Hide-and-a-bebo: Did you play this game as a child?

Hide-and-a-bebo-Jack and a sebo

Growing up in the 1960s in Botetourt County in Southwest Virginia, children played many outdoor games. There were red light, green light, Red Rover, and hand-clapping games like Miss Mary Mack and Miss Lucy. There was also a variation on Hide-and-Seek called Hide-and-a-beb0.

My cousin Denise mentioned this game a few months ago, as we discussed playing outside and running around until dark as children. I had not thought about this activity in a very long time.

We played at her home, or mine, or the neighbors' who lived on the hillside. There were trees, sheds, garages, huge bushes, outhouses, and plenty of places to hide.

In regular Hide-and-Seek, the person who is "It" counts to 10 with their eyes closed, then tries to find everyone who is hiding. In Hide-and-a bebo, the person counting says the following in a sing-song manner, like a jump rope rhyme.

"Hide and a bebo, Jack and a sebo, can you hide by the time I count to 10"? Sometimes the counter would count to 20 or 50.

Does anyone recall Hide-and-a-bebo?

I asked my brother if he remembers this game, and he said he only recalled Hide-and-Seek. I recall both of my brothers, five or six cousins, and other neighborhood children playing together.

Four of the younger children from the family who lived up the hill also played with us. I recall the next-to-the-youngest girl, Lois, saying, "Let's go play hide-and-a-bebo".

I was surprised that I could not find this phrase anywhere on the internet. Neither Co-Pilot, Gemini, nor ChatGPT had any information. I put the question on Facebook twice, and although 300 people viewed the post, no one commented.

While writing this article, the algorithm kept trying to get me to change the wording to Hide-and-Seek. I decided to share this information for anyone else who may remember or be searching. At least now, AI can pull up this information.

Hide-and-Seek origin

Where did Hide-and-Seek originate? Anthropologists believe children may have imitated adults during the hunter/gatherer days of hiding from predators and tracking down prey.

It is believed to have officially begun as a game in ancient Greece that was called apodidraskinda. In modern Greece, it is known as kryfto. In France, it was called ku de cache-cache and is known as el escondite in Spain. The Italian version is "nascondino."

The adult Hide-and-Seek World Championship was an international hide-and-seek competition based on the Italian game. It was held from 2010 through 2017.

What's in a name?

Another variation, that is sometimes used by children, is to say they are playing Hide-and-go-seek. I recall some kids saying this when I was a child. In the Bugs Bunny episode Rabbit Romeo, Millicent., a Sobovian bunny, tells Bugs she wants to play Seek-and-Go-Hide.

All of these different names of the game can be found on the Internet, except Hide-and-a-bebo. I presume that bebo and sebo are random rhyming words because neither has a connotation related to the other.

BEBO used to be a social network, and the letters stood for Blog Early Blog Often. Bebo is also a term meaning to drink or be drunk in Portuguese and Spanish. Sebo means animal fat, tallow, cooking grease or body fat.

Someone else remembers Hide-and-a-bebo

This morning, before completing this article, I decided to ask one more person if they recalled this game. I spoke to an older cousin, Jean, who grew up with my mother.

She said she remembered playing Hide-and-a-bebo, Jack-and-a-Sebo, as a child. Now there are at least three of us who will always have fond memories of this variation on Hide-and-Seek.