Adults that play limbo have to be one of the crueler tricks that fate has dumped on mankind's shoulders. The limbo game is just not physically possible as a person gets past the age of 25 or 30. Or sure, adults try to fake it. If you've ever seen a group of drunk adults trying to play limbo you know the scene: retirees doing some silly hopping and crouching and trying to stay reasonably in step with the Caribbean music playing in the back round, but deep inside they know. They KNOW they're asking for trouble when they play limbo.

We've all been there. Especially if we're over the age of 35 or 40. The first time you arch your back and flex your knees, and you realize you're moving contrary to the direction the good Lord intended, it's probably too late. If you're lucky, you'll fall down and be able to roll to the side, thus sparing yourself some serious injury and further embarrassment. But if you're like most adults who yearn for just one more shot at fame and glory, you'll try to bend back and contort your face like a middle-aged Billy Idol and maybe fantasize that all of the women playing the limbo game with you want to jump your bones. But the reality is, they're giggling at you, Hell, your own wife is probably giggling at you and that's because she already fell down.

Kids on the other hand excel at the limbo game. Children have all the qualities their parents lack when it comes to playing limbo: they are small with a low center of gravity, they are extremely flexible, so that bend-over-backwards thing is not at all difficult, and most important of all, kids laugh at themselves and with themselves and do so without the use of alcohol.

There are different versions of limbo. One of the more inventive is played outdoors with a simple garden hose. At your child's next party, have one of the kids hold the garden hose so that the water sprays horizontally. Spray the water at chin level and have the limbo line of kids try to dance underneath the water. The same rule of thumb applies, just as if you were playing regular limbo: lower the water each successive time the line of kids repeats itself. Keep lowering the water stream so the kids have to crouch or crawl or slide or however they have to do it to avoid getting soaked. The child that stays the driest is the winner of the limbo game.

The other limbo game that looks a lot of fun is some crazy thing called "chicken limbo". The cross bar is a chicken with its legs stretched out and the support bars seem to be chickens as well. There's pre-recorded music that sounds like some West Indies island festival. And somewhere on the chicken/cross bar there is a sensor unit that -- when touched - squawks like a chicken! Fun stuff for kids. I'm sure adults would enjoy it as well but they are physically too big to get under the bar.

Barring all that (no pun intended), is poor-man's limbo. All you need to play limbo is a broom stick handle and a bunch of kids. Have two children hold the broom stick handle on each end and let the fun begin. Kids being the way they are, they'll purposely lower the broomstick so it touches their friends. But that's what limbo is all about - having fun!