Let's Play Tug!

The game of Tug! This addictive game has been the most popular playground game around Beltimore.

The player selected to be "it" chases the others, attempting to get close enough and succeed in lassoing the captured one's waist with a piece of rope, while the others try to escape. Once the rope encircles a player's waist, that player is considered captured and must immediately give up all struggle and stand still while "it" gets a whole minute (measured with a hourglass) to tug the rope around the captive's waist all he likes. The rope must be soaked in oil or grease to make it nice and easy. All other players come close to watch the tugging. After the minute passes, the captive becomes the next "it" and gets the rope from the previous "it", then counts to ten to let everybody escape.

A more adult version of the game that older boys like to play, includes a real lasso allowing to capture players from afar. In this version "it" also wears a cowboy hat, while the others wear decorative animal horns. All players in this version play topless with their bodies oiled.

The game doesn't really have a winner and is played continuously just for the fun of playing. Or it can be also said that the loser is the winner in this game because getting tugged is the most pleasant part of the game, because of that it's considered polite to let each player get captured at least once during the playtime.