Do you remember playing washers?

By P.J. Gossett
General Manager
HAMILTON — “When I was in school, we played washers.” This statement I overheard in Hamilton a couple of weeks ago brought back my own childhood memories of playing the game in our front yard. It made me think about the history of the game, if it is still played today and if the younger generation knew what it was.
A quick search revealed not only is it known today, but there are actually “official” boards one can buy to play the game. There are official rules, though they are nothing like what I played in the mid-1980s.
Washers, or washer pitching or washer tossing, is a game similar to horseshoes, except the players toss metal washers about two inches in diameter toward a “recessed cup.” Usually, two players stand at a board 20 feet apart (official competition is 25 feet) and toss the washers toward the cups. Scoring is by points on where the washer stops, whether in or near the cup. In the cup is worth five points, while those nearest but not in the cup, is worth one point. Games are played to either 11, 17 or 21 points. There are of course other rules, such as one player’s washer can negate the points of the other player (just like horseshoes), and the game must be played to the exact number of points chosen at the beginning of the game. Official rules can be found at washers.org.
The way I played was a little different. Using a small garden shovel in a sandy area, five holes were dug just wide enough and deep enough for the two inch washers to fit in. There were four outside holes and one inside, similar to the number five on a die. Another set of five holes were dug probably 10 to 15 feet apart. If the washer got an outside hole, it was worth five points while the center hole was worth ten points. I was the third generation washer player in my family.
It appears the origin of the game is not known. Some accounts say it began in 1931 in Indiana, though there is evidence of the game before then. Research suggests the game had its origin in Scotland by 1903. By 1917, the game was being played in Texas and 1922 in Indiana. The first mention in Alabama, according to Newspapers.com, was in 1929, right in Hamilton.
Hamilton’s Mayor Bob Page remembers family get-togethers where the game would be played.
“It was fun to play because it required accuracy,” Page said. “It was a competition. Everybody back in those days were looking for competition. Actually, they were a little more popular with my dad and his brothers and my mother’s family growing up in the 1930s and 1940s. By the 1960s when I was a teenager, it wasn’t quite a popular game.”
Page described there were “washer kings,” and others would challenge them. He said there were those who could “ring” right into the hole, but when it was played, usually they were pitched with a spin so they would begin to slide into the hole once hitting the ground.
He also remembers playing the game while in school at Gravel Springs and seeing people playing on courthouse square when he came into town on Saturdays.
“When people would come to town on Saturday, and especially when it was time to bring their crops in, a lot of them would gather on the court square (to play washers).”
And to this day, I know exactly where those same washers are that I played with 35 years ago. They are still hanging on a nail on the front porch.