Children's Games

My daughter and I watched "Annie" yesterday, which, in a sideways way, brought to mind a game my siblings and I played when we were young. But this is how we played.

To begin with, there are 7 kids in my family, and I'm thinking everyone participated in this game. The youngest was probably not older than 2 years old, and the oldest somewhere between 12 and 14. My memory is a bit fuzzy about such details. But I digress...

No, the photo is not my family, but it could have been! One dad, three brothers and four sisters. Only they lived a long time ago. And we're much cuter. :)

We lived in a large-ish house with a long hall on the main floor and in that hall was a long linen closet, with two accordian-style doors and 3 or 4 long shelves. Not having much money, we didn't have many linens, and I remember the shelves being empty except for a few folded sheets and maybe a tablecloth. We would take turns, but usually our oldest sister would be "Miss Hannigan" and she would yell at us to get to bed and we would run screaming to climb up on the shelves-- I don't recall how we all fit, maybe the smaller kids laid two to a shelf. I loved this part, though. Then Miss Hannigan would come and close the closet doors, telling us we had to be silent (if I recall, I think she had a "date" coming and didn't want him to know about the orphans??) We giggled and laughed and tried to make each other talk loudly so they would get in "trouble". I can't remember exactly what the penalty was, but we would try to listen for her to come down the hall, and she would try to sneak up on us and open the doors in a flash to catch us talking. I mostly remember laughing and really enjoying my brothers and sisters.

Any childhood made-up games you remember?