Buck-Buck was a fun and sometimes painful game we played for hours on end in Key School Yard (Francis Scott Key School on 8th & Wolf Streets).  The game was played by one person being the wall cushion or anchor.  The first person of the defending team would bend over and hold onto the anchors midsection.  The next person bent over and held onto the first persons waist leaning on their back.  Depending on how many people you had you would create a chain in this manner.  We usually played with 8-10 people.

Then the fun was to begin…

A person from the other team would come running full speed and yell out “Buck-Buck number one is coming”, then leapfrog onto the backs of the other team.  He then slid up as close as he could to the anchor so there was plenty of room for Buck-Buck numbers 2-5.  This went on until either all members were on the backs of the human chain or the chain collapsed.

If the chain did not collapse,  the captain of the chain gang (team bent over on the bottom) had to guess how many fingers were held up by the other teams captain.  He had three tries, and if he guessed correctly the teams would reverse sides and then the chain was formed by the team now on top.  If the answers were incorrect or if the chain collapsed the same team created another chain and the game started over from the beginning.