SOMETIMES I wonder what’ll happen to the kids who will be born in this age of iPads, smart phones, laptops and the Internet. With all this technology everywhere for their entertainment, will the children of tomorrow ever know the joy of participating in the schoolyard games we used to play as children?
Or will everyone simply be content to flick away at their touch screens and shut out the outside world completely? What worries me is that “playing with your friends” will, in the future, refer to multiplayer computer gaming instead of being the sole robber in a game of cops and robbers?
What really scares me is that an entire generation of playground games will be lost to posterity with the ways today’s children entertain themselves. Case in point, I have a friend whose two year old nephew types almost as fast as she does. And in this day and age, getting a cell phone is no longer a status symbol like it was in the 80s and early 90s.
Now it’s almost a requirement, or a sort of membership card for modern society. I dedicate this article to the hope that in the future, people will still remember how to play games like “tumbang preso” or “tubiganay.”
While we Ilonggos call the game “tubiganay,” the Tagalogs call it “patintero”. If you played it as a child you know the rules. This playground game is usually played at night under moonlight or some other sort of illumination, so that the lights that are drawn on the playground can be seen. If a basketball court is available, it can be used for a game of “tubiganay.” The game is first played by making lines in the sand with chalk and water. The premise of the game is simple – there are two opposing teams. The team on offense must try to get from one side of the playing field to the other without being caught, and the team on defense must try to catch or tag the members of the opposing team without leaving the lines drawn in the sand.
Another popular game from the old days was “London Bridge is Falling Down,” which has been played in the Philippines since the Spanish were here. In this game, two players face each other and hold hands, raising them up to form an arch. The other players pass under the arch, holding on to the waist of the one ahead. The bridge of hands descends and imprisons whichever player is unlucky enough to be under the bridge when the song ends. While most plays with the English version of the song, there is actually a lesser known Tagalog version of the song, which is as follows:
Tayo na, tayo na, mga bulaklak,
Mga kamay ay ihawak.
Liksihan ang mga paa
Nang hindi maiwan.
Magdaan na, magdaan, na
Sa pintuang maganda.
In the Tagalog version, the trapped player is asked whether he likes “gumamela o rosal” or otherwise “pakwan o melon.” Depending upon his answer, he is put to one or the other side. A tug of war then ensues.
Another even more obscure Filipino game is called “langka-langka,” and it is described as a game where children mimic a patch of jackfruits and their farmer. The game begins like this: a number of players who are “jackfruits” sit in a circle. The “owner” counts his jackfruits before going out, while another player, the “thief,” sneaks in. He knocks on the head of each jackfruit to see which is ripe, and then takes note of the “ripest”, then goes away, only to return later. When the owner returns, he counts his jackfruits and leaves again. The thief returns and takes away his favorite jackfruit. The owner will then come back and discover his jackfruit missing. He will then go out in search of the jackfruit. If he finds the hiding place, he retrieves his jackfruit and puts him back with the others. If he fails, the jackfruit belongs to the thief. Captive jackfruits may also go turncoat and help the thief steal other jackfruits.
But unfortunately, with the advent of new technology, the old games are slowly and steadily disappearing, becoming relics of the past. Perhaps one day our roly-poly descendants content with their video games and the Internet will look back at the old photos from the 20th century and wonder, “What did these kids do for fun without the Internet?”