Bridging the generation/urban v. rural gap

[James Smith]

As a youth in Salt Lake City in the 50's, "Kick the
Can" was just kicking a can or some similar object
while walking somewhere.  It was a game more like
"keep-away" than soccer, that is, no teams or goals or
score-keeping.  However, sometimes loosely defined
"teams" with fluid loyalties might evolve if there
were more than two players, goal areas could become
continuously redefined as the game progressed along
the way, and I'm sure some kept some kind of scorecard
in their head.


--- "Kathleen E. Miller" <millerk at NYTIMES.COM> wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> Where do you put "Kick the Can?"
>
> DARE Question EE16 -- Hiding games that start with a
> special, elaborate
> method of sending the players out to hide.
> DARE Question EE18 -- Games in which the players set
> up a stone, a tin can
> or something similar and then try to knock it down.
> Or -- a type of street football/soccer where a tin
> can is shoved back and
> forth until it was propelled across a "goal."
>
> I scoffed at Safire's assignment on this "New York
> City specific" game and
> told him "Hell, I played kick the can in rural
> Indiana in the mid-'70's,"
> until I realized that 73-year old urban he and
> 33-year old rural me - were
> talking about two totally different things.
>
> Now I'm fascinated and confused. How do I tell the
> difference in a 1913 New
> York Times hit without context?  The games obviously
> coexist  -- with some
> other now-73 year old playing EE16 "Kick the Can" in
> rural Wisconsin while
> Safire was playing option #3 "Kick the Can" in the
> Bronx. But, did the
> games co-exist in the same place? Has anybody played
> both? The DARE hits
> are all over the map.
>
>
> Kathleen E. Miller
> Research Assistant to William Safire
> The New York Times

=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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