Some kids thought hide and go seek was boring, as did I. Playing hide and seek through out my neighborhood was one of the things all the little kids did.
Every person in this block knew of each other. I never had fun because everyone always would get in fights and the game always ended early. Yet, for some reason this game was intensified by creating teams where one team being the hunters who protect home base and the hunted who are trying to reach it before being tagged by the hunter. So because of his there were always heated arguments that turned into fights. It was a hot summer night and all of my friends and I had decided to get a big game of hide and seek going down at the park. This was going to be the biggest game we had ever organized.
This game consisted of about 16 people, which was a lot for the size of our neighborhood. This had been what we all had prepared for. All those late nights in the neighborhood strategizing and organizing plans to safety. Finally their was chance to prove our skill at this game, hunters versus the hunted.
I remember a couple of my friends that I played with that night. Alicia, who was the ruffian of the hood, was fourteen and a lot bigger than I was. Chris, who was the slimmest and the tallest of the bunch, we called him the beanpole. Andrew, who had been a long time childhood friend that always wanted to be in the army; this game obviously gave him the inspiration. When we got to our destination, central park, we established where the home base was going to be which were the restroom stalls, since they were centered in the park. We then established where our territory of limits extended.
There are positions in hide and seek that if you are caught there, you are automatically disqualified. An example of this would be if you were caught in the out of bounds territory that you would be out of the game. Next, we gathered and split into two teams. Eight against eight would equal pure intellectual and strategic competition.
This park was maybe the size of two football fields, which is not a lot of ground coverage when you’re dealing with teams of eight. My team ended up going out into the field first to be hunted. We had a good chance of winning since we were the fastest kids on the block. I remember going to a low-key spot with my good friend Andrew.
We remained out of sight for a good thirty minutes before we decided to go for home base. When we approached the center of the park near the backside of the stalls, we were alerted to an enemy leaning on the wall guarding that section. We had found out that four of the members from our team had actually reached home base and two had been captured. We were the last two survivors and the final rule to this game is that you need more than half of your team to reach the base, to be the victorious winners. That meant that either Andrew or I was going to get to that base.
In a heated moment Andrew snapped. “Charge” Andrew released from the top of his lungs. In a panic I broke for home base as fast as my legs could carry me. Andrew had managed to attract all the attention while releasing his unsuspecting cry.
Home base was in my sight, and it was only a matter of moments until I reached my victorious goal. Meanwhile, I was able to be the fifth and final vote for our victory. This was one of the most memorable games for it would be my last. I never ended up playing this game again and I probably couldn’t tell you a specific reason why. Maybe it was because we all grew up.
Or maybe because it was the last summer before we were supposed to open a new chapter in our lives. But for some reason, this event will always stick out in my mind as a wonderful and joyous occasion. Kids being kids without a worry in the world, what I would not give to have that feeling once again.
