Smudd

by Sara Ippel

There are two families in our street that have kids we liked to play with. My siblings and I would play games around the neighborhood after they got home from school. We were home schooled so it was always a long wait until three o’clock, and was definitely boring so we could never wait to play. In the two families, altogether there were three girls and three boys. Two of the girls were my own age.

The game that we most liked to play was called Smudd. We all loved this game because it always involved a lot of running, you always got muddy, and of course, that’s what kids like to do. The chosen "starter" of the game would take the volley ball and stand on the porch and throw the ball high into the air, and screaming with delight, the rest of us would run to catch it. After the ball was picked up by someone he or she would take three steps (as big as they could) toward the other people, and then they would try to hit someone out with the ball. After getting hit that person would sit down on the porch until the person who hit them was hit themselves, and the game would go on until someone got everyone down at once or we had to go for supper.

This game was such fun, when every one would be up against each other, and it would be loud and exiting, and it never failed that everyone would end up with at least a dirty knee.