Question for Non-Hamiltonians

[pyat]

Did you ever play "Ledgies?"

Googling, the only references I can find to the word as a game seem to be from Blogs written by Hamiltonians, and more specifically, East Enders.

I never played Ledgies because I was afraid / too superior to ask how it was played.

Comments

[anidada.livejournal.com]

I don't know what that term means... so I'm assuming no. :)

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Never heard of it before Lee's post.

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of it before this post.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

And thanks to Lee, I now (sorta) know how it was played!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Given the nature of the game, I suspect it was limited to local schools that were built with certain quirks of architecture.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I'm getting the impression it's a Hamilton thing. :)

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

YOu didn't have to ask how to play ledgies, you just watched others to figure it out. Tsk, tsk. I went to Wentworth Street Public School and it had the required slanted ledge about 6 or so feet up the wall. And no, I've never heard folks outside of Hamilton mention it.

[ladyceleste.livejournal.com]

Is this like playing "The Game"? Where even thinking about "The Game" means you lose the Game? And then you have to say "Oh, I just lost The Game" so everyone around you also loses The Game as well? And there's no ACTUAL GAME except Not Thinking About the Game...???

Or do only my jerk friends play that one?

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Link?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

It is not like that game, which sounds stupid. :)

It involved throwing a tennis ball at a ledge on the wall of the school so that it would bounce a certain way. A lot of schools in Hamilton were built around WWI with the same basic architectural details, and it seems Ledgies was played at those schools, but nowhere else.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to hang around too close - people would make fun of me! I had to skulk in the far reaches of the schoolyard and play "Space Explorer" or "Star Wars" with my friend Keith.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

In the comments over here (http://lee-in-limbo.livejournal.com/751318.html).

[anidada.livejournal.com]

I can't even imagine what such a wall would look like. Was it angled or did it have projections or...?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Look above the first floor set of windows. You can see a protruding ledge, that sticks out a few inches. That was the ledge needed for "ledgies."

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Wow, I thought *I* was isolated in school.

Mind you, my "friend" Keith liked to do stuff like steal my coat and play keepaway with my only other "friend" Ajmal. But I still got to play games like handball sometimes.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Well, I was (and am) rather uncoordinated, and disliked sports of any kind. I had three or four good friends who were actual friends - but they didn't play Ledgies. :)

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Okay, I looked at Lee's post but I'm still not grokking... Wouldn't that result in a lot of broken windows?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Around the side and back of the school, there are larger spaces between windows. And, IIRC, a lot of the windows at the back were covered with plastic sheets when I was a kid.

Though, commanderteddog went to the same school ten years later, and she informs me that they were only allow to bounce walls against 1960s gym annex, which has no ledges. Thus, ledgies no more!

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

Argh! I got introduced to the Game at Midwest Furfest, and had managed to forget about it.

Now you made me lose the Game!

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I didn't go to elementary school in Hamilton, and I've never heard of this game until now. We played something that involved a long line of kids each trying to jump a ball that had been bounced off the wall. The trick was to figure out where the ball was going to bounce, so you wouldn't actually have to jump but just stand over that spot. The second person was in the worst spot, because they couldn't back up too far without hitting the third person, and couldn't get it on the first bounce like the first person. If you missed, you had to go to the back.

I wasn't great at it - I was an expert hopscotch player though.

[ladyceleste.livejournal.com]

I firmly believe you can't lose the game if you refuse to play it. Heh.

I've also decided to shout "I WIN!" every time someone loses the game.

[ladyceleste.livejournal.com]

We played "Wall Ball" growing up, getting the ball to bounce a particular way to send your opponent chasing it... but alas, no cool architecture.

[lonita.livejournal.com]

I never played it, didn't go to a school that had the ledges. I didn't remember it at all until you posted this, but I do seem to have some vague recollection of it happening.

[lonita.livejournal.com]

You'd think, though, that at least in Canada there'd be a lot more people who played it — even under a different name. That kind of architecture couldn't possibly have been isolated to this region.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Oh, almost certainly. When I was looking for it, I found all sorts of variations on local games using a tennis ball and a school wall. Wall Ball, "French", Wall Hockey, so on.

[kaijugal.livejournal.com]

As a Hamilton East Ender, yes. ^_^ So funny I haven't thought about it for years. ^_^:;

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I need you to teach me hopscotch. I have no idea how it works.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Oooh! A Hamilton girl! I had no idea. :)