May 22 - National Backyard Games Week

Official Site?

According to my (not scientific, nor very extensive) research, National Backyard Games Week is the week in May starting the Monday before through the Monday of Memorial Day.

As a child, I liked to ride my bike around the neighborhood. We also played catch, baseball, basketball, tag, hide and seek, hopscotch and more that I have probably forgotten. The most fun games were the ones we made up. Maybe these games weren't unique to the kids in my neighborhood, I just haven't heard of them anywhere else.

We played a game we called Statue. I forget all the rules, but this was a two-person game. One player was the statue, the other person was the statue-maker. The statue-maker would move the statue's arms, legs, head, etc. into position, usually some bizarre or hilarious pose.

Also we played a game called Ice-Cream Man. There wasn't much to it. Actually, one person would just turn their bicycle upside down so it was upright with the handle bars and the seat on the ground. That person would move the pedals with both hands in a sort of churning motion. The other players would line up and tell the ice cream "man" what flavor they wanted. The ice cream man would then mimic making an ice cream cone and handing it over.

A variation of this game was the Cookie Queen. Actually, I don't remember the rules (if there were any), just that I was always happy when I got to be the Cookie Queen.

We played a game we stole from the Baby-sitter's Club books. In those books, it was called Let's All Come In or something like that. We just called it Hotel. This wasn't so much an outdoor game, but one my siblings and I would play in the basement. This is another make-believe game; one person would run the hotel and the others were the guests. I remember my brother always wanted to be some famous wrestler.

Well, reliving these memories has put a smile on my face. What games did you play when you were young?

Today is also:
International Day for Biological Diversity (or World Biodiversity Day)
National Maritime Day