June 17, 2011

• Home-World

  I was recently thinking about how every group of humans forms it’s own language and way of interacting thats unique. Even in small groups slang and little shared jokes or games quickly form and they are often based on strange little details or misunderstandings that grow into a whole world, which gives them a certain randomness thats intriguing. And no small group is better at this than a family.

  So with hopes of sparking others to do the same here are a few of the games and things that have come form my childhood and life.
  Most of these are games but anything from long running jokes or little traditions would do just the same.

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  The Cac of Cool:
  This is a game that me my brother and dad would play in our front room and involved each of us having a scarf folded in half and loosely knotted,
  this ‘scarf’ was then a flexible sword capable of cutting any limb off in one blow.
  The objective of the game was to wear the Cac of Cool which was the red quilted liner for a hood, and the one wearing it would stand in one corner as the other two tried to attack him.
  Any contact on any limb would render it ‘cut off’ and thus useless and any torso or head shot would get you ‘killed’ with skill it was possible to render an opponent as a ‘pet’ by removing all limbs and leaving them kneeling awaiting a mercy killing or accidental death (if they were lucky)

  Whoever was still standing in the corner with the Cac on was the winner untill they were killed and then the killer would claim the cac…as long as he was able to take out the other attacker.
  This game was incredible fun and only ended when we grew too big to all safely play.

  Ball:
  This came after and slightly overlapping Cac of cool, and was an alternative as we grew too big.
  For ball you got a newspaper rolled tightly and selotaped for each player and then a squash ball, the objective was to hit the squash ball around the room trying to hit another player with it, if you did you won one ‘note’ (a scrap of news paper) it sounds simple but the acrobatics needed to avoid the ball and try to send it into another player was impressive and tiring, especially since the room wasn’t all that big.

  Kong:
  A more recent game involving the Kong dog toy, simply take the Kong which is a sort of hand sized bell shaped bit of rubber with a two foot nylon cord attached to it, and go into a sufficiently large field with three or more players (two would work) and then the game is to throw the Kong in a high arc towards another player, if that player catches it before it hits the ground they win 10 points if they let it bounce just once and catch it they win 5 points and if they let it bounce more than once they get nothing.

  This game is very simple but totally exhausting and rather painful/scary due to the speed and height at which the Kong comes at you from, not to mention the nylon whip at it’s end.

  Sticky-Whacky: (bad name i know but the games better than it sounds lol)
  The precursor to Golf (almost certainly)

  Take a stick, two or more players and a foam ball and go to somewhere open with good distance (like maybe a miles walk over fields) and then as you walk you hit the ball as far as you can in the direction your going.
  The stick should be about 5 or 6 foot long and the method is to throw the ball up and strike it as it comes back down.

  Pre-Toast:
  Not so much a game this one but more of a refinement of the only true use of life Toast eating
  Within the breakfast system there are at least three possible types of toast.
  Pre-Toast: Usually one slice or a part of a slice with Vegamite on.
  Toast: The main course and can have anything you fancy on
  Post: Toast: An extra two slices if the first two didn’t do the trick, or maybe just another single slice with more Vegamite.

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  Well i’m sure there are more i could think of but for now that’ll do. I’d love to hear of any games traditions or shared jokes you might have in your family or close group.

  
  

   

  • 8:43 am
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