Carol's Chapter
A Blue Ribbon for Jacks
told by Carol Mae Guild Sutton
Carol remembers playing Jacks endlessly in fifth grade and winning a blue ribbon at school, which she kept in the family scrapbook. She describes scattering ten jacks and collecting them in increasing groups, from onesies through tensies, while tossing, bouncing, and catching a ball. A missed jack or ball ended a turn. After completing the basic game, players attempted harder variations, also progressing from onesies through tensies. She directs readers to the Our Childhood Games section on page 427 for those variations.
In the family's own words
I played Jacks endlessly in fifth grade and received a blue ribbon for one of the contests held at school. I still have it in the family scrapbook. This is how I remember playing Jacks: The basic Jacks game was onesies, twosies, threesies. Seated, the first player scatters the jacks on the floor or sidewalk. In onesies, the player picks up one jack at a time, with one toss, bounce and catch of the ball. After picking up all ten (one by one), we moved on to twosies. In this round we picked up the jacks two at a time and so on. When a player missed a jack or the ball, their turn was over, and the other player began. The first player to make it successfully through basic tensies won. Once a player had successfully completed basic Jacks through tensies, they went on to more difficult variations, again starting with onesies and proceeding through tensies. (You can see all of the Jacks variations we played in the Our Childhood Games section on page 427.)
Referenced in
Carol's Chapter, told by Carol Mae Guild SuttonRelated stories
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