Peter White, sister Nicole White, Tara Jackson, Johnny White and Nick Jackson pose at the western end of their humongous hopscotch board on Burch Farms Drive in Clarkson. The original board, created during the spring school vacation the week before this photo was taken, was wiped out by rainstorms. It was composed of 1,029 boxes and extended to the eastern end of their road. It took them two and one-half hours to draw the boxes. It took the group over an hour to recreate the reduced version of the boxes seen in the picture. As to the purpose, Nicole stated: “To have fun!” Photograph by Walter Horylev.

Hopscotching
toward a record

When hopscotch began in ancient Britain during the early Roman Empire, the original hopscotch courts were more than 100 feet long and used for military training exercises. That length sounded impressive until a group of children from Clarkson got out their egg shaped road chalk and began sketching their court – it was almost one mile long.

“We were playing four square and got bored,” 11-year old Nicole White said. “So we decided we wanted to make a hopscotch all the way down the road. Everyone thought we were crazy.”

Their goal, Nicole said, was to draw 300 squares. She and her cohorts got so involved in their hopscotch that it numbered 1,029 squares by the time it was all done. They used up seven boxes of chalk by the time the project was over.

“There were five of us involved,” she said. “Two kids made the boxes and the others drew the numbers.” The others involved in the project were Nicole’s brothers, Peter, 10, and eight-year-old Johnny and friends, Tara Jackson, 12; Nicholas Jackson, 10; and Jillian Fraser, 12.

The jumping part of the hopscotch, Nicole said, took a long time to get through and “our legs got very sore by the time we were done.”

Nicole said they had wanted to try and get into the Guinness Book of World Records but, “the application cost $50.”

She said they wanted to go longer but it rained and all of their hard work was washed away. She said she wasn’t sure if they would make another attempt but said it was “really fun to do.”

Hopscotch history and rules of play
Hopscotch is an English term meaning “to jump.”

Each player has a marker, usually a common stone. The first player tosses his marker into the first square. The marker must land completely within the designated square without touching a line or bouncing out. If not, or if the marker lands in the wrong square, the player forfeits his turn.

If the marker toss is successful, the player hops through the court beginning at square one. Side-by-side squares are straddled, with the left foot landing in the left square and the right foot in the right square. Single squares must be hopped into on one foot. For the first single square, either foot may be used. Subsequent single squares must alternate feet. Squares marked “Safe” (or “Home”/“Neutral”/“Rest”/etc.) or “London” are neutral squares and may be hopped through in any manner without penalty.

When the player reaches the end of the court, he turns around and hops back through the court, hopping through the squares in reverse order and stopping to pick up his marker on the way back. Upon successfully completing the sequence, the player continues his turn by tossing his marker into square two and continuing in a similar fashion. Reference: http://www-cs.canisius.-edu/~salley/Articles/hopscotch.html