JackRocks

Do you remember the game of jacks or jackrocks?  A rubber ball, and jacks made of metal or plastic. were required for the game.  The jacks were scattered loosely into the play area. Players bounced the ball off the ground, then picked up jacks, and catch the ball before it bounces for a second time. The number of jacks to be picked up at one time, first one (“onesies”), then two (“twosies”), and so on. Depending on the total number of jacks included, the number may not divide evenly and there may be jacks left over. If the player could pick up the leftover jacks first, by saying “horse before carriage” or “queens before kings.” The winning player was the one to pick up the largest number of jacks.

Some game variations were “Eggs in the basket” where the hand was cupped palm up to form the basket, the jacks had to be placed in the “basket” without clicking, as this would break the eggs, and  “Dumps” five jacks were held in the palm, then dumped in a heap on the ground. We would take away one without disturbing the others. Then throw that one up, pick up the other four, and catch the first one.  Remember the fun? I would practice for hours and was really quite good.

Little was I aware that the game was an ancient one.  As with many children’s playground games, the game is known by a wide variety of names including astragaloi, hucklebones, dibs,dibstones, jackstones, chuckstones, five-stones, kugelach, batu seremban, or snobs.  Knucklebones, was usually played with five small objects, originally the “knucklebones”, actually the astragalus, a bone in the ankle, or hock of a sheep, which were thrown up and caught in various ways. Yuck!

According to an ancient tradition, Zeus, perceiving that Ganymede longed for his playmates upon Mount Ida, gave him Eros for a companion and golden dibs with which to play, and even condescended sometimes to join in the game.  And a 1734 painting depicts a girl playing knucklebones.

What a game… what a memory!