Kick the Can - a Game with Junk

As I continue conceptualizing the future of Junkyard Sports, and all that is implied thereby, I find myself harkening back to the roots thereof. Today's back-harkening takes me to the game of Kick the Can, as so evocatively rendered by the virtual version herein illustrated.

One simply cannot play Kick the Can without a can. Though any can can be used, the canny player selects a large, easily kickable can, such as a coffee can. Since an empty coffee can is far more kickable, the game, in its small but vivid manner, encourages recycling. Thus, it can only be classified as junk-based. Which fixes it firmly as an indubitable precursor to the concept and spirit of Junkyard Sports.

Kick the Can, as a few minutes of virtual play will so vividly remind you, is an immensely gratifying game for anyone who likes to play with paranoia. It's no imagined thing: as long as you are IT, everyone is in deed against you. And though you have the Power to Immobilize, there's always that one player whom you haven't yet caught, who kicks the very foundations out from under your hard-won accomplishments, and frees the frozen.

Kick the Can is worthy of much contemplation, and not just for its junkiness. It captures a reality that we are destined to live over and over again in our short lives, whether we're trying to get everything ready for a meeting or the whole family into the car.

You can download the complete rules from the pre-eminent source of all things junkyard sport-like, Streetplay.com, or read the rules of this and some the related variations here, courtesy of Games Kids Play.