Four-Square

[Rain Man]

Okay, so I was passing by an elementary school the other day, and since I didn't have any candy in the car I didn't stop. But as I drove by, I noticed some kids playing four square.

How does that game survive? I remember being invited to play it when I was six or seven, and after about five minutes I thought "Heck with this. I'm doing something else."

On the other hand, I strongly coveted those red kickballs when I was a little kid. They were such a versatile piece of equipment - kickball, dodgeball, and for the less-coordinated, four square. God, I wanted one of those balls, but I don't think that a civilian could even buy them. I never saw one for sale at the store. I think the military delivered them, and they were part of some huge government program or something.

But anyway, is there something about four square that I missed? Was there a version of the game that was more challenging than bounce-catch-bounce-catch?

[JimNasium]

Okay, so I was passing by an elementary school the other day, and since I didn't have any candy in the car I didn't stop. But as I drove by, I noticed some kids playing four square.

How does that game survive? I remember being invited to play it when I was six or seven, and after about five minutes I thought "Heck with this. I'm doing something else."

On the other hand, I strongly coveted those red kickballs when I was a little kid. They were such a versatile piece of equipment - kickball, dodgeball, and for the less-coordinated, four square. God, I wanted one of those balls, but I don't think that a civilian could even buy them. I never saw one for sale at the store. I think the military delivered them, and they were part of some huge government program or something.

But anyway, is there something about four square that I missed? Was there a version of the game that was more challenging than bounce-catch-bounce-catch?
Funny, you always have struck me as a tetherball type.

[Rain Man]

Tetherball? Tetherball was another one of those games that I didn't get. One person (me) is jumping futilely in the air, and another person (anyone else) is furiously pounding the ball so that it angled up on each revolution. A cousin of mine had an actual tetherball ... court? ... in his yard, and I pretty much stayed away from it other than to try to hit people with the ball when the opportunity arose.

[sedated]

I have a feeling Rain Man's favorite game was sitting inside and chatting with the teacher while the other kids played.



...maybe cleaning the chalk board erasers

[Katipan]

4 square was a girls game. the boys played handball.

[Scaga]

Here

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kick-Ball-playground-style_W0QQitemZ6006684086QQcategoryZ19017QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Don't say I never gave you anything.

[JimNasium]

4 square was a girls game. the boys played handball.
I still play handball at least once a day.

[pikesome]

4 square was a girls game. the boys played handball.

This is most definitely not true. In 4,5 and 6 grades the boys at my school played 4 square. Our version (don't know if its any different from what everyone else played) looked a lot like tennis with those red balls. One of my friends had quite a reputation for hitting the ball so hard that it would knock you on your ass.

[DeepSouth]

I still play handball at least once a day.
Jim, I believe most people call that pocket pool.

[Katipan]

I still play handball at least once a day.

I stopped playing handball when it stopped being that big bright red ball that you would bounce on the ground before it hit the wall.

Kick ball was my game.

[DeepSouth]

I stopped playing handball when it stopped being that big bright red ball that you would bounce on the ground before it hit the wall.

Kick ball was my game.
Kick Ball was THE game in elemetary school.

[sedated]

I still play handball at least once a day.

I played handball at work today.

[Katipan]

This is most definitely not true. In 4,5 and 6 grades the boys at my school played 4 square. Our version (don't know if its any different from what everyone else played) looked a lot like tennis with those red balls. One of my friends had quite a reputation for hitting the ball so hard that it would knock you on your ass.

Our version... Some 20 years ago. Was the big red balls. So it was much faggoter hence only girls played.

And this was when the Bulls were winning all their championships so the boys were all off playing basketball or handball. Handball was vicious. They'd hit that little blue ball thing so hard at 7 in the morning no girls could ever play.

bastard boys and their natural strength

[DeepSouth]

bastard boys and their natural strength

Girls are such Pu$$ies

[Baby Lee]

Kick Ball was THE game in elemetary school.
I was one of the three 4th graders who could kick the ball off the playground.
King of the World, Ma!!!!

[Delano]

I remember when the teacher took away our football for playing tackle instead of two-hand touch. So we just filled up an empty pop bottle with gravel and used that instead. Most of our plays consisted of rushes since you can't really throw a decent spiral with a gravel-filled pop bottle. We kept playing tackle football since all that the teacher could take away was the old pop bottle. By the time she noticed we were beating the shit out of each other, and decided to take our improvised ball, it was so beat up that it couldn't hold the gravel anyway!

Never played four square.

[pikesome]

Our version... Some 20 years ago. Was the big red balls. So it was much pillowbiterer hence only girls played.

And this was when the Bulls were winning all their championships so the boys were all off playing basketball or handball. Handball was vicious. They'd hit that little blue ball thing so hard at 7 in the morning no girls could ever play.

bastard boys and their natural strength

The quick and dirty on how we played (circa 1986):

The pavement on our playground had concrete laid out in rectangles so we played on 4 segments going the long way. We played in pairs and the ball was volleyed back and forth, however it was hit with the fist in a forward movement whenever possible, kinda like a horizontal volleyball spike. More than a couple of people took a hit to the head or the nuts and at the speed you could get the ball moving, it really hurt. The girls could never play because they just couldn't match the velocity of the boys.

[Rain Man]

We had a kid in my first-grade class named Pete. He wore big boots, and he could kick the ball a mile. I always suspected that the boots had something to do with that, but we had no prohibitions on large boots in our rule book. He was my first exposure to cockiness, because he would kick the ball and it would fly over everyone's heads (we were six, and hadn't learned yet to adjust our positions), and then he would stand there for a few seconds and just admire the flight before making a jog around the bases. When he got back to home, there was no jumping or cheering, but rather he would simply place one of those large boots on home plate and then head back to the team area. He always acted like he had no expections other than to end up scoring. It was a good life lesson for me in many ways.

[Delano]

I was one of the three 4th graders who could kick the ball off the playground.
King of the World, Ma!!!!

I could also kick the ball over the fence. I always thought it was more fun to kick the ball up so high that when it collided with the runt playing right field, he would collapse into a pile of smaller-than-normal body parts.

[DeepSouth]

The girls could never play because they just couldn't match the velocity of the boys.
Girls are such Pu$$ies

[pikesome]

We had a kid in my first-grade class named Pete. He wore big boots, and he could kick the ball a mile. I always suspected that the boots had something to do with that, but we had no prohibitions on large boots in our rule book. He was my first exposure to cockiness, because he would kick the ball and it would fly over everyone's heads (we were six, and hadn't learned yet to adjust our positions), and then he would stand there for a few seconds and just admire the flight before making a jog around the bases. When he got back to home, there was no jumping or cheering, but rather he would simply place one of those large boots on home plate and then head back to the team area. He always acted like he had no expections other than to end up scoring. It was a good life lesson for me in many ways.

I think that playground experiences help prepare children for the real world. People do crap like that all the time when they grow up, you had better learn to deal with it early. Having said that, kids today seem the be much more adult in their responses, and I don't mean in a good way. I can't remember someone getting anything more than a wild punch thrown their way which quickly ended it. Now you real have to worry about some kids going way overboard.

[Dartgod]

Kickball ruled. I was pretty good at it, but there was one kid who always kicked home runs, no matter where the outfielders stood. One day he kicked the ball so far it struck Miss Penny (the very old and MUCH HATED 5th grade teacher) square in the side of the head and knocked her to the ground, clear on the other end of the playground. He was a hero to us all.

Oh, and I hated tetherball. Probably because I sucked so bad at it. Usually, if I did manage to hit the ball, it was clear up at the end where the rope was tied on. You know, that hard rubber part that always bruised you knuckles?

[Dunit35]

Kick ball and kick catch had to be the coolest playground games ever created.

[KCTitus]

I was one of the three 4th graders who could kick the ball off the playground.
King of the World, Ma!!!!

I was a kickball god in the 5th grade ~1979...over the course of the year, each time someone had a birthday, the teacher would ask all the other kids to write on a 3x5 card nice things about that person. She would pin it to the bulletin board for the day so that everyone could see the nice things about that person.

For my birthday, all the kids regaled me with praise for my kickball acumen. Yeah, that's how I roll.

[JimNasium]

We had a kid in my first-grade class named Pete. He wore big boots, and he could kick the ball a mile. I always suspected that the boots had something to do with that, but we had no prohibitions on large boots in our rule book. He was my first exposure to cockiness, because he would kick the ball and it would fly over everyone's heads (we were six, and hadn't learned yet to adjust our positions), and then he would stand there for a few seconds and just admire the flight before making a jog around the bases. When he got back to home, there was no jumping or cheering, but rather he would simply place one of those large boots on home plate and then head back to the team area. He always acted like he had no expections other than to end up scoring. It was a good life lesson for me in many ways.
Were they those big, red-laced hiking boots or square-toed cowboy boots? I never could quite figure out those red-laced hiking boots. They weighed in at at least 20 pounds a boot. I figured the most I could go in those things would be a quarter-mile before I collapsed from exhaustion.

[Delano]

Were they those big, red-laced hiking boots or square-toed cowboy boots? I never could quite figure out those red-laced hiking boots. They weighed in at at least 20 pounds a boot. I figured the most I could go in those things would be a quarter-mile before I collapsed from exhaustion.

And to think.. now they are the symbol of butch lesbianism.

[Iowanian]

I don't recall much 4sq in elementary school....we played soccer, dodgeball, kickball, baseball, smearthequeeyah, football and the like.

Kickball was where the real money was at...be it Gym class or recess. The real mecca of kickball, was the rain-day gym game. Kicking a ball across the gym, over the bleachers and over the railing into the wrestling deck was like putting one into the Bay.

4 sq however, was the high ticket item at the local swimming pool during the dreaded breaks. Kids lined up to get a shot at 1st base...and if they dared to dream..a couple of shots from the server square.

[kepp]

Oh yeah, we always played kickball and we too had a couple boys who could kick the snot out of it. One time one of them kicked it as hard as he could and it landed smack-dab on top of the chain link fence, effectively destroying it. That was the end of kickball for a week or so. I guess they had to wait for the next gubment delivery of reb rubber balls.

[Katipan]

reb rubber balls?

for kickball?

faggot!

we used soccer balls.

[Iowanian]

There were many days I more than likely longed for 10 minutes of 4 square.

It would have been better than the naughty wall I found myself standing with my head against, or the blackboards I was writing "I will not......" 10,000 times. Hell...I think I spent 3 or 4 class trips doing that too.

Soccer balls? Those are for candy arses.....In our hood...we filled a goat spleen full of lead.

[FAX]

I long for the innocent days of youth when we children filled our summers with the joys of kicking a goat spleen full of lead.

FAX

[Bugeater]

I long for the innocent days of youth when we children filled our summers with the joys of kicking a goat spleen full of lead.

FAX

You had it too easy. When I was a kid, we removed our own spleens and filled them with lead.

[Rain Man]

Were they those big, red-laced hiking boots or square-toed cowboy boots? I never could quite figure out those red-laced hiking boots. They weighed in at at least 20 pounds a boot. I figured the most I could go in those things would be a quarter-mile before I collapsed from exhaustion.


Actually, they were harness boots (See illustration below, but without the Harley logo). Those things were all the rage in the early 1970s, and this kid was ahead of the trend.

http://www.wicksglobalshop.com/91002-M.jpg

[kepp]

reb rubber balls?

for kickball?

pillowbiter!

we used soccer balls.
Ha. Soccer was unheard of in our tiny little town. I was probably in high school before I saw a soccer ball in real life. We wouldn't let the girls play either.

[Rain Man]

Ha. Soccer was unheard of in our tiny little town. I was probably in high school before I saw a soccer ball in real life. We wouldn't let the girls play either.

Yeah, I don't think soccer had been invented back when I was playing kickball. I grew up in a much more manly era than kids today.

[kepp]

Yeah, I don't think soccer had been invented back when I was playing kickball. I grew up in a much more manly era than kids today.
And then there were the kids that my wife grew up with in private school in the "Hills" in L.A. They just paid the public school kids to come and play for them.