All that talk of childhood games made me also remember one of my favorites that we used to play in recess. It’s called Red Rover. Maybe you’ve played it. If not or if it’s been a while, it’s one of those games you have to play outside. You split your group of kids up into two opposing lines. The lines separate from each other a good bit of distance, but not too far. Players on each team hold hands with the person next to them. Then you yell out “Red Rover, Red Rover, send [person’s name] right over!” And the person who is called has to charge full-speed at the opposing line, and try to break through it. If they are unable to break through it, that person is added to your line. If they do break through it though, they get to choose one of the two people from where they broke through the line to go back and join their team. The game is “over” when everybody ends up on one line, although usually that takes too long, and you end up stopping sometime before then. Anyway, I remember it being really fun, and I have a crystal clear image of exactly the part of the field we would play it on at recess.

Also, one of my other favorite recess pastimes at a certain stage in elementary school was finding the highest possible places in the playground, and then jumping off them. Really very simple. I even had a band of kids who I recruited for this purpose. I feel like these two things, trying to break through the Red Rover line, and jumping off of things that are high are somehow related to each other, and also related to the kind of person that I am now even. It’s funny how these things all get worked out very early on.