Children’s Folklore Recent Titles in Greenwood Folklore Handbooks Myth: a handbook

Lying Down in the Street
When I was eight years old, I belonged to a group of friends on a Navy base in Yokohama, 
Japan, that enjoyed experimenting with danger. We had baby aspirin-eating contests and 

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Examples and Texts 79
high-speed bike races. Our most exciting game was called “lying down in the street.” We 
would take turns lying down on one of our neighborhood’s streets and watching for cars, 
calculating the precise moment when it would be safe to jump up and run to safety. All of 
us took pride in jumping up in time. I never considered how alarming this game would 
be for the drivers.
This is my own recollection of learning to play a game that folklorists have 
documented since the early 1900s (Douglas 80; Opie and Opie, 
Children’s Games 
269–72; Hall 75). Now, as a parent and teacher, I worry about such games—but 
then I felt sure I could stay safe by watching for cars and running fast.
Railroad Chicken
To play Railroad Chicken you put your head on the rail and at the last possible moment 
as a train approaches, you roll down the embankment. Part of the thrill comes from being 
so close to the passing train, you can feel it trying to trying to suck you in. It’s not played 
very often because it’s too long between trains.
Eddie Bullard explained the rules of this game played in Haw River, North 
Carolina, to Gary Hall in 1972; his description became part of Hall’s “Folkgames” 
essay (75). Railroad Chicken offers a combination of fear and excitement, as the 
fast-moving train offers the possibility of death or serious injury. Highly subver-
sive and dangerous, this game has appealed to some adolescents who want to 
prove their courage.
Hangman
Did you ever play Hangman in real life? It’s very dangerous. What we do is, we don’t use 
letters or nothing. We take a rope, and it gots a hole in it, and you put it around their 
head. We close it as tight as we can and see who can choke himself the longest.
Nine-year-old Derek described his involvement in Hangman in Binghamton, 
New York, in May 1987. Members of the childhood underground have tried to 
keep adults from learning about this extremely dangerous game. Some of the 
game’s nicknames include Funky Chicken, Rocket Ride, Rising Sun, and Cali-
fornia Choke. Warnings from sheriffs and other experts in children’s safety now 
appear on the Internet.