-Wednesday, November 16, 1994
Milk caps are not just for milk anymore.
They have become the hottest new craze since the surfboard hit Hawaii.
"In the 1930s, 40s and 50s, kids in Hawaii collected milk caps from all the different dairies," said Debbie LaPlant, owner of Chico's downtown store, Beach It. "As far back as the 1920s, kids found that knocking down stacked milk caps was more fun than marbles and jacks, and the caps were great to collect and share with friends."
Eventually cardboard containers replaced the old, glass milk and juice bottles. The milk cap craze seemed to fade.
In 1991 Blossom Galbiso, a counselor at Waialua Elementary School in Hawaii, brought the milk caps back to life, LaPlant explained.
"She wanted to teach the kids something about history by showing them a game she played when she was a little girl," LaPlant said.
The response was unexpectedly positive. The kids really liked the game and wanted to get more caps to play with, LaPlant said.
The milk cap game is played by two-or-more players on any flat surface. Each player places an equal number of milk caps on the stack, art side up.
One player goes first and throws another milk cap or a hitter, often called the slammer, at the stack trying to flip over as many caps as possible. Any caps flipped over, blank side up, are picked up by the first player. The caps remaining are restacked and the next player goes.
The game is over when all caps have been flipped, and the player with the most caps wins the game.
Because the old milk caps were not around anymore, the children turned to cardboard stoppers in bottles of juice sold by the Haleakala Dairy in Maui.
This is where the name POG came from, which stands for passion fruit, orange and guava, the tropical fruit drink sold by the dairy.
The children insisted on calling this milk cap game "pogs," although that name is now a registered trademark by World POG Federation.
Since then the caps have spread across Hawaii and into the continental United States. Right here in Chico, kids and adults are flipping over this new game.
"Kids here say it's really big," said Elana Harmon, a secretary at Bidwell Junior High School. "They play the game in the mornings in the multimedia room before school."
"Chico State University students come in and buy them to play when they're having a party," LaPlant said. "They've also started playing them in the bars."
"Pogs are the latest craze. It's a real hot thing," said Liz Swope, manager at All The Best Video. "We had a 'pogs' tournament here recently and over 100 families participated. Everyone seemed to come out happy, not only with the competition, but with the limited- edition milk caps we handed out."
"It's like marbles," said Kevin Cowan, an employee at Ray's Video. "You never can figure out what the attraction is. One kid gets them and everyone wants them. They're really big here."
"Parents don't mind buying them for their kids," Swope said. "They'll say no to the jerky and the candy but yes to the milk caps. It's good, healthy fun and seems to be appealing to both the kids and adults."
The milk caps have become more than just a game, according to LaPlant.
"The schools around town have used the milk caps as fund-raisers. They are also used as educational tools, incorporating learning into the game," LaPlant said. "There are sets with all the presidents and all the states on them. The kids can't help but learn while they're playing."
However some problems have come about at the schools because kids are playing for "keeps." "As long as kids play for fun and not for 'keeps,' it's a fun game," LaPlant said.
Some of the parents and schools have become a little upset over the milk caps, but this occurs mainly when the children are playing for "keeps," LaPlant explained. Then the game is seen as a type of gambling.
"Playing for 'keeps' can cause problems on the playground, in the classrooms and away from school," LaPlant said.
As a result of problems between the kids, several schools have made a rule that kids can play the game but not for "keeps." Other schools have banned the game altogether, according to Imka Davis, who provides several businesses in Chico with the milk caps.
The milk caps produced today come in various sizes, colors and designs, although the milk caps are more colorful now than the original ones were.
"Originally the colors had to be produced with vegetable dye so they were safe with food, since the caps covered milk and juice," Davis said.
"The milk caps are spreading everywhere in Chico," Davis said. "The biggest selections are at Beach It, All The Best Video and Ray's Video. However they can now be purchased at almost any hobbie shop or grocery store in town."
Copyright (c) Wednesday, November 16, 1994 by The Orion