The word brings back mixed memories of school and summer camp. You know what I mean, that useless square divided into four that was always painted next to the hopscotch... things. For a while we didn't know what the hell it was there for, then summer camp came. Ah, summer camp. It was there I learned the game existed, and I learned how to play it as well. Summer camp was particularly good for four square because of the indoor court, also known as masking tape on a carpet.
Basically each square is a square meter in size (there's the metric system comin after ya), with one square having a small triangle in the corner. The object of the game was to hit the ball (underhand) into another person's square and then making them miss. If they did, they suffered the extreme shame of going to the first square, or if there's more than four people playing, the back of the line. Then everyone behind that person moves up.
The person in the triangle square is the king. The king serves. The king can also be very cheap and slightly tap the ball into someone else's square, which is impossible to hit back. Anyone who isn't the king is a "donkey".
After many, many rug burns and screeching over whether the ball was on the line or not, I finally got the hang of the game. I remember conning people into siding with me and then betraying them to become king. Then they would betray me back. Then everyone would betray everyone and fights would break out.
We used a good ol' dodgeball for the game but apparently theres some newfangled balls made just for four square.
Would I buy one? No. But at least we know the game is back in recognition.
