Submitted by Jonathan C

I remember everyone owning a hacky sack, and only the soccer players being any good with it. Still, hacky sacks are a win for sure — just about any activity that makes you and friends get in a circle is.

Updated: Featured Comment

Impetua sez:

I grew up in Oregon and HATED this stupid game. Since it originated in Oregon in the early 70’s, by the mid to later 70’s we were all obligated to enjoy it as part of gym class. Those of us who were not that coordinated (me and almost everyone I knew) had to suffer through it every year.

And yes, the kids who did stand around and play it on the edges of the playground or campus even through high school were the weird kids that nobody talked to.

Submitted by Monique R

There are some playground wins so epic that I wonder why we haven’t posted them before. Kickball — an easy-to-pick-up-and-play sport that (sort of) combined soccer and baseball — is arguably the best recess game (well, maybe four square).

It just sucked being picked last.

Submitted and Written by Janine P

I miss the old days when playgrounds weren’t all made of plastic. There were so many good pieces… the searing hot metal slides, the puke-inducing merry-go-rounds, the deathly “witches hat”, and any number of variations of Really Tall Metal Thing (usually welded into cute animal shapes) that kids could (and did) frequently fall off of.

At my primary school there was one particular contraption that injured more children than average. I dont know what it was called but it looked something like a Mayflower pole. A tall metal pole with a spinning circle at the top. Attached to the circle was about six chains with smaller metal rings at the bottom. The point was to get your friends hanging onto the small rings, everybody runs real fast in the same direction around the pole, and wheeeeeee! let yourself fly! Obviously this game was less dangerous in the winter when, if you accidentally let go, you could fly off into a relatively soft snowbank instead of the gravel. Yes, gravel, none of this “rubber chips” crap that playground have today.

Submitted and Written by Rachael G

I never knew what it was when I played it – just a great time outdoors. I recently went to a laser tag arena and quickly remembered playing this as a kid. It was basically some guns and a vest you wore – I mean this was honest to goodness laser tag at home!

Update: Featured Comment

regularg0nz0 sez:

WoW (Worlds of Wonder) Lazer Tag sets were the real epic win. Cool looking pistols, sensors, helmets, caps, and a giant-ass rifle that even hold up today.

Unfortunately, too many stupid kids (aka: ONE!) broke into school buildings to play and pointed the gun at a deputy Sheriff who had a shotgun at the ready…

That was the end of all cool realistic gun-shaped toys in the US.

I can’t stand all the bright orange vaguely gun-shaped pieces of cartoony plastic that have been on the market since.

Submitted by WerewolfCyote

Apparently, after checking the Wikipedia article, we discovered that there are a lot of different ways to play Wall Ball. Some people have no bounce rules and some have rules that you must bounce before it hits the wall. Reading comments on the above YouTube reveal that it seems to change from school to school and there’s a lot of contention over who’s game is the purest. We don’t care if you played a classic set of rules or you had a crazy home-court set, we want you to post them below so we can try them out. Our spankin’ new red rubber ball just came in the mail and want to try them all out.