Schooner Head

This story about “Schooner Head” is dedicated to my classmates who are no longer around to talk and remember the fun we had.
Tom Flentje, Rich Kaufmann, Larry Wagner, Don Cretton We apologize for those we may have missed.

Schooner Head was first played on foot. It was a game that combined Hide and Seek with Tag.

Two groups would be selected. One group would hang out for a short time while the second group took to find hiding places. Much more fun if played after dark, but it could be dangerous. Mishicot was much smaller in 1950, so most of us knew the hiding places.

After a time, the first group would start to search for those in hiding. If, after a time, those in hiding could be found, the looking individuals
would call out in a loud voice: “LOST TRAIL”. If a person in hiding was within some distance, but heard the Lost Trail call, he was required to say in a loud voice: “SCHOONER HEAD”. This would give away his position and the chase would begin. The chasers would try to catch and tag the hiders.

One late afternoon, the game was in full swing. Some of the hiders climbed up on a shed roof near the Western Condensing plant. As it turned dark, the chaser did locate the players on the roof. These hiders decided to climb back to ground level and find another hiding place. Because it was dark, they were unsure of their footing. One player stepped on a steam exhaust outlet and was burned. He nearly fell to the ground.

After this incident, new rules were put into place.

No hiding on roofs! No hiding in trees! No hiding in upper lofts! All hiding must be on ground level. If the person hiding was more than 10 to 20 feet from a
chaser, he was required to say Schooner Head upon hearing Lost Trail.

If the person hiding was close to the chaser, he was not requied to make a sound.

Some time later someone suggested we play the game on our bicycles. What fun this would be! The chase on bicyles was the most fun. There were
not many places in Mishicot that we did not travel to. Some times the games lasted into the late night hours.

Thank You to my friends who helped remember details about Schooner Head.

Al Flentje, Gilbert Zima.