Tag outlawed? Yep, you're it

by Les Avery I found myself doing a double take as I viewed the headline of an article on the Denver Post front page a few months ago informing the readership that tag had been outlawed in a Colorado Springs elementary school. Tag outlawed? This had to be some kind of a joke. But it wasn't April Fool's day and sure enough, it wasn't a spoof, or a misprint. No longer were kids permitted to play tag on the school grounds of this elementary school.

A little research revealed the Colorado Springs school was not the only school in America where tag was outlawed. I discovered it is forbidden in elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., Spokane, Wash., Charleston, S.C., and Attleboro Mass.

How did any of us old timers manage to grow up without being permanently maimed? I can see banning the old school yard game "Crack the Whip." You remember if you were at the end of that line your feet would go out from under you and you went sailing head over heels, when the whip made of kids raced around the schoolyard.

Maybe the game "Red Rover" should be banned, if any kids play it in schoolyards these days. I can still feel the sting of some kid bigger than I was slamming into my wrist as it was entwined vice griping the neighboring wrist of my partner. But tag, that seemed harmless enough when I grew up in Wellington and it still feels the same to me today.

Of course someone could fall and break an arm or otherwise get injured. Such a risk is taken by any of us when we step out of our doors. No, not when we step out of our doors, but when we get out of bed. After all the greatest number of accidents, I understand, are household accidents.

What about all the other games we played as kids, games with the advent of TV, computers, and cell phones that have been relegated to the dustbins of history? How about "Hide and Seek," or "Ollie, Ollie Oxen Free," where you threw the ball over the roof of the barn and raced around to the other side to tag the person trying to retrieve it. How many times did I come close to a head-on collision when running full force while the person having caught the ball was running all out to get away from me?

How did any of us manage to grow up? After all we rode bikes without helmets, played pickup football games without pads, ran around barefoot from June through August, played basketball in haylofts of barns lighted by an extension cord with a screwed-in 75 watt light bulb, roamed freely the streets of Wellington from age six on, built rafts and set sail on them in any muddy swamp we could find, swam in streams and ponds and lakes found surrounding the town. What kept us from concussions, fires, electrocuting ourselves, or drowning?

In the book, "God, But I'm Bored!" Eileen Guder writes: "You can live on bland food so as to avoid an ulcer, drink no tea or coffee or other stimulants in the name of health, go to bed early and stay away from night life, avoid all controversial subjects so as to never give offense, mind your own business and avoid involvement in other people's problems, spend money only on necessities and save all you can. You can still break your neck in the bathtub and it will serve you right."

Certainly wisdom mandates, and I am all for helmets for cyclists, pads for those who participate in sports or pick-up games. Does anyone play pick-up games anymore? I am for safe lighting minimizing the danger of fire in haylofts housing basketball hoops. I suspect there are few haylofts with basketball hoops in 2008, and who swims in streams or ponds these days?

Back to the outlawing of tag. It seems to me with kids today spending most of their time sitting on their behinds playing computer games or watching TV that they are the losers. They are the ones who miss out on so much that we did not miss out on. The joy of imagination as we set out to explore this or that part of our town. Sure we took some foolish risks, kids do that. Yes, sadly there were kids who drowned, got electrocuted, died in fires, or suffered concussions leaving them with brain damage.

For all of that I would not exchange my childhood for that of my grandchildren. It was wonderful growing up in Wellington. As a kid, all of nature beckoned and I never remember saying to my parents, "I'm bored." There was always that wonderful world in and around my hometown to explore.