Buck - Buck

Here's a picture of one of the many diversions we had as kids growing up in the North End back in the 50's and 60's. You see, we didn't have the luxuries the spoiled brats have today, but I'm glad we didn't.

This game was called Buck-Buck and it didn't require anything extra, other that a strong will and a strong back. If this game was played today, I'm sure some well meaning organization looking out for the safety of children, would require that some means of protective equipment be worn.

This game in other areas was also known as Johnny on the Pony or Longhorse and is a variant of an ancient Roman game of How Many Horns Has The Buck. To play the game you would form two teams consisting of 3 - 5 persons. Two captains would 'buck-up', a form of determining who would select first, to start choosing the make up of the teams. As a captain you would choose the heaviest and/or strongest kid available. I would always hope and pray that I ended up on the team with fat Ronny (God rest his soul) who weighed a solid 300 lbs.

Once the teams were formed, the two captains would square off to determine which team jumped first. You always wanted to be on the offense. The team on defense had to form a horse. One person would stand with their back to a wall. Other members of the team would bend down and hold onto one leg of the person in front of them, like a line attached to a pole. One player at a time from the opposite team would run and leap upon the first team. Each member of the opposition did the same in turn. The object was to force the team being jumped on to collapse.

As simple as the game was, there was strategy on both sides. The team that formed the horse had to position the stronger kids in the middle and back and the jumping team would select the order of jumping. You generally wanted your biggest and heaviest person to go last.

If you were successful in maintaining the horse intact then the last jumper would hold up a number of fingers saying, "Buck Buck, how many fingers up?" If you guessed the right number then the teams would switch positions. If not the jumping team would get another round at jumping.

The game would generally last no longer than 30 minutes, simply because you couldn't endure more of a pounding especially if you were the team that didn't have fat Ronny on it. This was one game where you could legitimately take out your frustrations on a member of the opposing team. I never saw any one get seriously hurt, other than getting a few bruises and a sore back.

The bumps and bruises would be forgotten by all the laughter that emanated from the pile of bodies caused by the weight of the jumpers. This was a game where you were forced to get very intimate with your friends and there was always one wiseguy who would let you know that he had pasta fasool the night before. There was no lingering on top of each other, especially when he cut loose.

When the game ended we would all go to Joe's Variety store to get a drink and a snack and then move on to play a game called errors. The calories consumed from the Twinkies and Coke that we just had would be burned off in the next hour.