I can recall many moments of the time I was a kid, playing some very creative games while at the same time I couldn’t realise the risks invlolved. There was definitely a great element of creativity involved as well as some attraction to anything forbidden or not conventional. The bigger the risk, the more the enjoyement we were getting out of our outdoor play.
The first one I can recall, which certainly was not very safe, was some sort of chasing each other around the town on a bicycle. There were two teams involved, the first one which had five minutes to cycle away as fast as possible, ans the second one which sould try to find the first one. But just finding someone wasn’t enough as there should be physical contact that would drive them out of the game. So that could end up in crazy chasings all around the town, ignoring passersby’s, cars, traffic lights, pedestrian streets, old ladies etc. Exporation wasn’t always without victims or injuries but minor ones.
Our favourite one, though, was what we used to call ‘exploration’. That involved breaking into abandoned buildings such as mansions, villas, factories and try to discover unusual and new things that would blow our imagination away. Once we got into a massive dilapidated, rundown mansion that apparently was abandoned in the 70s and we were wondering in it for about three hours. It really was like a massive, endless labyrinth and we were totally scared as eerie sounds were coming from all over. Of course we had our own fearls and many times we were getting too paranoid about non existent security guys patroling the place.
Another time, we managed to get into that warehouse that was abandoned as the company who owned it went into liquidation. In the various compartments, which were not totally empty, we could find some many unusual objects. Most of them we couldn’t even identify them as we had never come across fan accessories, electrical components and coaxial connectors.
Although it may sound weird, if I had the chance to go back in time I would definitely try those games again and I would even recommend them to my kids.
