[MR] Buck Buck!

[Towey, Brian]

Friends and neighbors,

In the bottom right corner of Pieter Breugel the Elder's "Children's Games"
(1560 AD), these kids are playing a game that modern folks call "Buck Buck"
or "Johnny on the Pony."

http://www.charlesfleming-sca.com/images/buckbuck.jpg

This is the game that Bill Cosby made famous in the early 1970s. His Fat
Albert character was the secret weapon in the Buck Buck game.

To play, one player braces himself (I have never known gals to play this
game, so please excuse the masculine pronoun) against a solid object. The
other players on the team then form a chain, with each grasping the waist of
the one ahead. This is the "horse" or "pony."

Then, one at a time, the other team sends players to run and vault onto the
back of the horse. They keep piling on until the horse collapses. Whichever
horse can bear the most riders is the winner.

I used to love this game, and we knew it was good when the school banned it.
Have any of you every played it?

By the way, we used to play with the lead player braced against a post, and
it was tough on the head and shoulders. But, in the painting, one of the
horse's team members is sitting on the wall, with the next player's head in
his lap. This looks like a much safer way to anchor the horse.

Your servant,
Charles Fleming
Miror Otium Negotium Multum Requirere