We played Ringaleavio almost…
We played Ringaleavio almost every summer night in Arverne, Far Rockaway. Like Greg of Big Six Towers, I lived in a self-contained block of buildings with parks, benches, bushes and grassy areas in the middle. As soon as enough kids (boys & girls – mostly boys) showed up, 2 captains would choose teams and then one team would go out to hide while the other team waited 10 minutes or so. Generally, kids moved in small groups, although there were some slippery hard-cores who like to hide alone. The park bench that everyone started from, was the home base (jail). Kids were captured when someone had contact for the duration of saying; “caught caught Ringaleavio 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3.” They would be escorted back to the home base where they had to stay unless one of the hiders could get to the base uncaptured and yell; “HUMPFREE-ALL!” Incredible game . . . started around 7pm and usually went til about 9.