysitter arrives mom gives her famous speech and leaves.
A couple of minutes later someone rings the doorbell and the babysitter answers the door. The witch, in disguise asks to borrow something like "a cup of sugar" (you know neighbors actually did that in the old days). The babysitter says "sure" - goes off to get it and when she is gone, the witch nabs one of the kids.
For some odd reason, just at the moment that the babysitter realizes one of the children is missing - mom arrives back on the scene. Babysitter explains what has happened, mom could care less (b/c there is a bunch of kids) and goes back out - after again repeating the line "I'm going out to smoke my pipe I won't be back til Saturday night and don't let the witch in!"
Mom leaves (doesn't even bother to call the cops - makes you kind of wonder what was in the pipe mom was smoking!) and awhile later, the doorbell rings. Again it's the witch in disguise (a different disguise of course) and asks to borrow something like some cream of tartar. Babysitter goes to fetch it, witch steals another child.
Ok so this goes on and on until all the kids have been stolen. Finally mom realizes they are ALL gone and decides to go and get them. She hunts down the witch - the witch agrees to give up the children but only if mom guesses the child's favorite color (which the witch has told the children each color). Mom calls out a color and (and this is where my memory gets tricky) then the child has to run to home base before mom (or is it the witch??) catches the child. Maybe the child that gets caught gets to be the witch the next time.
Seems like we'd play a few rounds of the game. If just one of the kids made up the game it was pretty good b/c we played it enough that it's ingrained in my memory!
So what outdoor games did you play as a kid?? Any game that that might be "local" to your town or neighborhood or family??
Also - if you have heard of Witchie Poo or a similar variation to it - I'd sure like to hear about it!
Sound familiar?? I haven't ever heard of anyone else playing this game - I don't know if someone in our neighborhood made it up or if it was a "Canada" thing or a "Manitoba" thing or something more local.
From what I can remember this is how it was played.
You need a large group of kids. We grew up in a neighborhood where every 2nd house or so had young kids our age, so this worked great for us.
Characters:
Witch
Pipe Smoking Mama
Babysitter
Plethora of Children
The mom is going out (to smoke her pipe as said above...I guess if you are a mom with lots of young kids you don't want to be smokin' that pipe around home) and she hires a babysitter. When the babysitter arrives mom gives her famous speech and leaves.
A couple of minutes later someone rings the doorbell and the babysitter answers the door. The witch, in disguise asks to borrow something like "a cup of sugar" (you know neighbors actually did that in the old days). The babysitter says "sure" - goes off to get it and when she is gone, the witch nabs one of the kids.
For some odd reason, just at the moment that the babysitter realizes one of the children is missing - mom arrives back on the scene. Babysitter explains what has happened, mom could care less (b/c there is a bunch of kids) and goes back out - after again repeating the line "I'm going out to smoke my pipe I won't be back til Saturday night and don't let the witch in!"
Mom leaves (doesn't even bother to call the cops - makes you kind of wonder what was in the pipe mom was smoking!) and awhile later, the doorbell rings. Again it's the witch in disguise (a different disguise of course) and asks to borrow something like some cream of tartar. Babysitter goes to fetch it, witch steals another child.
Ok so this goes on and on until all the kids have been stolen. Finally mom realizes they are ALL gone and decides to go and get them. She hunts down the witch - the witch agrees to give up the children but only if mom guesses the child's favorite color (which the witch has told the children each color). Mom calls out a color and (and this is where my memory gets tricky) then the child has to run to home base before mom (or is it the witch??) catches the child. Maybe the child that gets caught gets to be the witch the next time.
Seems like we'd play a few rounds of the game. If just one of the kids made up the game it was pretty good b/c we played it enough that it's ingrained in my memory!
So what outdoor games did you play as a kid?? Any game that that might be "local" to your town or neighborhood or family??
Also - if you have heard of Witchie Poo or a similar variation to it - I'd sure like to hear about it!
1 comments:
We played a game we made up called "Bad Nurses" which involved us running away from a bunch of evil nurses on our magical swingset that could fly through space . . . yeah.
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