Childhood games

In one game I remember from childhood one guy would be Mr. Wolf and turn his back to the others, who'd say in unison, "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?" He'd say "Twelve noon" or "Quarter to three" or something like that, and the others would creep closer to him.  But once in a while he'd say "Dinner time!" then catch the closest one.  The idea was to creep so close to Mr. Wolf that you could catch him after one of the regular times, but not so close that he'd catch you at dinner time.

There was also king's square, a sort of four-way tennis played with a big ball, with someone in one of four adjacent squares, and if you couldn't bounce the ball into someone else's zone after it had been in yours, you'd be out. (There was a neutral circle in the middle called the "belly button.") My sister Moira recalls how three of the players would unite their efforts to get the fourth one out. Not very sporting...

And there was a game where we'd start by reciting, "Chinese torture has begun!  No more laughing, no more fun!  If you show your teeth or tongue, you must pay a penalty!"

Remember on The Beverley Hillbillies how Granny was always going down to her root cellar?  We played the basement game Murder in the Dark, except that my brother renamed it Granny's Root Cellar!