8 Old School Games We Played.

There was nothing as great as growing up in the 90’s. The fashion, music and especially the games we played as kids. Being a cool kid in the hood meant being really good at the games listed below, among others..

To make these epic games more exciting you would need the following ingredients:

• A good head on your shoulders
• A funny bone
• Energy and strength
• Patience
• High vocal cords to shout things like “haramu” and “pax”
• Speed
• Precision

All these were needed to play the games that have definitely evolved to become relevant in the 21st century:

1. Kati/Stopu: this game needed at least 2 players and a ball made from socks, paper bags or wet newspapers (the hardest of them all). The aim of this game was to play for as long as you could avoid getting hit by the ball. There were varying versions where you would be required to build a tower from soda bottle-tops, aim for a certain total number or take out as many opposing team members to emerge as the winning team and many others depending on where you were from.
2. Blada: Blada was made from cutting out an inch wide, extra-long tyre tube and linking it to make a complete cycle that was then used as the main star of the game to challenge our flexibility. This was a game that was played at home and in school. It involved at least two children, or one child and a grill that represented a spot on each side of the blada (or elastic as it is now known).
3. Brikicho: This was a version of hide and seek that involved kids shouting “brikicho, bantura” and kids dispersed into different hiding places trying to stay hidden for as long as possible.
4. Draughts: this was primarily “chess for dummies”, though it required serious skill to ensure that you entrapped your opponent at your earliest convenience. All it needed was a cardboard square with a coloured grid carefully marked onto it with a ruler and a biro pen. We used bottle tops for pawns.
5. Bano: this was a game that involved marbles, and dusty ground level enough to smoothly put your marbles into designated holes. Keen visual-spatial intelligence and mathematical genius were must-haves in this game.
6. 3 sticks: nowadays known as “hop-step-and-jump”, this game tested the limits of your ascension into the skies, only to land where your little feet could carry you. We referred to the people that jumped the furthest as “daddy longlegs” (like the spider)
7. Shake: one of the most popular games in the ’90s that played host to the revered “Danger Box”. This exciting game involved two large competing teams, tarmac, chalk and some seriously wanting lines.
8. Start/Stop: also referred to as “Animal kingdom”, this was a great indoor game, reserved mostly during power rationing during the heavy rainy season. It involved pen, paper, and proper knowledge of all things alphabetical ranging from names, cars, and countries.

There you have it! Share some of your own treasured memories. What games did you love to playback when you were a kid?

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