Tag: the universal book of hobbies and handicrafts

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Winking, 1935

The Home Entertainer box, 1935

Oh, look at this beauty! It’s The Home Entertainer by Sid G. Hedges, the author of my first 1930s book purchase many years ago, The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts. The chapter on self defence in that book is just the best – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/dirty-rotters/

So when I saw this I had to get it. It’s a book full of party ideas, entertaining tips and games. And I do love a vintage game (especially on a Friday). But! Incredibly, the book arrived still in the original packaging it was posted out in, in 1935. Wow, wow, wow, as my baby daughter likes saying (although she pretty much exclusively says it while looking at light fittings). The address it was posted to was number 27 1/2, which is a bit odd.

So, here’s the first Friday Fun in ages. A game called “Winking”. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to describe something as delightfully sexist, and yet that is how I find myself thinking of this.

The Home Entertainer, 1935
The Home Entertainer, 1935

(Nb – my friend Neil has just pointed out that the men and women swap places in this game after one round, which I completely missed. So, there we go, not sexist anyway.)

Categories
1900-1949

First Drown your Kitten, 1935

Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935

Today – some rather upsetting advice from the 1935 Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts on how to kill unwanted kittens. Your choices are either to drown them in a bucket, or by administering chloroform onto their little kitten faces. Chloroform, you say…….hmmm, perhaps a bit of the old Owbridge’s Lung Tonic might do the trick.

From the matter-of-fact way this is described, it seems to be that as far as they were concerned this was the humane thing to do. One of the cats we had when I was a child was rescued by a family friend who discovered a man with a bag of kittens, preparing to drown them in a river. I bet (hope!) there’s not too much cat-drowning happening now.

“A healthy cat can bring up four kittens, but unless you are deliberately breeding cats, you will only want to keep one or two.”

Of course, if a cat accidentally nearly drowns itself, this is the thing to do. You can swing a cat in here apparently.

Resuscitating a drowned cat
Resuscitating a drowned cat
Categories
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
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

Self Defence, 1935

Hello! I’m so excited about getting going that it’s hard to know where to start. But, on reflection, it can really only be with my 1935 copy of The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, which was the first old book I ever bought and has been entertaining me ever since. I love these compendium books of knowledge, with tips on how to do pretty much everything, from the days when proper hobbies were a really big deal. I have collected a few of them now, but this is my favourite.

Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts 1935
Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts 1935

It’s full of genuinely useful information, although I’m not convinced the complicated pages of dance steps ever taught anyone to successfully dance the tango. But should you want to learn how to sing, how to identify birdsong or how to drown kittens, it’s all here.

I’m going to show you the Self Defence chapter, as Mr Chomondley-Warner would have practiced it. Rum chaps in flat caps assaulting their Oxford-bagged betters. It’s pretty much tips on how to get arrested now, if you ever put a lot of this stuff into practice. Piercing an assailants throat with your umbrella tip? The nose grip could be a useful move though.

Is it slightly sinister that “frog-marching is familiar to most people from school days”? Very Ripping Yarns.


Nb. When I was a student we spent quite a while attempting to recreate the “Countering a Body Hold” with no success. Can anyone manage it?