David
Myers,
helpfully, delivered the rules of FourSquare and, happily, a whole lot
more. Actually, it makes me feel kind of guilty for relying on other people's
stuff but oh well. People love their reminiscin'.
"Allow me to bring you up to date on the finer points of this King's
game:
Basic gameplay was bouncing a ball around in a painted circle or square,
usually painted with cross-hairs. One person would stand in each quadrant,
thus making the four in FourSquare (or circle, if you can only find circles).
Gameplay began when the "leader" or "top" or "King"
of the square threw the ball at you. (Leader was often chosen by being
the first one outside and yelling "I'm leader!". If a cool kid
yelled that, you wanted to be in his square, with three other cool kids.
You didn't want to be in a game with a dorky kid for leader.) If you caught
the ball, you would throw it to someone else, if you dropped the ball,
you were out. This continued until it gets down to two of you, usually
the leader and you, but not always. The winner of the duel is the new
leader. Streaks were important, if you could go all period as leader,
never losing, you kicked ass. This hardly ever happened.
Your coolness level for the day was obtained from FourSquare playing.
You had three chances at this as the day goes on: morning recess, lunchtime,
and gym. It was kind of worthless getting to the top in gym class, cause
the coolness points didn't have that much more time to breathe. But boy,
if you got to the top in all three periods, watch out - you'll be so cool,
people were liable to just give you GarbagePail kids, just so you'd hang
out with them during lunch.
The game was/is played with simple bouncing and mimicking patterns. The
leader would first yell off a list of "Rules" or throw options.
He could say "Onesies, Twosies and Typewriters". These are the
three possible throw options. Nothing else could be thrown, unless the
Leader suddenly decided like adding it. The leader would then say "Twosies"
and throw the ball, at one of the other three, using two bounces. The
person would catch it and then say whatever rule he was using and throw
the ball on. You got out when you missed the ball thrown, messed up your
throw (threw a twosie instead of a onesie), or used a "Rule"
that wasn't allowed. Eventually the game would come down to a duel and
the winner is then the New Leader.
That was the game we learned in gymclass, basic and simple. The rules
we learned were just the onesies, etc and they sucked. The game turned
into it's own on the playground and there were sets of new rules we made
up on our own (but travelled among playgrounds, until everyone knew them,
everywhere - even different states).
There were all sorts of possiblities too, on being able to throw "diagonals"
or "reverses" - but that isn't coming to me.
Popular Rules, that most of the other kids knew were:
1. Superbomb
2. Cherrybomb
3. Corners (shouted at the last second and the ball shoots out)
4. Lines - (bouncing or rolling the ball down one of the cross-hair lines
- allowing two people to go for it.)
4. Typewriters (crouched over line, rapidly bouncing the ball on the opponent's
side, inducing anger)
5. Nuclearbomb
6. Snake
7. Curveball
8. A-bomb
9. Spinners (giving the ball some wicked spin and dropping it into another
quadrant)
10. Punchball
All the 'bomb' throws were really just slamming the ball on the opponent's
side, as hard as possible so that the ball would fly into the kindergartener's
crappy playground, or roll over by the 5th and 6th graders and they would
kick the ball over the fence.
Besides these 10, there were improv-ed throws, all spur-of-the-moment
and usually having a complex style. (there really should be a documentary
made on this, ala - Dogtown and Z-boys...) These throws often involved
current politics and movies, served as a way to keep your fellow student
up on the matters of the day. Here are a few examples, with breif descriptions:
1. PeeWee Herman Bike - Here the thrower would stick the ball into his
crotch, run around in a circle and say "hah heh..heh hah" (trying
hard to sound like PW) and wing the ball into the opposite side. Everyone
immitates.
2. Renee is Ugly toss - Thrower places ball over face and runs in a circles
shouting "I'm Renee" and then whips the ball on the otherside.
Everyone repeats until rule is changed. Often, Renee would quit on these
rounds.
3. G.I. Joe - Like the aforementioned 'bomb' throws, except the thrower
yells "Go Joe!" while slamming down. Then something about how
'knowing is half the battle'.
4. Gremlin - Spin around in a circle with ball held in outstretched hands
and let go at appropriate time. Some kids would yell "Spike!"
when they let go, referring to their favorite gremlin, but not everyone
followed this.
5. Mogwai - the 'Gremlin's other half, walk to the line and drop the ball
close to your toes.
6. Pancake - Set the ball on the ground with your foot atop it and when
the other person goes to get the ball, kick it at their face.
7. Buttball - sit on the ball and begin to dribble it with your ass on
to their side. Depending on the person's status in the game and in school,
you may not want to follow a buttball after certain people and respectfully
bow out of the match by running away from the ball, saying "I'm not
touching that!".
8. Iran/Contra Scandal - Just kidding. We didn't know what that was.
9. God - You could, at anytime, make up any move, whether it was a "Rule"
or not."
