Kick the Can

One of my favorite childhood memories was playing Kick the Can after dark with our friends the McNamaras at the beach. I’ve no idea why I remember it so vividly but I thought it was positively the most fun I’d ever had. When I went to research the exact rules of this game, I discovered that it’s just another version of tag. But, since half of the people I mentioned this game to had never heard of it — or rather looked at me as if I was 85 years old reminiscing about my childhood days in the 1930s — I figured it deserved it’s own day.

And it really isn’t JUST another version of tag. I think it’s more like a simplified version of Capture the Flag or an advanced version of Hide and Seek. With Kick the Can, you’ve got to strategise about how to kick the can without getting tagged by whoever is “it” and going to jail. You also have to be tremendously quick on your feet to avoid capture. The other reason it’s so fun is that no matter where you’re hiding from “it” when you hear the can is kicked, you know all of the prisoners are free and “it” or “the man” has been thwarted. I guess this excites the latent rebel in my Classic conservative blood. This game is for all personality types but whenever strategy is involved, expect an athletic Smart to win.

Kick the Can
by Wikipedia

Players: three to a few dozen players.

One person or a team of people is designated as “it” and a can or similar object — paint can or metal pail or bucket — is placed in an open space: the middle of a backyard, a green, a cove or cul de sac, parking lot or street. (When we played on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, all the houses were on stilts, so our can was underneath the house) The other players run off and hide while “it” covers his or her eyes and counts to a previously decided number. “It” then tries to find and tag each of the players. Any player who is tagged (caught and touched) is sent to the holding pen (jail) which is simply a designated area for all the captured players to congregate, generally in plain sight of the can. Any player who has not been caught can “kick the can”. If they can do this without being caught, then all of the captured players are set free. If “it” catches all of the players he or she wins that round and generally a new “it” is designated for the next round.

In some variations “it” merely has to call out a player’s name and hiding place rather than tagging him by touch. In some variations, “it” must jump over the can after calling the player’s name and location. In another variation, when “it” sees or finds a person hiding, “it” must run back to the can and place one foot on it while saying the found person is in the can (i.e. “Tim is in the can”) before the found person is able to reach the can and kick it. Thus, once a person is found or seen by “it”, the game becomes a race to the can between the found person and “it.” In order for someone to be caught and put in “jail,” “it” must have beat the found person to the can and pronounced that person “in the can.”