Tag: Friday fun

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1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Jogging the Lemon, 1935

The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935

Today’s fun is an indoor game for those who own a number of lemons and, trickier, multiple walking sticks. Having tried this myself, I can only concur with the statement “Until you have tried to poke a lemon along in this fashion, you have no idea how unruly a thing it may be.”

“Jogging the Lemon – This is an amusing race game, for which a fairly large room is needed with a clear floor. Any number can take part. Each competitor holds a walking stick, and with the point of this he must jog a lemon up the room and back again. No hitting is allowed. Until you have tried to poke a lemon along in this fashion, you have no idea how unruly a thing it may be.”

Categories
1950-1999 Games

Friday Fun – So you think you know the Beatles! 1970

Pelham Pop Annual, 1970
Pelham Pop Annual, 1970

From the Pelham Pop Annual, 1970 – a fairly difficult Beatles quiz.

The Pelham Pop Annual aimed to only feature artists that would stand the test of time and, looking at their features, they mostly did well. Cliff Richard, Tom Jones, The Who are all here. Unfortunately, the annual only seemed to last for the one, 1970, edition though.

Categories
Games Victorian

Friday Fun – Riddle-me-ree, 1870

The Young Ladies Journal, February 1870

A classy riddle from “The Young Ladies Journal”, February 1st 1870.

Can you guess it?

My first is a vegetable well known to all;
My second’s an insect tiny and small;
My whole forms one of a large class in this nation;
Tho’ rather low down in the scale is his station.

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Human Sacrifices, 1938

Human Sacrifices, the Weekend Book, 1938

This is a game for the more robust personality. In the wrong crowd, this is not so much a way to break the ice at parties, as a way to crash into a bloody great iceberg. The kind of game they’d make everyone play in the Big Brother house if they wanted to cause murder.

In short, a vengeful god demands sacrifices and a piece of paper is passed round the group who have to mark on it who they would sacrifice first, and that person has to leave the room. This continues until there are only two people left, and this is where it gets slightly confusing. The instructions say to call out the name of the person least worthy to survive, but if there’s only two left then I’m not sure how it would work. Unless the we’re-not-worthy sacrificed in the hall outside are the ones shouting…?

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Crosswires, 1935

Crosswires, Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935

The Crosswires game – this is quite a good one. I absolutely challenge you to do this right first time.

From The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935 (Sid G. Hedges).

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Head Slap, 1935

Head Slap, Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts

A fairly self-explanatory game of how to box your opponents ears here, although it’s not as easy as it sounds. I love the Janet and John style illustration.

From The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935 (Sid G. Hedges).

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – H G Wells’s Ball Game, 1938

Ball Game, Weekend Book, 1938

A game this Friday from the 1938 Weekend Book. A game created by H G Wells, no less. And what did one of the most inventive literary minds of all time call this game? Yes, “Ball Game”. You will need a barn….

Nb. See also the cheeky water game “Kissing at the bottom of the sea”.

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Are You Frustrated? 1940

Personality tests and analysis have been going from strength to strength since Carl Jung published “Personality Types” in 1921. And, as spoofed in Monty Python’s Papperbok, I remember religiously reading them in my teenage magazines and being slightly confused that the conclusions were pretty wide of the mark, as if I was deficient in some way from what the all seeing eye of the test proclaimed. I didn’t really consider it was just a journalist scribbling something together for a deadline. Today, if you’re on Facebook, you’re bombarded by the things, and they get more and more ridiculous. This post is inspired by the stupidest one I’ve seen, Which Classic Rock Band are You? As determined by what you like with your coffee and which sport you’re most interested in. (I’m Creedence Clearwater Revival). So, have a go at this one from PTO Magazine, February 1940, “Are You Frustrated?” And I hope for your sake you’re not a psychopath Type C. Although, frankly, there are no winners here.

PTO was a digest magazine of the month’s news from various outlets and this edition has a fantastically confident cover for wartime:

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Up Jenkyns! 1938

It’s Friday and it’s time for some Skittish fun, courtesy of The Weekend Book. This is a book right up my street, full of all manner of games and instruction, written in 1924 but updated regularly up until around 1955. It takes itself not seriously at all, the book equivalent of some bright young things skittering around at a pre-war house party.

Just look at this gorgeous cover –

The-Weekend-Book-cover-1955

Today I give you “Up Jenkyns!” A game my grandad taught me and my brother, and is forever associated for me with a piece of cherry cake and a cup of tea. (Although I imagined it being spelt “Up Jenkins”). This was such a popular game that you’ll notice it doesn’t even bother explaining how you play it. So, for the uninitiated, you need two teams of at least two people on each side and a table. The teams sit either side of the table with one side hiding a sixpence (a new 5p is perfect) in one of their hands secretly under the table. Once hidden, the team then puts their fists on the table while the other team has to guess which hand holds the coin, with all the additions mentioned below.

Up-Jenkyns-Weekend-Book