3/15/2023 0 Comments Ghosts in the graveyard gameMy older brother called olly-olly-in-come-free. The moon had risen and all of the best shadows were shrinking rapidly. He led, I followed, and we managed to avoid all of the ghosts.Įventually, I heard my mother calling. For the next half-hour, we did not speak as we slipped from shadow to shadow. I figured he’d just managed to avoid getting caught. I assumed he meant my brothers and the other spirits. Presently, a boy I did not recognize appeared from behind the nearest gravestone and stepped quietly over to me. So there I was, silently creeping among the graves in the purplish twilight, on the lookout, when I heard a twig snap. Everyone else had long ago been caught and become ghostly. I had been feeling particularly nimble that night and eventually found myself the sole “human” of the group. Night, crisp and breezy, descended early. The night I had my moment of realization was a quintessential autumn weekend. Every time we visited, my brothers and I waited until dusk, grabbed as many people as possible, and started up a game of ghost-in-the-graveyard. Aside from the occasional hitch, as when a ghost would “accidentally” capture his girlfriend first off and disappear for hours, it all worked amazingly well.įriends of our family lived next door to an enormous graveyard. We invented all sorts of ways to ward off the ghosts: secret words and spells that, once invoked, sent the ghost back into hiding. If we found a ghost before he found us, he was “rescued” and became “human” again. We’d always plan ahead of time to leave my own little brother for last. Once everyone calms down and regroups, it’s back to the beginning while the ghost and his new sycophant head off into the shadows, ostensibly planning a more elaborate scheme to capture other souls.Įventually, under the best of circumstances, you have fifteen or so “ghosts” chasing someone’s sobbingly terrified little brother or sister around a graveyard at night. Because large groups of frightened children tend to scatter like crows, grabbing someone is pathetically easy. He scares the living hell out of everyone, then grabs the nearest quivering soul, who in turn becomes a ghost. You have to count loudly, because the ghost has to know when everyone else is ready to come looking.Įveryone sets off as a group to search for the ghost, who - at the scariest possible moment - leaps from his hiding place. You need at least four people, one of whom is chosen as the “ghost.” The ghost runs off to find a good, shadowy place to hide while the rest of the group loudly counts to fifty. The game works best if you play in a real honest-to-God graveyard, but any place with lots of spooky areas to hide will do. Ghost-in-the-graveyard is pretty much hide-and-seek, with a macabre twist. My brothers and our friends were playing a game called ghost-in-the-graveyard. All cemetery photos taken by Loren Rhoads.ĭo you remember when you realized you were growing up? I do. As an example, it may be used as a means to select one player to be "It" in a game of tag if none are willing to volunteer.Turner monument at Glenwood Cemetery, Flint, Michigan. Alternatively, the game might be played to select an unwilling participant for a less than desirable position in a subsequent game. For example, if none of the guests at a party where alcohol is being consumed willingly volunteer to be the designated driver, one might suggest to play Graveyard as a means to select one. Graveyard is most often used to assign one of the players to a task that none would agree to do voluntarily. If all participants are aware of the rules at the start of the game, the purpose becomes to not be the first to give in and speak voluntarily. Most often, one of the participants unaware of the purpose of the game will immediately ask for the rules to be clarified, thus losing the game. Once begun, the only rule of the game is that the first person to speak is the loser. Graveyard is initiated when one of the participants declares "Graveyard". The game is very simple, and is most commonly used only as a means to select one of the participants for a task they would not be willing to perform voluntarily. It is often initiated by one or more persons with prior knowledge of the rules, and is usually played with several others who are unaware of them. Graveyard is a game most commonly played by children on the playground, or at parties. JSTOR ( June 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |