Looking for a lost word (Torontonian/Canadian dialect): There is a word that my husband and I both remember from our childhood, but cannot spell, and we can't find anyone else who knows this word. It sounds like "coal-liss" or "coal-lass", and it was used in Etobicoke, Ontario in the 1980s to mean the asphalt part of a schoolyard. Did we just collectively dream this word? Or did (does) it exist, and how is it spelled, and where is it used? [more inside]
posted on May 9, 2008 - 12 answers

Schoolyard game identification: Everyone gathers around one spot, and one player bounces/throws a playground ball as high as they can (and shouts the name of the game?). While the ball is in the air, everyone else runs out from the center. When the person in the center catches the ball, they shout, "Stop!" and everyone has to hold their place. Then the person in the middle tries to hit someone with the ball. What game is this, and what are the rest of the rules?
posted on Feb 27, 2006 - 20 answers

There was a game I played in elementary school which we called "Pomp." At my school we had a sand field. Weird, I know. One guy would stand in front of everybody and yell "Pomp" and then every­body'd charge towards the other side of the sand and the 'pomp'-yelling guy would try to tackle somebody. Kind of a smearthequeer thing. [more inside]
posted on Feb 27, 2006 - 34 answers