Jacks were played for fun and survival
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Keri Hanson shows how to use the same hand to toss the ball, pick up one jack and catch the ball on the first bounce with the same hand during a round of "onesies." She said, "Once upon a time I was a pretty good player." She has not lost her touch.
A few weeks ago I did a story about marbles, a kids' game once mainly played by boys. To keep a gender balance in my writing, I decided to take a look at the game of jacks, a game I best recall as dominated by girls back in my school days. I had no sisters so have very little first hand experience about the game of jacks. But, I recall playing jacks with our daughter, now fifty years old, when she was just a tyke. Like marbles, the game of jacks seems to have slipped in to obscurity, not likely familiar to school girls in this era of devices and technology. With that I decided to learn more about the ancient game of jacks.
The game of jacks
A game akin to the modern game of jacks is found in Greek writings from the time of the Trojan War (roughly 3000 years ago). It's believed the first games were played with bones from the hocks of sheep, hence one of the early names for the game was "knucklebones." Some historians believe the game was used by the Cro-Magnons (our earliest predecessors) to teach children hand-eye coordination, a critical skill for hunters. Early on small stones and pebbles were likely used to play. Eventually the small metal 'jacks' and a rubber ball were the preferred equipment to play jacks.
Modern games of jacks are played with a small rubber ball and 10 six-pointed star-shaped pieces. The game is usually played by several participants on a smooth surface. The jacks are tossed on to the flat surface. A player then tosses the rubber ball in to the air and with the same hand, swipes up one or more jacks. With the hand now holding the jack, the player must catch the ball after its first bounce. The jack picked up is moved to the other hand, the ball is tossed again and another attempt to pick up a jack begins.
During each round of play the number of jacks picked up increases. At the "onesies" round, the player picks up one jack with each toss of the ball. Moving on to "twosies," two jacks at a time must be picked-it would take five successful swipes to complete that round-and on to the last round of ten. At "tensies" the ball is tossed and all 10 jacks must be picked up with one swipe.
There are a number of "fouls" that can occur: letting the ball bounce more than once while picking up a jack; allowing the ball to hit a jack on the playing surface; picking up the wrong number of jacks (on the "threesies" a player picking up two jacks would cause a foul); dropping a jack already being held and touching a jack on the playing surface while trying to pick up another. The penalty for a foul is twofold: the player loses their turn and on their next turn the player must begin again on the round where they made the foul. A really skilled player could "run the board" during their initial turn by successfully picking up all the jacks in each of ten rounds.
Every region had its variations in play. Some areas allowed a retoss for "kissing jacks"-jacks that were up against each other and would be nearly impossible to pick up without a foul. Some areas had a complicated procedure called "flipping jacks" to determine who played first on the beginning round. That involved tossing jacks in the air, catching them on the back of one's hand and whoever caught the most jacks played first.
Some side notes about jacks
Best I can tell, jacks went away well before the turn of this century. Makhayla Farmer, who lays out the "Journal" each week, graduated from Chinook High in 2014. She remembers playing jacks with friends, but not at school. Tammy Berger Jones grew up in Chinook and remembers playing jacks as an elementary student. By junior high jacks were "no longer cool." Tammy started working for the Turner School District in 1985 and recalled, "No kids were playing jacks at school then and I don't remember my own children ever playing jacks." Asked about her grandkids she said, "The oldest is about the right age to play jacks, maybe I'll get a set and teach her how to play."
This photo shows a vintage "jacks twin set"-two rubber balls and 20 jacks, enough equipment for two games at one time. Current games generally come with plastic jacks. The old jacks, the dull grey six-sided pieces, are a bit harder to find but still available.
I discovered the children's counting song, "This Old Man," was probably created for or adapted as a way to keep track of the rounds in a game of jacks. Readers may recall each of ten verses began, "This old man, he played (a number 1-10)" etc. And about the "paddywhack" in that song, it's a slang expression for a ligament that helps cattle and sheep hold their heads up. Who knew?
A sinister side of jacks
When I think of jacks I think back to "jack rocks." I was introduced to jack rocks during the summer of 1989 when coal miners in Appalachia were in a prolonged labor dispute with coal producers. Jack rocks appeared regularly on roads to puncture tires of trucks hauling coal while the miners were picketing. Also known as "caltrops," the ancient devices were used by the Roman army to stop horse drawn chariots and foot shoulders. Modern jack rocks are made of two nails sharpened at both ends, welded at the center and then bent so no matter how they land a sharp end is pointing up (see photo). The first time I found a jack rock in my parking space at work I felt a shiver down my spine that urged me to start looking for a new line of work.
