[Hayvok]

We did night CTF (~9 pm) at our local grade school campus. Easily 40-50 kids. We just rode our bikes to the gathering. Similar rules to what this article had, except no out of bounds. We had kids making huge circuits around a nearby corn field to evade detection.

It was indeed someone of my best childhood memories.

Unfortunately it was all brought to an end because people kept calling the cops. They’d see kids after dark at the school and just assume we were up to no good. No property was ever damaged, the principal knew what we were up to, etc. Wholesome fun.

After the fifth time of coming home with a “the cops showed up” story, our well-meaning parents asked us to please find another game to play.

[tw04]

We did this at boyscout camp until one year my buddy shattered his ankle hitting a hole running in the dark. One ambulance ride, several surgeries, major issues with morphine withdrawal, and that was the end of that.

[jvm___]

We played it in the fall at a campground. Our cadet group had the group camping and we played in the 50-100 campsites that weren't occupied for the season. So lots of running between campsites through the pine trees.

The only problem was that the roads were blocked off at the end, with picnic tables, with chains from the picnic tables to the trees beside them.

Our fastest guy found a chain in the dark with his waist. Fortunately he just got turned over and not injured.

[cdaringe]

Woof, major bummer. We did similar games. Once i was sprinting at max speed and i leapt… but my dangling foot caught a very low hanging chain. My body began to rotate rapidly. Instinct kicked in and as a nearly crashed down I miraculously turned it into the highest speed tuck n roll of all time. As I finished the roll, almost completely unscathed, i leapt again to free my friend from “jail”. I think we were playing manhunt vs ctf. Such a vivid memory because it was so frightening but ended up so positive.

Running in the dark is reaaaal risky

[IncreasePosts]

We just told the cops we would be out there on certain nights and they were cool with it.

[sircastor]

One time in Highschool at a party we played a game of “Fugitive” across a few miles of neighborhood. I don’t think anyone crossed any private property, but the police showed up and told us “You’re scaring the heck out of some people”. We’d basically finished up anyway.

It’s tragic that this kind of fun gets quashed. Arguably avoidable with a little community communication. I generally think it’s a product of fear-mongering. People being told that their neighborhoods are under attack from nebulous “others” who don’t look or sound like them. A ghost story.

[ryandrake]

It’s super sad how much childhood joy and fun is being sucked out if the world purely due to nosy busybodies. And the fact that police even respond to these (when they won’t even show up if you’re actually robbed) is also ridiculous. Mind your own business, people.

[s1artibartfast]

I'm certainly glad to have grown up when I did. Lots of fun memories of fugitive when we weren't cooking up fireworks or something from the Anarchist Cookbook. Most of we thought was fun would probably be in jail time these days.

There was a lot of risky Behavior, but it was all non-violent so if anyone got hurt, it was us, or sometimes our parents property. I don't know how kids these days are supposed to learn you need to cook up white phosphorus Outdoors and not in your friend's kitchen

[beardedetim]

We played tag or hide and seek at a school one time after dark. We were probably 16 or 17 since at least some of us could drive by then. Cops called all of our parents and said we'd go to jail if it happened again.

The funniest thing to me was my parents just straight yelling at me about it as my only rule at that time was "don't get in trouble with the cops". I tried explaining it was just tag, the cops were over reacting. They didn't buy it. I told them "I was with Friend A and Friend B. I'm telling you the cops were being ass holes". They immediately changed their tone to "oh, if A and B were there, those cops were ass holes"

[LtWorf]

And that's when you started to do armed robbery for fun instead? :D

[mtnGoat]

One time in about 8th grade we had a cap gun fight around a school around dusk. It didn’t end well when a person driving by saw flashes, heard bangs and kids yelling at each other. The local police showed up, sirens blazing and couldn’t figure out what was what, we ended up talking to them and things got sorted. We got a firm warning about how that could have ended poorly and to pick other activities to entertain ourselves.

[leoqa]

I remember playing on the Texas State capitol lawn at night with a bunch of UT students.

[emptyfile]

>hey’d see kids after dark at the school and just assume we were up to no good.

That sounds totally crazy to me, did these people get into any trouble or fined for just calling the police like that? I assume you're american, in my eastern european country they would NOT be happy about getting called 5 times for this...

[creer]

It's not entirely impossible to get fined or arrested for calling the police in the US but you have to go extremely far out of bounds. Calling the police because there are kids near the school (hehe) is completely acceptable.

If anything it's the opposite: if you do anything slightly out of the usual - all the way to walking through a neighborhood that doesn't know you - there is a good chance someone will call the police. And that some patrol car will check it out just for breaking the dullness of the day.

Some of the cops who respond (because they might ALL head there, if it sounds fun enough), some will be smiling and relaxed and civil, while others will be very much looking for trouble and aggressive from the start. Such that for example, using plastic pistols in dark or day in public is a serious bad idea in the US.

[Hayvok]

American, yes.

Can’t speak for the whole country, but in the Midwest, rural community I grew up in, people had a “better safe than sorry” attitude, and would call police on mere suspicion that you were up to no good or that something was amiss.

Even told them afterward how wrong they were, they’d probably shrug and say it was still good for the police to check.

[whimsicalism]

oh definitely american.

i’ve had the cops called on me frequently for stuff like breaking into my own house?? they’re also really on edge, i’ve had them shout at me to take my hands out of my pockets which… fair i guess?

not to stereotype, but America just has lots of SAHM busybody types

[psychlops]

The more calls the police get, the more money they are able to justify by pointing to the amount of calls received.

And, I think, generally it would be a much more enjoyable call to go talk to some parents about a few kids, than to respond to more demanding complaints.

[pineaux]

Yeah. I cringe that this mentality is also exported from the US to other countries. I firmly believe that breaking a leg, getting lost in the woods for an hour, being able to play somewhere without any adult supervision, really made me a stronger, more capable, stress-resistant adult.