Some games lend themselves to social distancing more readily than others. A case in point is kickball. Nicholas C. Seuss invented the game in 1917, during the last pandemic. He called it “kick baseball.”
Right away, PE teachers across the country adopted it into their classes.
They used kickball to teach children how to play baseball.
In kickball, as in baseball, two teams try to score as many runs as they can. Each team scores by kicking the ball away from home base into the field and then circling the bases.
The Pershing County Middle School Colts just finished a school-wide kickball tournament.
The eighth-graders came out on top. The seventh grade won the ‘loser’s tournament,’ as the kids called the second round of the competition. According to their principal, the sixth grade also played hard.
Meanwhile, the Pershing County 4-H brought back four square, a game from the 1950s.
Four players try to eliminate each other until only one remains standing.
A four-square player bounces the ball to one of the other competitors. To avoid elimination, they must touch the ball into another player’s quadrant.
The Boy Scouts of America popularized ‘Capture the Flag’ around the turn of the century. Robert Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting, wrote about it in a 1908 manual.
At a recent 4-H meeting at McDougal Park, 15 members of Lovelock’s community club played the game. Each team ventured onto the other side’s territory to grab their flag without getting tagged.
“It’s a lot of fun, especially when you have a lot of people,” said Whitlee Diaz, 11.
“I believe their strategies will get tougher,” said Colby Burke, the 4-H coordinator. “This time we hashed out the rules. They put their flags far enough apart that everyone got winded. They definitely had a workout.”
The Diaz family participated in the 4-H Scavenger Hunt on Saturday before the Halloween parade. They called themselves the Outpost Pack. Whitlee, Colton, 10, Wyatt, 15, and Cheyeanne, 17, won two awards.
The judges loved their family photo at the Florida Canyon Mine.
Their video also caught the judge’s eyes. The challenge was to wish a Happy Halloween to someone they regarded with great respect. The Diazes chose their grandmother, Polly Gogert.
Scavenger hunts probably evolved from ancient folk games. In the 1930s, a Hollywood gossip columnist sent flappers into the night to pick fights with police and scare up ghosts and monkeys.
The Pershing County 4-H runs a tighter ship. Several teams competed, including the “E”liminators. Goonies, Young Nuggets, Outpost Pack and Houstonators. Parents drove their kids around town to hunt for items on their list and capture their finds on their cell phones. Speeding, disrespect or traffic tickets could get them eliminated, so everyone was on their best behavior.
Even the adults are getting into the retro scene. Hayrides and hay bales are the order of the day.
Lovelock’s Ghost Walk, narrated by Dawn Bequette, sells out far in advance. The Hay Bale Theater, Lovelock’s drive-in, will show Gremlins on Halloween Eve.
Last month, Imlay’s 4-H community club hunted for their finds on bicycles. They’ll line up for their costume parade in front of the elementary school on Friday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m.
For more information about the 4-H, contact Colby Burke at 273-2923.
