All Out Are in Free Hide-and-Seek Call

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, how are you? This is Kit B. Smith.

I’m calling from Pulaski, Tennessee.

Pulaski, Tennessee. Well, what’s on your mind, Kit?

Growing up, we used to play hide-and-seek.

And we used to, you know, when you have something that when the game’s over or you want to start over, you would call in and people would come in.

And over the years, I’ve heard people say different things.

Like some people say, olly olly oxum free, or somebody said something about king somebody or other.

Well, they’re free, whatever.

And I never heard it, but when we said it, we would say, all y’all come in free.

All y’all come in free.

And everybody would come in and we’d start over, the game would be over.

So I’m just wondering, what are you really supposed to say?

Is there something about an ox or something?

Is there something about a king?

So I’m just wondering, what is the real end of the game of hide and seek called?

All y’all come in free.

I like that.

I do like that a lot.

It makes sense.

It’s perfect.

Yeah.

Well, it made sense to us.

Sure.

And this is, gosh, Grant, how far back does this game go?

Hundreds and hundreds.

Well, the idea of hiding and finding people probably goes back to the beginning of humanity.

But it’s a formalized game?

Yeah, hundreds of years.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, you know, with a children’s game like this, it gets passed by word of mouth.

It’s not that often written down and spread that way.

So it’s going to evolve.

I mean, when I was growing up, we said olly olly in free or I had a friend who would say olly olly ump free.

And I just thought that was the weirdest thing I’d ever heard.

It was somebody who I’ve heard both of those.

Have you? Well, that was from Alabama.

So I’m wondering.

I’m from originally from Miami.

I’m from Miami, Florida.

So that’s right.

Oh, so you were hiding behind palm trees and things like that.

Oh, we were hiding everywhere.

We were hiding everywhere.

But I got to tell you both, in my experience, we didn’t even play the version where you got to come in free.

We played the version where you hid until you were found, even if it took hours.

Oh, really?

And you just hoped that all the other kids never gave up.

Otherwise, you would just have to wander around on your own to find out that they were doing something else entirely.

There was no calling people in.

So we didn’t have that shout.

There was no shout at all.

But Martha, I’m with you.

I’m looking at the Dictionary of American Regional English.

There’s dozens of versions of this.

Olly, Olly, auction free, like a A-U-C-T-I-O-N.

And my favorite one is Olly, Olly, Olson, all in free, like Olly Olson, the famous jokey character in the Scandinavian parts of the country.

There’s all these Olly Olson jokes.

And the obvious ones like all home free.

Although all of them have the idea that if you’re out there, you can now come in and the game can start over and somebody else is it.

Right?

Right.

Well, Kit, you are mashing the memory button for a lot of people right now.

I hope so.

I hope so.

Thank you very much for sharing those memories with us.

Take care now.

Call us again sometime, Kit.

We really appreciate it.

All right.

Take care.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Kit.

Bye-bye.

So I guess to answer Kit’s question directly, there is no one canonical call for hide and seek.

It’s been around, as you said, forever.

They’ll let you know pretty quickly if they do it differently on the block.

What were the catchphrases for your games?

877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.