Edna Geister

“ This time something goes wrong with the mechanism, and though they sing something old and familiar like Home Sweet Home, when a head is pushed down for a certain necessary note, a certain other note comes forth instead, and what is worse, a note gets loose, and doesn’t wait for the push on the head that insures harmony. It all ends in one final blare of awful discord, and the master drives them out in despair. ”

“ While big group games, which take in everyone, are splendid in promoting sociability and group spirit, nevertheless it is unwise to keep guests going at too strenuous a pace. The first result is a dropping out of participants and the next a growing lack of interest, which finally develops into an irritability that plays havoc with any spirit of play. On the other hand, it is almost as bad to ask guests to “just sit” and rest, thereby letting all the interest a leader has awakened die an early and natural death. ”

“ When the time for choosing partners has arrived, every man takes hold of a string on one side and every girl takes one on the other. At the signal from the leader they pull down, tearing the heart and straightening out their strings without letting go, to find out who has the other end. ”

“ Choose a guest who is fairly dignified but ready to appreciate a joke even though the joke be on him. Tell him that to read his thoughts is really a simple matter if he will look into quiet waters and do just what you tell him to do. Be perfectly serious in all that you say, for if you act as though it is going to be something funny, you scare off the bravest guest ever entertained. ”

“ The only difficulty is that they have to do it at the same time, which makes it hard occasionally for one’s partner to hear about all the lovely qualities one possesses or aspires to possess! They are given just a minute for this when another whistle is blown which is a signal for the men only to walk forward until a second whistle stops them. The woman nearest them is their next partner. They shake hands with these new partners, and one’s virtues again become the topic of importance. ”

“ The leader shows great enthusiasm in asking her guests if they know that “awfully funny new game ‘Rabbit.’” If a small group, all may join in; if a large one, only a select few have the privilege. They form a circle, kneel on the right knee, each one putting the first finger of the right hand on the floor. When they are all set the leader asks again as if to make sure, “Really don’t you know how to play ‘Rabbit’?” ”

“ At a signal from the leader the first man of each line runs up to the goal line, which is across the middle of the room, puts the hoop above his head and quickly draws it down over his shoulders to the floor, steps out of it, picks it up, runs back and gives it to the next runner, he himself going to the end of the line. The second runner does the same thing and so does the third, and then the fourth runner who first gets through the hoop and back to his place wins the race for his team.
No matter how stout the men of a group are, it always seems possible for them to get through their hoops. ”

“ At one time we might have met this situation by putting on a simple little game to keep those twenty guests there until the rest of the crowd came, but it was hardly necessary to make that mistake twice to realize the futility of those tactics. Any game is a flat failure that does not call forth a real social spirit and a real play spirit, but that spirit does not just happen. It must be definitely worked for and created through socializing games, while just “fill-ins till the crowd comes” can utterly ruin the prospects for creating that spirit that makes recreation, re-creation. ”

“ The pole is just exactly what it sounds like, a greased pole, and at the top of it is a tiny flag which must be captured and brought down by the victorious climber who gets a very real prize. He deserves it! ”

“ To test his vision, he chooses five or six testers if the group is large, but if there are not more than ten present they may all be included. They form a circle around his chair, first covering up his eyes so that he cannot possibly see. He then asks them to start moving slowly around him, each one doing something that no one else is doing. One may hop on one foot, [90] another clap his hands, another do facial gymnastics, fly, walk backwards, anything that no one else is doing, but each one must go through some action or the thought wave is broken and the wonderful vision impaired. ”

“ The game is infinitely more ridiculous if neither one can sing, and if the leader has created the right atmosphere, even though a man protests, “I just can’t sing,” he will usually finish up by making a noble effort to do it anyhow! ”

“ It does seem so inane to ask people to shake hands with each other, and yet, if a leader can once get a group to laugh heartily as a group, if she can give them a sufficiently interesting incentive for grasping the hand [15] of a neighbor with real vim and enthusiasm even if it is for the purpose of saving themselves from dire penalties!—they are won and one for the rest of the evening! But just telling guests to be sociable and to shake hands will not do it. ”

“ The circle begins moving slowly around, each one in it going through some definite movement, and each one wondering, probably, how in the world the blindfolded leader will be able to tell that the Methodist minister is wiggling his ears, and that Mrs. Newly Rich is doing an esthetic dance. ”

“ One person is designated to suddenly stop all action after a minute or two of moving around, by clapping his hands and calling out, “Now! Exactly what is each one of us doing?” and the leader promises on his word of honor that in spite of the heavy covering over his eyes he can without a moment’s hesitation tell what every last person in the moving circle was doing at that identical moment. ”

“ Let that game end in “Good-Night Ladies,” and your guests go home refreshed and relaxed and absolutely convinced that they never had a better time in their lives.
However, there is a pause sometimes, during refreshments, which, instead of promoting sociability, promotes a letting down of interest. It comes when some of them have finished and others have just begun their refreshments. That is a splendid time to put on informal singing. It isn’t at all necessary to get people out of their seats to sit in straight rows in front of the piano. Those who have finished may come up to the piano. ”

“ If one is entertaining a small group in a home, a progressive system of partners is arranged, by which guests progress from one partner to another. Each one is given a card on which a number is written, ladies holding even numbers and men, odd. On the men’s cards in addition, is written their conversation program, namely, the numbers of the partners they are to have for the different topics of conversation, and it is their business to hunt up each new partner as the signal for the change is given. ”

“ This is one of the funniest tag games that ever left a person breathless from laughing. “It” is chasing some great big fellow and this big fellow cannot run another step, so to save himself from being caught he starts to sing at the top of his lungs and—he is safe! The minute “It” starts to go away, he may stop singing but that is the only way any player can be safe, to loudly sing some song no other player is singing! ”

“ No real incentive is offered there for shaking hands with people you have never seen before or people you see every day of your life, no incentive other than a sense of duty, and a sense of duty is not what one would call particularly successful in promoting the real spirit of sociability which makes a social evening, or the lack of which, breaks it. ”

“ After the four or five minutes allowed for preparation, each group in turn dramatizes the advertisement assigned it, and must continue action until the audience guesses correctly what advertisement is being represented. To avoid the situation which often develops when such a contest is on, an announcement is made to the effect that there is to be no guessing until the actors have completed their stunt. Then if there is no correct guess, the dramatization must begin again and continue until it is made so realistic that the audience guesses what it is in self-defense, or else gives up in dismay! ”

“ That all depends on the forfeit. Four or five men, who are the left-overs in a game which provides the chance to get a partner, can be made to pay a forfeit that is a real one! These left-overs are lined up in a row facing all the other guests. They are told that they are to be given a chance to vindicate themselves in a try-out of a particular talent. The first test is as to the musical quality of each one’s laugh. Each in turn laughs for the audience in as musical a tone as he can muster up. The audience votes for the best. ”

“ Instead of just one being blindfolded, all but one are blinded, and it is the business of the game to catch this lucky one. He is not as lucky as it might appear, however. He has a little bell hanging around his neck on a cord, and to say the least, it advertises his whereabouts. He cannot leave the room, must keep moving, and cannot silence the bell in any way. ”

“ It is the business of the audience to guess what adjective is being dramatized. As soon as they hit upon the right adjective, they take its first letter as the first letter in the noun the team is dramatizing. ”

“ The group is told that at a signal, each one is to imitate the call of the animal assigned him, to see which one can do it the most realistically and still be heard above the others. Assistants go about, supposedly assigning the names of animals, but in reality whispering to everyone to make no sound at all. Only one person is told to really imitate the call of an animal. That is a victim who is to represent a donkey. ”

“ In the meantime, the man who played the cornet is carrying out the instructions given him by his hostess, and is telling the group that the next man will play an accordion, but that they are all to profess great ignorance and to guess everything under the sun but an accordion—a piano, a piccolo, drum, flute, violin, trombone, anything but an accordion. ”

“ The Rooster Fight.
The group is divided into two even sides, each person having an opponent assigned him. At the signal each one starts “fighting” his opponent in the following way: The right hand is put on the hip, and hopping on the right foot, the rooster tries to bump his enemy in such a way that he is compelled to put down his left foot to keep his balance. If he does do that he is out of the game.
When the issue has been decided between all opponents, all the winners are called out, and they are again paired off with opponents. ”

“ It is another matter when someone thinks he has discovered your trick. Instead of telling the group what he thinks it is, you ask him to leave the room in place of your confederate and when he gets back and tells correctly whose picture is on the spoon, it is much to the delight of the crowd. ”

“ There is always somebody who will take a chance and give “any old letter,” just so he won’t finish a word. [36] Each player has the privilege of challenging three separate times. When challenged, a player is obliged to tell the word he had in mind, which sometimes he had not! A player cannot be challenged after the next player has given his letter.
It is not only the English language that is stretched in this indoor pastime. Minds and imaginations stretch to the bursting point in a way that gives one a new respect for one’s capacity for laughter. ”

“ If a hypnotist can get a confederate who will get thoroughly into the spirit of the thing and sigh, shudder, go into a trance, or act completely exhausted, while the hypnotist himself makes a serious thing out of it, a group can be completely deceived as to the genuineness of the performance. ”

“ It has proved wise to let one of these inevitables go out of the room, telling him when he comes back that you are not sure that he will be quick enough to get the resemblance on the spoon, thereby putting the burden of proof on him. Sure enough, he fails, and almost always your group will ask that the one who was first sent out of the room be sent again, for no trick that does not work is interesting. ”

“ Contestants are lined up facing the crowd. If they can whistle it is infinitely funnier to use the whistling contest. If they cannot whistle let them sing a high note. In either case, at a signal, they start to whistle or sing, and the one who can hold her note the longest without taking another breath gets a toy balloon as a prize. ”

“ Since the war, with the great impetus it gave the movement, recreation work in churches, in communities, in schools, and in almost every kind of social service work, has been put on the same constructive basis, and it is being looked upon not merely as a side issue or as “entertainment,” but rather is respected as one of the most vital forces for a re-fashioning of souls in the image of God wherein they were created. ”

“ The success of the game depends entirely on the ability of the leader to make her guests feel the great desirability of finding one of those elusive lucky spots. No one knows where they are. All they know is that it behooves them to move, to get a partner, to keep moving, and to keep on getting partners! ”

“ Small circles are formed with not more than fifteen players to a circle, one of the players being in the [121] center. Someone in each circle is given an Indoor baseball and at the starting signal throws it across the circle to another player. If the one in the center catches the ball while it is going through the air the one who threw it becomes “It,” and takes the place in the center. Moreover, if “It” can touch the ball while it is still in some player’s hand, that player becomes “It.”
The one object of the game is to get the ball out of one’s hands before “It” can touch it. ”