...and living in Oromocto, NB. Now for those who don't know, Oromocto was the perfect place to be a kid in the late 1950s because it was a model town built for one reason and that reason was to raise kids. They claimed it was to support the local Army base but I know better. It was the post-war baby boom and they were actually paying people to have babies. Seems hard to believe now but it's true. And there were so many of us babies that we had to learn how amuse ourselves. The adults certainly didn't have the time - they were busy working and raising even more babies. Maybe that is where the name of the game was from.
"B.A.B.Y." was a two-player game we made up at school - one player threw the ball against the wall and if the other player failed to catch it he was assigned a letter. First one to spell B.A.B.Y. was a "baby"... simple competitive fun. And quick enough to get in a game or two during recess. How quaint that the worst name we could think of for the loser was to be called a baby - ah the innocence of the times.
We also played other games that involved more than two players, games like 500 Up and Scrub - both variations of baseball that required absolutely no adult supervision or organization. Scrub was the most democratic of games in that everyone got a chance to play all the positions - regardless of skill. And in 500 Up everyone was included and everyone had fun - even the little kids way in the outfield chasing after grounders.
Another simple game was Four Squares - where 4 kids stood in 4 squares and bounced a ball around until someone was "out". There was nothing worse in kid's games than to be "out" - almost as bad as being a "baby". I never did get the point of Four Squares and it seems to me that mostly the girls played it. Either that or they just bounced the ball and sang "One, two, three O'Leary". The boys preferred to play "Catch" - perhaps the simplest game ever. And aptly named - throw the ball and catch the ball - no winners, no losers. And it is no small coincidence that all of these games involved balls. In fact I was going to call this story "Balls" but I had second thoughts about that...
We played a lot of games with balls - at home and at school. Baseball, basketball, volley ball and even the dread Tether Ball which involved a thick leather ball chained to a steel pole - who dreamed that one up? All of these games were played with some sort of ball, but for me the best ball of all was the India rubber ball. The one I had was a dark khaki color, it filled your hand like a baseball, weighed about a pound and made a deep satisfying thud when you bounced it on the sidewalk. This was not a ball for playing a game, it was too heavy and too dangerous - it was a ball made strictly for bouncing; perfectly round and molded with no seam down the middle so you always got a true bounce. I have been yearning for a genuine India rubber ball ever since, just like King John in the children's poem Kings John's Christmas by A.A. Milne - if you don't believe me, look it up.
Those certainly were simpler days and a lot of fun could be had with a cheap rubber ball - even those red, white and blue sponge balls favoured by kids and dogs alike. I think a lot of stress could be dealt with if people spent more time bouncing a rubber ball against a wall. I have been back to the school several times since I found that ball and I must admit that my bouncing and catching skills are improving. So if you think you are up to the challenge let me know - I'll meet you down behind the school one of these days and then we will see who the B.A.B.Y. is.
