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Ghouls

A game of tag. At the beginning of the game, you set the ghouls (i.e. "The big rawk by the cahport is gools"). Then, if someone is chasing you, and you jump on or are touching the rock, no one can touch you or catch you.
John Lawler and Josh Wolk

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This is a great example of a term you used as a kid and in retrospect had no frickin clue what you meant. I'm learning RIGHT NOW, at 29, that "Gools" is "Ghouls." Hilarious.I vaguely remember thinking (at like 9 yrs. old) it was a reference to gold, or maybe even "Gooldens," you know, the muhstid foa ya dawg at the Sawx game.

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I thought it meant "goals" only said all retahded. It's good to finally know the actual word.

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In Sharon, we would have ghouls when playing hidenseek, and the object of the game was to get to ghouls and yell out "my ghouls 1-2-3" before the person who was "it" saw you and got back and called YOUR ghouls (Janie's ghouls 1-2-3). If they got your ghouls, you were it next time....

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aight maybe imma lil young for this but when we played hide-n seek we had "goals" or "home",,iont have a clue wtf a "ghouls" is

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I agree with Jane, "my ghouls 1-2-3"

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labreck is missing out...im 18 and i've only heard it being called ghouls...except i always imagined it being spelled gools...

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Thanks for ending a family debate. My kids keep calling the "safe zone" in tag "GLUE" or "GOO", my husband insisted that it should really be "GHOULS". I must have led a sheltered life -- I hadn't heard of any of it.

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We said "My gools 1-2-3." Why does anyone think it's spelled "ghouls"? "Ghouls" have nothing to do with "gools" as far as I know.

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dude, i'm wicked excited that otha people said gools too. i said it growin up, but as soon as i got to elementary school, everyone looked at me wicked weird and asked what in the world was i talkin about

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Several of you are correct. It's definitely "gools" and absolutely called by "My gools 1-2-3". We Boston kids know this is true, unless you are retahded.

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lol. never EVER called it that here in CT...always called it 'base'

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What about "Ollie Ollie in free ? Isn't that said too?

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We used it the same as Jane says in Worc. County (Northborough)."ollie-ollie-in-come-free" was the other end...

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Just goes to show that you can find ANYTHING on the web. I am 37 and grew up in Marlboro. We did that gools thingback in the 70s! Recently I was second guessing my memory....was it gools or goals or goal? So I GOOgLed "gools" and found this forum! Wicked cool!

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I always assumed it had something to do with 'gaols' (British for jail). All the kids start in ghouls except for the one who is It. Once you're off ghouls, you get chased, like escaping from jail. If you're caught off ghouls, you're It.That's how I thought of it anyway.

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In central Mass growing up, we said "ghouls/gools". I never even knew people said "goals" until I went to college. How sad is that?

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WOW! Yes in Marshfeild we played Hide and Seek and when you made it home you yelled out My Gouls 1-2-3!!!I think that term was pretty much just on the south shore or maybe the general Boston area. It would be fascinating to know if kids today still say that.By the way, I am a former Marshfield child of the 1970's now living in Flordia.BP

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My friend was explaining the game of tag to her 5 year old and she called "home base" Ghouls/Gools. I thought she was crazy...I never used that one in Wisconsin. Also the Ollie Ollie, thing was Ollie Ollie Ach Ten Free in the midwest...German sort of I guess.

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In J.P. we used to sat "My goose 1-2-3."

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It has to gool, as in home base, because we'd get mad at the kids who were afraid to leave the base and call them gool-stickahs. Then they'd have to save face and get out on the playground, and get tagged.

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I AM OVER 55. WHEN WE WERE KIDS AND YOU WANTED SOMEONE TO COME OUT OF HIDING OR BACK TO BASE ETC. Y0U YELLED "OLLIE. OLLIE ONE TWO THREE". NO ONE I KNOW REMEMBERS IT AT ALL.

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(originally from Ahlington)I think its 'gools'; be willing to bet you it is a Boston kid way of saying an (old) word for jail....GAOL.which is what we would use it as,in the game, playing.....RELIEVIO!

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It's "All ye all ye oxen free," and "gules." I'm 42, and originally from Fitchburg.Pleased to help.

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I believe it was origanally All in, all in, all in free. and goal. In West Rox it was Ollie, ollie oxen tree and gools, what the hell, we were kids.

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In 1960's Br'ricka (Billerica) it was pronounced "gooze", as in "my gooze 1-2-3" and yah, gooze-stickas were wicked obnoxious. If everyone was bein' a gooze-sticka, the kid who was It said "1-2-3, get off my fahthiz apple tree!" and if ya didn't you were It.(tried posting twice and got 404; if it's posting all these times, it's not on purpose, honest)

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In Dallas, Tx, we just said "base". But I have always heard the phrase "Ollie, Ollie, ach ten free" (or what it sounds like) just like the comment that was made on April 30, 2007 above. Anyone else heard this one?

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What about "freeze tag"????

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We used to play Relievio in Somerville, too -- a version of Capture the Flag. Someone's front porch was the jail. When a player from the hunting team caught someone from the other side, s/he said, "One, two, three, caught by me!" And when someone from the hunted team somehow made it to the jail/porch, he slapped his hand on and said, "Relievio," thus freeing the entire team to hide again.

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Well, I grew up in Salisbury, Mass and we said "gools," which was the safe place and you couldn't get tagged...sometimes I remember the my gools one two three thing...vaguely though. As someone else said, it did sound like gooz when pronounced fast - the "l" kinda gets lost. And we always said "olly olly oxen free," when playing hide and seek and the person who was "it" gave up and wanted to have everyone come out of hiding. Don't know the origin of it though.

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I grew up in Merrimac MA. We called the game Relievio. We had a safe zone called "Ghouls/Gools." When we freed someone that person would yell as they were running away "Ollie, Ollie I'm Free!" When we caught someone we would say, "One, two, three, caught, caught, caught." Makes me wish I were a kid again!

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Thanks for the laughs! :) How bout tag, your it!?!?

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I'm so glad I found this forum, I'm laughin wicked hahd at work right now! I'm a Mainuh, Ayuh. We said Gouhls (or howevuh you wanna spell it - gules, gaols, gools, ghouls...), and ayuh, gouhl stickahs ruined the game! As far as I could tell, we always said "All ye all ye, all come free." (or Ollie Ollie, again, howevuh you wanna spell it). Thanks for making me laugh. Now who's turn is it? One potato, two potato, three potato, four..- five potato, six potato...........

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In Woburn, we played the same way.. I never new what the word really was, or meant... and years later thought maybe it was our incorrect way of saying 'goals' in Woo-bin : )

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Yes, that's how we played in Roslindale too, it was for Hide and Seek, not for tag - I don't think we ever tried to spell it, but I would spell it "Gools."

And we yelled "Ollie ollie in free" at the end to call everyone out of hiding, which I suppose was "All ye, All ye, in free."

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german for "Everyone, everyone also are free (to come in)"

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- when I heard the kids at my daughter's school using the word "gools" for "base" during tag. Found an article on it that actually mentioned kids at her specific school using it in the 1940s!!

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LOL! I grew up in Chicago (West side). When we played Hide-n-Seek, and had to let everyone know someone had been tagged, we yelled, "Olly, Olly, Oxen, Free-Free-Free!" I thought that it meant "all ye oxen" are free (to come back in and we can start again). Never could figure out why it was "oxen." Also, we called ghouls, "home" in Chicago.

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Interesting that no one from New Hampshire has commented, but I'm from southern NH and I clearly remember that we called base "gools" when playing tag in elementary school. This was the late 80s/early 90s. I remember playing tag with a different group of kids later on - it was either elsewhere in NH or another part of New England - and it was "goals" to them; nobody had heard "gools" and they looked at me like I was crazy. It's pretty funny to find out what a common experience this apparently was for Boston-area kids.

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Wow, I haven't heard this term in ages. Grew up in Fitchburg in the 70's and gools was the safe zone. I'm more surprised that goolstickahs was as widely known as it appears. We played chase, team-chase, tag and freeze tag. If memory serves we always said "Olly Olly Oxen Free!". The woods on Bond St were great for games

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WOW!!!! This is too funny. Growing up in Milwaukee, we called it gool/Ghoul no "S". Sometime we would say "No Gool" or set a time before you could come to gool. One disadvantage of gool was that the same person could be "IT" forever if they were a slow runner.We also said ollie ollie oxen free after the first person was caught of if "IT" was too sorry to find anybody.

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Grew up in Tewksbury Mass where it was DEFINITELY "Ghouls/gools". I *just* had this argument with my wife (Uxbridge, MA) who insisted I was crazy and that it had to have been "goals".

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I'm 47 years old. In Chicopee, it was "goals" which I never really thought about because I figured it was just like a goal in various sports/games. The Ollie think though, I always thought it was "Ollie Ollie oxenfree" which made no sense to me, but I figured if the big kids said that's what I had to say, I'd say it - such a conformist!

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Wow, weird. I'm also 47. Lately I've been referring to "Ghoul" and my wife thinks I'm crazy. I grew up in Minneapolis and when we were kids, playing tag or hide and seek, there was a safe place, where no one could get you, called "ghoul". Just a vague memory. I was trying figure out where this came from. One or two google searches later and I found this thread, which appears to have started a few years ago. Now I know I'm not crazy. Wow, the internet is cool. Oh yeah, and it's definitely "Ollie Ollie oxenfree!"

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"ghoul" was definately the "safe" zone or object when playing tag or Hide 'n Seek. The front porch (not stoop) would usually be a good ghoul. We also used "ollie, ollie oxen free", but not very often. Nobody knew what it meant. We also played "freeze tag", "Captain May I", "Capture the Flag", "Kick the Can", "Simon Says", "Statue Maker", "Uncle Sam". Most of these required "putting your foot in" and someone would likely claim the title of "all-time sayer". The "sayer" was the one who would determine who would be exempt from being "it" through use of a simple rhyme and touching each player's foot to the rhythm of the rhyme. For example, "One potato (first player's foot touched), two potato (second player's foot touched moving in a clockwise direction etc) three potato, four, five potato, six potato, seven potato, more, my, mother, said, that, you, are, not, it (or some variation). What great memories!! This was in the 70's in Wisconsin.

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I looked this up cuz my kids are saying goo. I told them it was gools and they looked at me like I was nuts! Too funny! but I did start second guessing myself which is how I ended up here. So anyway, in Northbridge, Ma in the early eighties it was ollie, ollie, oxenfree and my gools 1 2 3!

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Olly olly oxen free (and similar spellings) is a catchphrase used in the children's game of hide and seek to indicate that players who are hiding can come out into the open without losing the game. It may possibly be from the German phrase "Alle, alle auch sind frei!", which loosely means "everybody is free!"

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I grew up in Wisconsin, too, and we played all of these games too, all of time! So many kids -- we played until dark. Great memories. The front porch was called 'gool'. I really enjoyed reading your about your similar experiences. My community was very German, so the other post that translates Olly Olly in come free to the German version sounds very plausible.

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St. Monica's School, Methuen, at least 1969 through 77.

Relievio was the big recess game, with jail and gools. (I guess it never really occurred to us that it had a spelling). The kids in jail formed a big human chain, with one end touching jail and the other stretched out so a runner could free them all.

Chicken-fights were big too, with a little guy piggy-back on a big guy, trying to knock the other teams to the ground.

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Wow, I haven't heard this term in years. Back in New Bedford in the 70's, we used to call it "goo" and occasionally "gool." It was a high insult to be called a "goo-sticker."

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I'm from holliston and we had ghouls with capture the flag. My husband said I'm nuts. Glad someone could back me up!

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We definitely said that growing up in Woburn! I taught it to my cousins in cali and they thought I was crazy! According to Wikipedia:

"This safe zone has been called a "gool",[7][8] probably a corruption of "goal".[9] The term "gool" was first recorded in print in Massachusetts in the 1870s, and is common in the northern states of the US. Variants include gould, goul, and ghoul, and alternatives include base and home.[10]
[edit] "

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I thought I was crazy, I googled it and I feel better!
When I was little, the safe spots where you couldn't become "it" was ghoul / gool / ?

My son is having a sleepover and they went outside to play tag and I asked what is ghoul and got the strangest looks ever.

I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and everyone that I ever played tag with me had designated ghoul areas. I have been validated! Thanks!

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Grew up on the southcoast of MA and we had "gools" and yelled "ollie, ollie oxen free".

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I grew up 15 miles north of Mil WI in the 70's, and we always called the safe area Gool (ghoul). I never considered the spelling, though.
We always used a big rock, a front porch step or a light pole or some other land mark.
Sometimes, if a couple kids were on gool we would use "electricity" and they could make a chain, one touching gool and the others holding hands, to extend the safe area to you as you tried to avoid the person that was "it".

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ghouls stickers are it again!

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As a 9-year old visiting my older sister in Maryland in the early 60's, it just blew my mind that what we called "gools" was to them "base", and that, when one reached the base/gools, one said, not "My gools, 1-2-3", but "Safe!" It was like learning a foriegn language. As I rmemebre, however, the lingo for "Red Rover" and "Tag" were pretty much the same there as here.

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Mangia this was a wicked fun forum to visit. Thanks for the info and laughs. Some explanations make total sense. I like the German one for “Olli Olli Oxen Free” (How we pronounced it here in Lawrence, MA). I found this thread goofing around with my girlfriend after speaking to my app developer “Olli”. I uttered “Olli Olli Oxen Free” and it lead into Gouls, which we also used up here. She looked at me like I was an alien. She grew up just up the road in Windham!

I’m 42. We played Relievio as well. The last explanation on this was dead-on. We also played “Man Hunt” Similar to Relievio but I believe there was no relieving. When you were caught, you waited for the game to end. This made the game not last so long when using a large neighborhood for boundaries or with many kids.

Thanks again for the fun posts. They were all great. I hafta forward this to my sis for a laugh.

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Rowley, Mass., 1975 it was always Gool or Gool Stickah.

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Grew up in Marshfield Mass we called it Ghouls. When one person made it it without getting caught in Hide and Seek, we called out My Ghouls 1, 2 3. If whoever was IT and there was a stalemate, if the game went too long or needed to end we yelled our Olly Olly Oxen Free....

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We played these games of tag and hide and go seek in East Boston in the 1950's. We would say "my goos 1 2 3" with goos ending in a "z' sound. At end of game we would say "olly olly in free" . I later learned that "goos" was really "gools" which is a corruption of the word "goals". As kids we always messed up words; "olly olly in free" was often "olly olly entry" and even "olly olly infantry" instead of "olly olly in come free"

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