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.

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

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....

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

(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!

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

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.

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)

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?

What about "freeze tag"????

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.

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.

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!

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

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...........

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

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.

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!

"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.

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.