In my neighborhood in Lafayette, Georgia - where there wasn't alot going on - it was a favorite past-time.
We played year round.
During the summer, some family would have a cookout and extra kids would gather so the rest of us in the neighborhood would gather. Before long the familiar clunk of a launched can would be heard and everyone would scatter to find a hiding place.
For those of you that are "Kick the Can" neophytes, the game is similar to "Hide and Seek" with the one caveat being that a metal can is thrown in as something of a catalyst for the game. If a "hider" is able to kick the can before being caught, all those previously captured are released to hide again.
David was probably the KTC champion of our neighborhood: though it was in the pre-Rambo era he would sometimes almost become invisible in a tree or under a leaf pile. He could also produce a blood-curdling scream in order to shake up the "seeker". I'm sure his screams probably produced some angst among neighborhood Moms, too.
David and I were the same age - a year or so senior to the rest of the bunch. Then there was Lisa, Kelly and his little brother, Tommy, Joe and occasionally Eric.
Other kids would join from time to time but that was our core KTC group. We lived in a wooded neighborhood that wasn't conducive to neighborhood ball games but was just right for KTC.
During winter months as the days grew shorter, we could play well after dark.
We often had spats - in fact that was how the game ended most nights. Kelly and Tommy being siblings - would usually get into some argument. Or you could count on Joe or maybe Eric to get angry and go home if they had to be "it" for very long.
But none of the arguments were long-term; we'd be back at some one's house within a few days counting potatoes in order to select a "seeker".
Tonight, R. and I quickly straightened up the yard to some degree and threw some hot dogs on the grill. Later we dined on the patio in the back yard.
Ab challenged AA and I to a game of KTC after supper. Mom - who has developed a penchant for the Nintendo-DS - chose that distraction instead.
So we went several rounds. It has been a year or maybe more since I have played KTC with the kids and they've gotten much better.
We haven't lived in a neighborhood for several years, and I don't know if neighborhood kids still find ways to get together as they once did. But that's one experience I would like for my kids to enjoy: that serendipity that occurs when kids gather and decide to organize something.
I think it is a dying art. We tend to organize and template everything for them, we don't often allow them to create situations in which they have to work together to come up with a plan. Instead we plug them into an organized team sport or arts group and everything is prescribed ahead of time.
They don't have to decide how they will deal with sore losers, or what the ground rules will be (for example: you can't hide inside some one's house), or how you settle disputes - how to forgive and move on to the next game. Come to think of it, those seemingly mindless hours spent crouching behind a tree may have been worth something after all.
Well now, I have spoken my piece and I do not have an ending for this post - no clever conclusion to bring closure to all this rambling about. So I will just end this post in the same fashion that many of our KTC games would end:
"If you're gonna be like that - then I'm going HOME! Good NIGHT!"
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