Pogs brought a lot of joy but also caused a lot of pain.
From the outside looking in, people see 20 to 30 kids squatting on the blacktop, yelling in excitement -and disappointment- as they play a game.
And if you don’t see this scene often, it may seem like someone started an illegal Chinese casino in the 1800s on the schoolyard.
But it’s the mid-90s. And these schoolchildren aren’t technically gambling. They’re playing Pogs.
As you scan through the crowd, you’ll notice an intense game happening in the middle of the crowd.
It’s a 1-on-1 match and each player has to put in three Pogs, and one of them has to be a shiny one. They’re also playing with no slammer and the game is for keeps.
The first player slams the stack with all of his might. More than half of the Pogs flip over.
He smirks while his opponent is on the verge of crying.
His opponent takes his turn but only flips over one of the Pogs.
As he grabs his single winning, his eyes tear up more.
A few minutes have passed. They are on the final Pog of the stack now and both players are struggling to flip it.
The first player rubs his hands together, blows some good luck on his Pog, and measures out where he needs to hit the final one. Then, he slams the single Pog right on its edge.
The Pog flies up and twirls in the air. After a few suspenseful semi-seconds, it lands on its back.
He has a big grin on his face. His opponent, on the other hand, is crying and accusing him of cheating.
“Y-you cheated!”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Y-yes… you did… I want my P-pogs back!”
“No. How did I cheat?”
“Because… you’re o-older and big-ger than me! It w-wasn’t fair!”
“I’m playing with someone else. You’re stupid.”
Now, if you look to your right, you’ll notice a group of five kids watching another match.
The two players are in the middle of the game. Each player has already won two Pogs each and there are two left in the stack.
A player jackknifes them with his slammer and both flip over.
“Aw, damn! Nice slam.”
“Thanks! Good game,” the winner says.
“Yeah, good game,” the loser responds. As he turns over to grab his case, he notices that it is missing.
“Hey, did you see a blue case behind me?”
“No, sorry.”
The loser then calls his friend over to see if he saw it or saw someone take it.
“No, man. I wasn’t looking over there.”
“Damn. I think someone stole my case of Pogs. Let’s look around to see if we can find it.”
“Okay.”
They look around for 5 minutes but can’t find anything.
“Someone stole my Pogs!” he yells as he starts tearing up. “I’m going to tell a teacher.”
These scenes played every school day at my elementary school for nearly a year.