Hide the strap may have been a little before my time, but talking to the old-heads (older folks in the neighborhood) gave me great insight to how hide the strap was played.
The game was played similar to hide and seek, but with a twist. A strap or belt was hidden somewhere in a predetermined neighborhood (ex. from 8th to 9th, Jackson to Wolf). One of the kids was chosen to be it. How they were chosen can be anywhere from a shootout, rock paper scissors or even age. Whoever was it had to find the strap. Once they found the strap then they had to find the other players. When they found a player they can hit or swat them until they reached and tagged home base. Home base could be a persons step, a telephone pole or whatever else a young childs imagination could come up with.
We played a slight variation of this in Southwest Philly (68th and Buist). It was called Hide the Belt. The person who was "it" would hide the belt and the rest of the group would look for it while given clues by "it" in the form of "you're getting warm" or "you're getting cold." The person who finds the belt has the right to whip all the others until they reached base. That person then became it for the next round.
This game was not much fun for the slow heavy kids since they could not outrun the person with the belt. They would therefore endure multiple hits with the belt. Head shots were not allowed but anywhere else was fair game.
We played this two ways, when girls played we used the leather end to hit the players, when it was just us guye we hit with the buckle end. Many welts came from this version.