Remember Kick The Can ?

I don't know about you, but I spent many an hour as a youth involved in a variety of outdoor games.  Red Rover, Capture The Flag, King Of The Hill, Tag and Freeze Tag, Sardines; the list goes on and on.  Some of them are not as appropriately named, like "Smear the Queer", but there are probably a dozen or more I can't even remember now.

Kick The Can was always one of my favorites.

The basic premise (the way I learned and played it anyway) is this: one person is it and they "guard" the can.  The other players are trying to get close enough to kick the can without being seen by the person who is it.  Once seen, the person who is it must call out the name of that player and jump over the can before it is kicked.  If any person can kick the can before being jumped out then they get to be it.  Otherwise, the game continues until everyone is out and the original guardian of the can retains their right to keep that role.

Tonight, we played this with our scouts ... and it was a huge success!  The version some of them had learned was not nearly as fun (isn't that always the case?!), so we played my version.

My favorite memory from this evening was when I "hid" on the ground directly behind the person who was it.  Immediately after he finished counting and said "ready or not here I come" ... I kicked the can.  :)   Yes, I am that much of a jerk.  Don't fret.  I let him be "it" again, but everyone learned a valuable lesson about looking around as soon as you finish counting!

Song Of The Day:
I meant to use the song "Almost Home" by Mariah Carey on the blog post about our evacuation from scout camp, but it applies here just as well.  The area where the can resides is "home" and everyone who is not it often get almost home before they get jumped out.  Those races to the can are some of the most fun memories.

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