Never Gonna Get It Trivia Quiz

Answer: tig

The authors of the web site usvsth3m.com surveyed 986 British people who grew up during the 1970s-1980s, and then they created a map showing the distribution of different words for the popular playground game. The game is most often called "tig" by children in Scotland, the northern counties and midlands of England, Northern Ireland, and Cornwall and other parts of southwestern England.

In other parts of England, the word "tag" is used; or it's "tiggy", "tick", "dobby", "tip", "tap", "tuggy" or "had he hit".

In Wales they say "catch chase". The website lists other nations, as well, stating that "Australia likes 'chase' 'chasey' and 'tiggy'" and that "New Zealand splits between 'tig' and 'tag'" and "Ireland has several names, but Dublin goes with the wonderfully literal 'chasing'". According to the website, kids in the United States always use the word "tag"; but in the 1940s and 1950s in the American south, I remember calling it "chase". What do you call it?

Answer: toe

Children have played the "eeny, meeny, miney, moe" game since before 1820. In its most popular version, it goes:

Eeny, meeny, miney, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe,
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miney, moe.

My cousin taught me another counting out game called "one potato, two potato", and sometimes we did "rock, paper, scissors" to choose who would be "it"! In the United States, we had a counting-out rhyme that went like this:

Rich man, poor man,
Beggar man, thief,
Doctor, lawyer,
Indian Chief.

I understand that in the United Kingdom, it usually goes:

Tinker, tailor,
Soldier, sailor,
Rich man, poor man,
Beggar man, thief.

What counting-out games do you like?

Answer: Duck Duck Goose

"Duck duck goose" is a circle tag game with a number of variations. In the traditional game, the picker - or fox - taps each child on the shoulder in turn, saying "duck" for each one until arriving at the person he or she chooses to be the "goose" who will try to tag the fox before they get back to the original place in the circle. I never did get the logic of the goose chasing the fox! Maybe she honks in the face of danger.

A similar circle tag game called "Drop the Handkerchief" was one of my favorites as a child in the 1940s and 1950s in Mississippi, since we all carried handkerchiefs, usually with our lunch money tied into a corner by our mothers. The player who is "it" carries a handkerchief around the circle, drops it behind the person he or she chooses as the chaser and runs back to the spot, as the tagged person gives chase. If the person who is "it" gets tagged, he or she has to sit inside the circle ("in jail") until the end of the game, unless someone throws the dropped handkerchief to them first, allowing them to chase the fox again.

All of the games listed are circle games. "Sally Go Round the Sun" is more of a song and dance than a game, with children moving around together in a circle singing, jumping when the word "boom" comes round, and then changing directions. In the version I remember, it goes:

Sally go round the sun,
Sally go round the moon,
Sally go round the chimney tops,
On a Sunday afternoon. Boom!

"Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" is also a simple singing game played in a circle, but children act out washing and drying clothes, how the gentlemen walk, how the ladies walk, etc. In the circle game "The Farmer in the Dell", instead of "it" there is a "farmer" who chooses a "wife" who in turn chooses a "child" who chooses a "nurse" etc. until the "dog" finally chooses a "bone" (in the version I played in the American south) who then stands alone, being patted - sometimes rather forcefully - on the head. In some versions the dog is the last character and in others it is the cheese, who then becomes the farmer for the next round.

Answer: blind man's buff

The game was originally called "blind man's buff" because the word "buff" referred to the little push "it" would give when catching someone. According the Encyclopedia Britannica, the game goes back at least 2,000 years to Greece, and it is given different names in various European countries: blind fly, blind cow, blind buck, and blind hen, among others.

It has been recorded on other continents, as well. A picture of young women playing the game dates from the early 1800s, and other images exist from around that time, including a 1788-89 painting called "La gallina ciega" ("The Blind Hen") by Spanish artist Francisco Goya.

There's also a painting called "Blind Man's Buff" by English painter George Morland from the same year. The Wikipedia article I read about the game also shows a picture of Chinese children playing it in 1912.

A page on a website called "A Moral Compass" reminded me that while a player "can just whip off his metaphorical blindfold and it will be someone else's turn" this is not the case when someone is really blind. Maybe that's why I hated this game as a child.

The spinning around at the beginning made me dizzy and the blindfold made me feel lost. I didn't like that even for a few minutes. But it helped when all the players had to "freeze" in place. I don't know how you could ever stop being "it" otherwise!

Answer: freeze tag

Games of tag can become so unfair to less able or less popular players that some schools have forbidden them. It can be hard to be the kid who always gets tagged first or has to be "it" for a long time, rather than being one of the gang. In freeze tag, each player has to freeze in place until all the players have been tagged, so a lot of people are in the same boat.

The first one tagged doesn't have to be "it" until the next round, or players take turns being "it". In some versions, your friends can tag you or crawl between your legs so that you are unfrozen and can join the game again.

Some teachers have devised a game where it takes two players joining hands around a frozen player to free him or her. That way, the kids are cooperating rather than competing. (I read about this in a slate.com article.) This may make more sense than banning games of tag, which can be a lot of fun if all the kids are playing fairly and including everyone in the game.

Answer: "Polo!"

If you look on the Internet, some people will say that the game "Marco Polo" is named for the explorer from Venice, Italy, who is supposed to have traveled with his father and uncle to China in 1271, when he was a teenager, staying for 24 years. The legend goes that he was so tired on the trip he fell asleep on his horse and got lost.

He thought he could hear his dad and his uncle calling his name: "Marco!" He called back: "Polo!" Eventually, he was found. That's a good story, but it may not true, and I don't know what that has to do with playing tag in a swimming pool! You can't believe everything you read on the Internet.

But like most of the games we're talking about in this quiz, "Marco Polo" is usually a game kids teach other kids how to play, without any help from the grownups.

Its name got passed down from child to child until everyone forgot what group of children invented it in the first place, and later generations forgot why it was called "Marco Polo" instead of "Christopher Columbus" or something else. That makes it an important piece of children's folklore. And THAT is cool.

Answer: flashlight

"Flashlight tag" can be played at night, if you have a safe area where people can run around and hide. In this game, being "it" is cool, because "it" gets to hold the flashlight while everyone else is in the dark. Instead of tagging someone, you shine the beam from the flashlight on them.

Then they get to be "it" until they shine the light on someone else. Because you can't see very well and are trying to find people instead of catching up with them and tagging them, this game is a lot like "Hide and Seek"!

Answer: chain tag

The more people the better with chain tag! Only the players on the ends of the chain can tag players who are still free, but nobody is allowed to let go once they are part of the chain. It can get wild! Although it is not a tag game, a similar game to chain tag is called "crack the whip" - a game where everyone starts off holding hands.

The game has a leader instead of an "it". Following the leader, players run as fast as they can go, make sudden stops and starts, and take sharp turns that send the people on the end flying off the chain if they lose hold. If you fall off, it's okay to grab someone's hand and get back in the game, even in the middle.

The point is to have fun. An 1872 painting by American artist Winslow Homer titled "Snap the Whip" shows children playing this game.

Answer: laser tag

The movie "Star Wars" gave incentive to inventors already working on the technology that would be used in laser tag, and players say that it is getting better and better all the time. The equipment is expensive, so you can't just go out on the playground and have a game of laser tag with a few friends like you can do with regular tag games. Special arenas have been designed indoors and outdoors, and usually you have to pay to go to them.

There are special effects, with lights and sounds designed to make you feel you are inside a video game.

Instead of using your hand to tag someone as in non-tech games of tag, you aim a special device at another player's vest, and if your aim is good, there will be lots of flashing lights and cool noises. You get points for "tagging" someone electronically, but the player who was hit can get back in the game after a certain amount of time, so the fun can continue.

It is against the rules to push, tackle, trip, or even tag another person when you are playing laser tag.

It IS okay to work with others as a team to plan strategy and get more points. As Nanny Woo, I have to say I have never played laser tag, but my grandchildren like it very much.

Answer: capture the flag

The game of tag called "capture the flag" can be played on a field with two teams of players and little else, but it is very popular with college students playing paintball, and there are games that take place on the computer and others that use a whole city to play.

It may have originated on the battle field, when soldiers would try to capture an enemy's flag to signal that they had won the battle, but children have played the game for generations. Rules vary. To play "capture the flag" you need at least six players, but it is better with twelve.

It's best to have a field with something in the middle at the beginning, to keep players from seeing the opposing team's flag being hidden. Some people on a team guard the flag, while others try to find and capture the flag of the other team without being tagged and having to go to jail. If you get in jail, you can only escape if someone from your team manages to get safely through enemy territory to tag you.

The idea is to team up and work together to win.