My grandson came over a few weeks before he graduated from Lincoln-Way East High School this month and he was wearing a small pool floatie on his arm. You know, the kind they give kids when they are learning to swim.
Of course, I asked what was the deal with the floatie.
“I’m playing Senior Assassin,” he explained. “And this protects me from the other players.”
Turns out, Senior Assassin is a game for high school seniors right before graduation. In my grandson’s case, there were teams of three to six players, whose mission was to eliminate other players by “assassinating” them with a water gun. You were also supposed to record the “killing” and post it to social media.
I was told the game was also being played by seniors at Sandburg High School and that Hickory Hills Mayor Mike Howley’s daughter was even supposedly involved in a game.
My grandson said there were hundreds of kids in his game. All of whom paid an entry fee to join and who could pay to re-enter the game if they were knocked out. He said there were thousands of dollars in the pot for the winner, who would be the last man or woman standing. My grandson wasn’t going to be the winner but he lasted a long time. There were 30 players left when his time came to an end.
He told me about the rules. School grounds were off limits as were workplaces. If you wore a floatie you were immune. Even then, there were “purges” when no protections were available. Otherwise it was a free-for-all.
You were assigned a target and you had a week to do him or her in or you forfeited your own place.
He regaled me with stories about friends or teammates who hid in bushes or even in a target’s vehicle (a trick my grandson used) to eliminate their prey. There was a girl who was eliminated at a Dunkin’ when she rolled down the window to get her purchase. Another target was eliminated in his seemingly safe driveway by an assassin who hid in the back of a pickup truck and popped out when least expected.
Because work was off limits, my grandson would stand in the window of his job and taunt other players waiting to catch him. His boss once went out and brought his car to the store door, so he could easily reach the car without getting squirted.
It sounded like something I would have jumped at in my high school days. The most fun we had was when we would shoot bottle rockets at each other. Otherwise, all we did was hang out at arcades or screw around in the woods that were plentiful in my neighborhood. We would occasionally hang out with our buddies in store parking lots after they closed. But the cops would always chase us away.
These kinds of challenges have become more common, thanks in large part to social media. Videos of people playing and getting assassinated are all over Instagram and TikTok.
A few years ago there was the ice bucket challenge, which started out as a fundraiser for ALS research. It consisted of dumping a bucket of ice water over your head usually caught on camera and posted.
Then there was the Tide Pod challenge when you were dared to eat a laundry pod, which was just plain stupid and dangerous. Do not try this at home.
Another dangerous stunt was the cinnamon challenge of trying to eat a teaspoon of cinnamon, which is nearly impossible. Do not try this at home.
Then there’s the once popular Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon or Six Degrees of Separation game. People would try to see if they could connect to a celebrity in six moves or less. You know, A knows B who knows C and so forth.
I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Bob Bong is editor of Southwest Regional Publishing