One of the best games of my youth, Hopscotch, involved just rocks and a piece of chalk. The first time I ever played the game, I scoured the neighborhood for the best rock to use. Nobody had told me the first time that I played that it was important to have a flat rock. I showed up with a piece of gravel. Well, hell, I didn’t know. Most kids nowadays have it easy. A lot of playgrounds have the hopscotch board painted on the surface. Children use little bean bags or coins for the markers.
Well, when I was young (I’ve always wanted to say that), we didn’t use chalk half of the time. We used the edge of a sandstone rock to draw our pattern. We would then use a flat rock as a marker. To be honest, we never thought about using coins. It just never crossed our minds.We were tickled half to death if someone just happened to have a piece of chalk with them. Chalk was a luxury. I would have stolen a piece of chalk from school, but the nuns would have hammered my knuckles with a ruler and then let me know that chalk stealers always go to hell.
For those of you who have never played the game, Hopscotch is played on a flat surface, such as asphalt or a sidewalk. We used to play on my driveway. We had a great double driveway. You have to draw a pattern with a piece of chalk. There are many patterns to draw, and I think the one we used looked a little like this:
The object of the game is to win. How bout that? The rules are hard to explain, but I shall try my best. We will use my bff Ramaine as player1 and I will be player 2.
Ramaine would stand behind the starting line to toss her marker in square 1. She would then hop over square 1 and land with one foot in square 2 and one foot in square 3. She then continues hopping to the home square, which is like a safe place to stand and turn around, and then she would hop back again. Ramaine would pause in squares 2 and 3 to pick up the marker, hop in square 1, and then out. Then she continues by tossing the stone in square 2 and so on and so on. All hopping is done on one foot unless the hopscotch design is such that two squares are side-by-side. You must always hop over any square where a maker has been placed.
Tossing your rock into the first square was always quite easy, but I basically sucked after that. For example. if it was my turn to throw it in square #7, and it landed in #8, my turn would be over. And again, since I sucked at Hopscotch, I spent a lot of time sitting on the sidelines, looking at my rock.
So, while writing this post, I took a wrong turn and kept thinking about how much time I spent watching my friends play while I, Hopscotch loser, sat and waited for my next turn. I would most certainly toss my rock right on a line (which is a no-no),and once again, be sitting on the sidelines. So,I was wondering if this is what people sitting on a curb are waiting for.
Waiting their turn to play Hopscotch
Hopscotch losers at a Hopscotch parade of winners
Some mother brought these hopscotch losers cupcakes.
So, then I really got to think that perhaps, perhaps Hopscotch is actually a drinking game that somehow evolved into a children’s game over the years. So, I set out to do some research. What I found was startling.
Hopscotch was actually invented during Easter in Scotland in 1799. Drunk party-goers, bored with playing croquet, drew numbers on a tennis court surface and tossed rocks to see if they could land on the numbers. If they hit the numbers, they didn’t have to drink their scotch. If they missed, they had to take a drink, and hop like a rabbit, (you know, because it was Easter). Someone decided that there should be a border around the numbers, and Voila! Hopscotch was born.
Drunks invented Hop Scotch
Ok, so I lied. But, it could have happened that way.
All in all, Hopscotch was a great childhood game. I may not have been a great rock tosser, but I had fun, and isn’t that what really counts? I hope to play it again one day.
This time I will be drunk….and old. But young at heart.
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- Put down your purse, Vickie. No one is going to steal it.
Posted by Susan Bouclin on July 23, 2012 at 1:37 am
If hopscotch were really invented/played that way, no one would even try to hit their number. Oops, missed again, another shot for me. As a Southern California kid in the 60′s, we didn’t use/have the elusive chalk either. We never had basic staples like tape, pencils, paper, a vacuum with a cord (but that’s another story). We broke off icicle plants (at least that’s what we called them they are probably some type of aloavera) and drew on the sidewalk with the green slime from them. We also wrote all over the sidewalks with them. I don’t remember that washing off very easily either. But I guess it was a small price to pay to have us kids outside instead of in the house underfoot!
Posted by Jumping in Mud Puddles on July 23, 2012 at 7:58 am
See, that’s what we did too. We tried to write with anything that was available.lol
Posted by Nostalgia | myreadingbent on June 2, 2012 at 11:28 am
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Posted by Kim on March 7, 2012 at 8:50 pm
I had my first real anxiety attack, during a game of hopscotch, in elementary school. They swore my toe touched the line….. it SOOOO didn’t!!!!
Posted by backonmyown on March 6, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Brings back sweet memories.
Posted by marinasleeps on March 6, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Ha ha I actually never played this game. I just liked chalk and spent time drawing fish on sidewalks cause that is all I could throw.
This game actually sounds to high tech for me
Posted by papermudandme on March 6, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Loved hop-scotch. We used to scratch the squares in the dirt. The big kids made the squares so big that the little kids couldn’t jump over it. I think making it a drinking game is a good idea. You start by putting your drink in the first square. if you make it home and back you get to drink your drink and put the bottle or glass or whatever in the next square. If someone doesn’t make it you get to drink their drink too. After a while you won’t give a damn about who is winning, especially when the lines become blurry.
Posted by Stacie Chadwick on March 6, 2012 at 8:38 am
Love this post. Hilarious! My game of choice to lose was dodgeball. Standing on the sidelines as the winners pummeled one another to their demise was a bummer. But I always went back for more….
Posted by Tess Kann on March 5, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Hopscotch. I’d forgotten all about it. I wasn’t good either and practiced and practiced all by myself. We used broken crockery instead of a rock so it didn’t roll. I just had a bad wrist that kept making me flick the wrong way when I threw the darn thing.
Posted by Elyse on March 5, 2012 at 9:40 pm
The Scots are great hopscotch players and great scotch drinkers. When they put the two together, they are awesome. They are also really good at throwing rocks. I know this because I have watched Braveheart several times AND have attended numerous Scottish festivals where men in skirts throw two large rocks and then one tall poll. I am sure it has nothing to do with the fact that they have no underwear under their skirts.
Posted by Jumping in Mud Puddles on March 5, 2012 at 9:50 pm
LOL. Good one!