JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
" Pinch Without Laughing ", Swear to goodness Bliss and Peck, ever faithful witnesses to era Ladies lives, ,as Companions ( Bliss and Peck's, " Ladies Companion " is an era standby ) , includes this parlor game in their book on keeping-parties-moving.
Technology may be a boon in a plethora of ways' it has also separated us. Look around any gathering- heck, train, bus, park or check out line for that matter. No one looks up.
My grgrandmother- a Huson from the Finger Lakes region of New York belonged to a ladies group called " The Wednesday Afternoon Club ". From newspaper clippings we know they met .... Wednesday afternoons, had tea, delicate cookies and pastry, listened to a program interesting in nature prepared by a committee- and played games. Why? Because they delighted in engaging each other. And liked to laugh.
Transpires we've done a ton of laughing, engaging each other and game-playing through centuries. Found a ' game ' illustration; Egyptian men swinging women around by their ankles. Sounds fun to me!
My great grandmother's club is another story since it falls outside ' our ' era. It did awaken my interest in these pastimes- plentiful, some incomprehensible-quite a few impossible to post through era er, insensitivity but quite wonderful!
No need to explain- a " how to " on creating for your guests a life-like pachyderm in your drawing room! I'm sorry but it's fall-down funny.
Who knew?
SOME are head scratchers- not always games. Jokes loomed large. Promise, this is written into another era book as hysterical...
We're all familiar with " Punch and Judy "? The show was extremely popular as entertainment for children and adults. You made your own puppets. Instructions were give ladies desirous of holding a party on how. BUT- wait for it.
Wait, what?? Perhaps engaging each other was not the best idea?
" ... stick to beat his wife " ??? Oh dear.
Some parlor games were just excuses....... albeit nice excuses. For nice things.
I'm positive my great grandmother did not play this Wednesday afternoons.
I'll leave it to your imagination to figure this one out- it's like magic, isn't it? Mythical being or 2 men in a rug?
As odd, funny, bizarre or off base as some may be, point being our ancestors engaged each other and loved it. It's what one did as matter of course. So many living rooms today center around televisions- with no TV, theirs did not. If anything, the fireplace- or center of the room left unfilled until the next guest or party.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082538822;view=1up;seq=127