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Cool summer nights were great for kicking cans

Summer nights are special nights when you’re young. Regular school night bedtimes are suspended and the neighborhood gang can regroup after supper and look for even more mischief.

Our favorite thing to do was a game called “Kick the Can.” I’m not sure how but we could play for hours. The way we played sometimes one game could go on for hours.

Let me explain a bit.

You started finding a big two-pound coffee can. I’m talking about a real steel can. You brought everyone together on the sidewalk and everyone put their foot in the square and you did eeny-meeny-miney-moe or a similar selection verse until you had weeded down one person who was “it.” You then placed the can on the sidewalk next to the street and defined an area called the pen or jail. You then talked about boundaries for the game. Usually that was the front and back yards of our house and the neighbors’ house.

The person who was “it” then turned his head into the tree between the yards and began counting to 100 out loud. While he was counting everyone ran to their favorite hiding place. Once done counting the search was on and if the seeker found me he had to yell “Karl, go get in my pen.” If I knew I had been flushed from my hiding place I could run to kick the can before he could identify me.

Once the can had been kicked down the street with a loud clanging the seeker knew they had to run back and replace the can before they could catch anyone else. Those that got caught and sent to the pen had to wait there until someone kicked the can freeing them or until everyone was caught.

We got a lot better at hiding and scheming than we did at seeking and so these games could sometimes drag on for a while. In between games we drank from the garden hose and laid on our back in the yard and talked.

If we were somewhere out in the country the favorite thing to do at night was to go snipe hunting. Before it got dark the word would be passed around among snipe hunting veterans that the new kid was going snipe hunting tonight. The topic would come up casually and the secret was to build the game up with details about how a snipe could only be caught at night and even then it was tough. Lots of tactics and stealth would be required and tonight would be the perfect night.

Soon tow sacks had been passed out to everyone and the group set out in the dark with only one flashlight. People were then posted at various spots out in the dark and told to wait there in ambush. At the most distant point of the route the sucker was dropped off and told to wait until someone came back. Soon all but the poor soul who had never been snipe hunting were back at camp or inside the house having a Dr Pepper waiting to see how long the victim would stay outside alone in the dark.

These days I still love going outside on cool summer nights but I haven’t been able to interest my wife in a game of “Kick the Can” or a snipe hunt. Guess I’ll just sit on the back porch and listen for the lonely call of a snipe or the clatter of a coffee can riding in on the evening breeze.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]