Figure 1.-- This was an 1862 Currier & Ives print depicting a game of Blind Mans Buff. Notice one of the boys is wearing a smock, something we do not see in the photographic record. We thought at first this may be a British image until we found it was a Currier & Ives print. The fence also seems typically American.

' Blind Man's Buff' is essentially a tag game and in recent times originally played by adults. Variants of Blind Man's Buff date back to ancient times and today are played around the world with all kinds of local names. The American version is a British version. The game is played by blindfolding a player and then disoriented by spinning him around. The other players, who are not blindfolded, have fun by calling out to the blind player and dodging away if he comes close. There are various thoughts about what 'buff' meant. Some times the blinded player was struck and buffeted given a little push giving ng rise to buff. When the blinded player manages to touch one of the oither players, he is released. There are various variants. In some the blinded player has to guess the name of the person he touched to be released from the blindfold. We are not sure about Britain, but Americans commonly say Bluff instead of Buff. This is probably a linguistic corruption. The game can be played both outdoors and indoors, although outdoors, spatial limits have to be established. Like other tag games, both boys and girls played it. Like many other such, it seems much less popular than it once was. We are not sure why, perhaps the taunting aspect in our snowflake world. An American reader writes,"Now a days kids probably can't play this game. It would be considered politically incorrect as liberals would claim that you are making fun of the visuaully challenged. Such is the bizarro world we now live in." I remember one of my favorite ganes at recess was Dodgeball. It is as you comment taboo at amy schools.

Created: 2:23 AM 6/22/2019
Last updated: 12:40 AM 11/4/2019