Our Ancestors Look UP, Parties And Parlor Games

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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" 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.

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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!

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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.
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Who knew?

SOME are head scratchers- not always games. Jokes loomed large. Promise, this is written into another era book as hysterical...

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:eek:


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.
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Wait, what?? Perhaps engaging each other was not the best idea? :speechless:
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" ... stick to beat his wife " ??? Oh dear.

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Some parlor games were just excuses....... albeit nice excuses. For nice things.

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I'm positive my great grandmother did not play this Wednesday afternoons.

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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
 
I actually saw children playing hopscotch yesterday, heat not withstanding. Hopscotch! I nearly never refer to ' good old days ' but when was the last time anyone saw that? Or plain, old tag, leapfrog, London Bridge- any of them? Between having to keep an eye on children more than in the past, video games, less involvement in neighborhoods and who knows what else, we genuinely have lost something.

Remember when you were never, ever inside?

OK, playing hoops never came my way but someone is missing a great marketing op. If you can turn a tin pie plate into a sport, why not this?
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Obviously quite a few years pre-war but it hung around.

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Played that endlessly- or until someone got hurt.

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You only see this in the gym- remember the running double-dutch swingers and jumpers every, single recess?

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Stilts! We must have pounded together 100 sets. The leaping pole thing is new- guessing it was why bandaids were invented.

Sorry, got distracted over ' things to do ' for kids. It's summer and parents are a little frantic for ways to keep their children entertained. I'm pretty happy mine never had to schedule play dates. That's a thing, right?
 
Theses are great old games. I remember hop scotch and jump rope and marbles.

Also, I played jacks, pick-up-sticks, croquet and other games. Remember when the 'Hula Hoop' came out? I think I was nine years old at the time. I stayed outdoors from daylight to dark playing. Parents had to threaten me to get me inside. To this day I love camping & gardening.
 
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