When I was a kid, me and my cousins would sometimes play ‘Are the bears out tonight?’. This was played at night. One person would be the bear and go hide. The rest of us would walk slowly calling out ‘are the bears out tonight?’ until the bear would inevitably spring out and try to catch one of us.
I have no idea how this game filtered down to us being more at home in the 1910s than the 1980s. Now that it’s reasonably common for me to see bears when I walk in my neighbourhood – particularly at dusk – I have an irrational fear that one will spring out at any moment, wave its arms wildly, and try to tackle me.