Knife Games we Played as Kids

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Way-Barney

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Jun 4, 2023
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Before cell phones and games consoles we used to play a knife game that went by the name of "Stretch". I often wonder if it was just us who enjoyed these games or if it was a world wide phenomenon. :)

The two contestants stood about four feet apart facing each other, knifes in hand and started with feet together as if stood to attention.
A coin was tossed to see who was first go.
The object of the game was to make the other fellow lose balance and fall over.
The first to go threw the knife at the ground, a short or long distance from the others foot, (we always stepped off with the left foot first) after that any foot could be moved. It was then required to step onto the spot where the knife landed. Next the opponent threw his knife in a similar fashion and made you "stretch" and put your foot on the spot where his knife landed.
It was quite a complex game as you couldn't just throw the knife to the far side of the garden as you had to retrieve the throw without moving feet off the "marks" or falling over. :)
If the thrown knife didnt stick in the ground (lawn) point first it didnt count and you had to miss your next turn.

I still cant think of another game that improved hand eye coordination as much as that one, and reflexes if the knife was heading straight at your best school shoes.
 
Like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Give me five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now, where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..
 
Way-Barney said:
Before cell phones and games consoles we used to play a knife game that went by the name of "Stretch". I often wonder if it was just us who enjoyed these games or if it was a world wide phenomenon. :)

The two contestants stood about four feet apart facing each other, knifes in hand and started with feet together as if stood to attention.
A coin was tossed to see who was first go.
The object of the game was to make the other fellow lose balance and fall over.
The first to go threw the knife at the ground, a short or long distance from the others foot, (we always stepped off with the left foot first) after that any foot could be moved. It was then required to step onto the spot where the knife landed. Next the opponent threw his knife in a similar fashion and made you "stretch" and put your foot on the spot where his knife landed.
It was quite a complex game as you couldn't just throw the knife to the far side of the garden as you had to retrieve the throw without moving feet off the "marks" or falling over. :)
If the thrown knife didnt stick in the ground (lawn) point first it didnt count and you had to miss your next turn.

I still cant think of another game that improved hand eye coordination as much as that one, and reflexes if the knife was heading straight at your best school shoes.
Click to expand...
Played this all the time as a kid de-tasseling and pollinating corn.

We we're all assigned Old Hickory paring knives as part of our apron kit.

Ground was nice, loamy midwestern soil.

Footwear was old sneakers or flip flops.

Blood was drawn many times, but we always sucked it up and enjoyed the fun.
 
The only game we played was paying attention to your blood circle while whittling!
 
Wild, you guys:oops:

*Shakes fist* "You damn kids with yur damn violent viddya games!"
---50 years ago---
"Ha ha! Timmy flinched! Pick up your toe and get to the back of the line. Limpin' Carl is up next."

I did a lot of knife throwing into trees. Like A LOT. But I never threw them at my friends. I was probably too busy playing Duck Hunt on my Nintendo.
 
BilboBaggins said:
Like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Give me five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now, where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..
Click to expand...

I could use a tall glass of room temp water and the rest of this story! I need to know what happened to the onion!
 
I remember playing that game with a western bowie back in the early 70's. I threw it and it accidently stuck between the toes of my buddy. 😲 The only thing he was worried about was his nice black motorcycle riding boot now had a not so nice slit in the toe of his boots. Oh! those were the fun days of being outside all the time and doing things like riding bikes jumping homemade ramps, sword fighting with a nice tomato stake and a metal trashcan lid for a shield. I sure miss those days.
 
We never played knife games that I remember but lord the BB gun fights!

My little brother still has the bb I let him hold in his in his neck that he had to go to the ER to have removed because he was yelling too loud and wouldn’t hold still for my old man to cut it out!

It took us like 2 years to pay that bill with paper route money…
 
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I didnt struggle getting knives into school, I struggled getting them out, in metalwork class my first project, unknown to the teacher was a three matched set of kung fu stars, the classroom notice boards were brilliant testing areas as the drawing pin holes masked a lot of the holes created, I didnt get caught so next project was a set of Nunchaks, David caradine's sunday evening re-runs were TV program of choice back then, i was black and blue playing with those,there was no internet back then and I didnt know they needed swivels. Anyway, didnt get caught with those so I got a little more ambitious and the next project was a Mace my dad got me a bearing from work and I made the pins and welded them on, still all without the teacher getting wise to it. I was the envy of our gang, it would go through a front door with a good whack. :) next up I talked the teacher into getting some tungsten in so that I could make a set of darts, he was very encouraging when he knew what I was making. I made the points and the shafts and learned how to solder them in he was as enthused as I was and he set up a schools darts competition, which was quite remarkable really as it was a "grammar school". I won that competition with those darts, I dont know who was the proudest me or him. Johnny Spam-yed ( he was bald) helped me there in ways he could never have forseen. God rest his soul.
 
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Stupidly we played

aliens-bishop.gif


Because of aliens no less.
 
BilboBaggins said:
Like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Give me five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now, where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..
Click to expand...
2812995-abe-simpson-soundboard-445580-2-s-307x512.jpg
 
I can't believe you guys didn't get the "a knife is not a damn toy" speech when you got your first. If my father had ever seen me toss, gesture or throw a knife in the direction of someone he would have lit me up like a Roman candle. But then of course taking my knife from me once the appropriate amount of "learning" had been applied to my backside.

Different times, and different cultures I guess.
 
Way-Barney said:
Before cell phones and games consoles we used to play a knife game that went by the name of "Stretch". I often wonder if it was just us who enjoyed these games or if it was a world wide phenomenon. :)

The two contestants stood about four feet apart facing each other, knifes in hand and started with feet together as if stood to attention.
A coin was tossed to see who was first go.
The object of the game was to make the other fellow lose balance and fall over.
The first to go threw the knife at the ground, a short or long distance from the others foot, (we always stepped off with the left foot first) after that any foot could be moved. It was then required to step onto the spot where the knife landed. Next the opponent threw his knife in a similar fashion and made you "stretch" and put your foot on the spot where his knife landed.
It was quite a complex game as you couldn't just throw the knife to the far side of the garden as you had to retrieve the throw without moving feet off the "marks" or falling over. :)
If the thrown knife didnt stick in the ground (lawn) point first it didnt count and you had to miss your next turn.

I still cant think of another game that improved hand eye coordination as much as that one, and reflexes if the knife was heading straight at your best school shoes.
Click to expand...
We played a variation of that game when I was in grade school - circa 1958 or so. It caught on and soon the whole school was tossing knives around at recess,
OMG, that would cause many a liberal meltdown these days to see that going on!
I don't recall there ever being any injury serious enough to mention.

Like all things kids do, the fad died out on its own in a few weeks and our attention turned to the Gemini launches & what the next episode of Superman would be about.
 
Way-Barney said:
Before cell phones and games consoles we used to play a knife game that went by the name of "Stretch". I often wonder if it was just us who enjoyed these games or if it was a world wide phenomenon. :)

The two contestants stood about four feet apart facing each other, knifes in hand and started with feet together as if stood to attention.
A coin was tossed to see who was first go.
The object of the game was to make the other fellow lose balance and fall over.
The first to go threw the knife at the ground, a short or long distance from the others foot, (we always stepped off with the left foot first) after that any foot could be moved. It was then required to step onto the spot where the knife landed. Next the opponent threw his knife in a similar fashion and made you "stretch" and put your foot on the spot where his knife landed.
It was quite a complex game as you couldn't just throw the knife to the far side of the garden as you had to retrieve the throw without moving feet off the "marks" or falling over. :)
If the thrown knife didnt stick in the ground (lawn) point first it didnt count and you had to miss your next turn.

I still cant think of another game that improved hand eye coordination as much as that one, and reflexes if the knife was heading straight at your best school shoes.
Click to expand...

Yep! We played that same game in Jr. High, Tulsa, OK! (I was pretty good at it and still have that knife 50 years later.)
 
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