• SumoMe

playgroundI recently read an article on The Wall Street Journal which bears spreading. The article, “It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being ‘It,'” is one of the most fun things I’ve read in quite some time. The gist of the article is there are 4 men who started a game of tag in High School, and are have played the same game of tag for 23 years. However, because many of them have grown up to take on important jobs (Chief Marketing Officer of Nordstrom, a priest, an attorney, and a tech company manager), the game is only on during the month of February. During this month, the men travel far and wide to tag the others and keep their friendship alive. The article has some pretty hilarious anecdotes about some of the notable taggings:

One year early on when Mike Konesky was “It,” he got confirmation, after midnight, that people were home at the house where two other players lived. He pulled up to their place at around 2 a.m., sneaked into the garage and groped around in the dark for the house door. “It was open,” he says. “I’m like, ‘Oh, man, I could get arrested.’ ”

Mr. Konesky tiptoed toward Mr. Dennehy’s bedroom, burst through the door and flipped on the light. A bleary-eyed Mr. Dennehy looked up as his now-wife yelled “Run, Brian!” Mr. Konesky recalls. “There was nowhere for Brian to run.”

Over the years, some of the players fanned out around the country—which curbed the action but raised the stakes. At one point, Chris Ammann was living in Boston. So Mr. Konesky dipped into his frequent-flier miles and crossed the country on the last weekend of the month. He spent the next two days in the bushes outside Mr. Ammann’s apartment, sitting in his friend’s favorite bar or driving up and down his street. Mr. Ammann never showed. Mr. Konesky was “It” for the year. (Russell Adams/Wall Street Journal).

The article also describes how some of the men travel more in February to avoid getting tagged, and how one of them waited outside the apartment of another for two entire days hoping to get a late-February tagging, but to no avail.

This article is great, and it makes me want to start a game of tag with some friends of my own. I also love to see older men having fun and playing this childhood game, but never letting it end. This bond of brotherhood is something that all men want, and it’s truly like another family. As it’s February now, I hope they’re still having fun with it, and whoever is “it” better hurry up and tag someone else before the end of the month.

Would you play the same game of tag for 23 years? Who would you play it with? Let’s have some fun in the comments below.