Submitted by George D, who played well with others

The best thing about the parachute game was that you didn’t need any athletic skills at all to participate.

Submitted by Jeff H

Marbles were a versatile toy, whether they were used for games or just collecting. Personally, I really enjoyed building marble mazes (the wood blocks were far superior to the plastic sets). What did you use marbles for as a kid?

This is also really interesting — how marbles are made.

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.

Submitted and Written by Ali K

Black top four square!! Ultimate recess game. Simple yet endlessly entertaining, all that was needed was chalk, a rubber ball, and some kids. When the ball is bounced into your square you must then bounce it back out without hitting twice in your own square, otherwise you are out. Every time a player gets out, the rest rotate and an alternate enters. The goal was to become and maintain the position of King for the duration of recess. Incorporating cool moves was the best, including but not limited to; bouncing the ball sky high with a “baby bomb”; bouncing the ball unexpectedly low to the ground for a “midget”; through the legs like “Michael Jordan”; and anything else our young minds could come up with. Where playground ended and asphalt began, the game of four square was there.

Submitted by Sanford K

Tetherball was the most epic of all playground games! Sure, the tall kids always had a bit of an advantage, but that only provided the shorter kids with incentives to learn different tactics and make up home-court rules that would even out the playing field. For instance, our court had home-court rules about ropesies and when they were appropriate, open hand versus fist hitting, high angle shots, and touching the pole. What were your home-court rules?