Posted on 01/07/2014 3:41:39 AM PST by Maceman
Every man should carry a pocketknife. It’s handy for cutting open packages, severing twine, and, of course, eating an apple like a bad ass.
But it can also be a source of instant, anywhere entertainment. Because it’s all you need to play the game of mumbley peg.
Never heard of the game? Don’t worry. Today we’ll give you the scoop on how to play this knife throwing pastime that was once popular among 19th century schoolboys, Wild West cowboys, and World War II soldiers. All you need to play mumbley peg is a friend, a couple of pocket knives, and a bit of skill. It’s the perfect way to pass the time when hanging outside with your friends, relaxing around the fire on a camping trip, and bonding with your son. The History of Mumbley Peg
Versions of mumbley peg (also known as mumblety-peg, mumblepeg, mumble-the-peg, mumbledepeg or mumble-de-peg) have been around as long as jackknives have been in the pockets of boys and men who had time to kill. The game gets its name from a stick driven into the ground by the winner of the game, which the loser must pull out of the ground with his teeth. Mumbley peg was an insanely popular schoolyard game in the 19th century among boys. It was right up there with marbles and jacks. In fact, Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Detective, mentions “mumbletypeg” as being a favorite game with the children at old Tom’s school.
The game continued in popularity well into the first half of the 20th century.
. . .
The game waned in popularity starting in the 1970s as over-protective adults put a kibosh on the game at summer camps and as pocket knife-carrying became less prevalent among the male population.
(Excerpt) Read more at artofmanliness.com ...
Thanks for the memories and a good link to the site!
Played the game as a kid and later went to “stretch’, where we started with feet together and straight bladed knives (ie. hunting knives) were thrown outside of the opponent’s feet, forcing them to stretch to that point, until one person could stretch no further or would fall down.
Playing with my kid sister, I made a bad throw and nailed her foot to the ground. Fortunately it was just in the fleshy part of the outside of her foot, but it scared the crap out of me ...and her. I took care of the wound and her, as I was 7 years older.
LOL, I remember that game. My brothers were playing chicken one morning before school. I was too little so they wouldn’t let me play. They left for school so I dedecided to play by myself. I stuck the knife in my foot. Mom was not impressed.
We played the game everyday at lunch when I was in the 8th grade at Jr High
for later....
Boys don’t carry pocketknives anymore. Now they carry hand sanitizer.
That game plus Marbles were all the rage at my school in the early 50s. With marbles, you dare not let your parents know that you were playing "for keeps" because that was "gambling".
YOu are not going through any metal detectors are you
I got my first b.b. gun when I was 7 years old, my sister was 12. We lived next door to my grandparents and my uncle was 14. He dared me to shoot my sister in the back. Wanting to impress my older uncle, I promptly shot her.
After my whoppin' from my dad and his belt, my b.b. gun was put away for an entire year and I got regular lectures from my dad about even pointing it at anybody. My uncle, who was somewhat coddled, as a child of my grandparent's "old age", got no punishment at all.
That sister is now 73 years old and is in hospice care, dying of liver cancer, she still well remembers the b.b. gun incident but gave up on being mad at me a long, long time ago.
Two words; Tetanus!
But that was back in a time when Americans were free, before the federal government decided to pussify the country
and before liberals embarked on their crusade to turn boys into girls.
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
-- Leslie Poles Hartley
They now carry virtual pocket knives.
“In grade school in the late 1950’s we played mumbley peg at recess. Most of the boys had a knife in their pocket at school.”
In the old movie “Boystown” Mickey Rooney gives a jacknife to a kid about 6 or 7 and no one raises an eyebrow. How society has changed, and not for the better.
We used to play a game (the name escapes me) where you tossed pocket change against the wall and whoever was the closest, got to keep the money. I lost my lunch money on several occasions.
Boy aint that the truth.
Couple of years ago I went to dinner with a buddy of mine with the wives along. We started comparing our pocketknives. After a little while, I noticed some of the other patrons looking at us with a look of horror. I thought “What the hell?”.
I carry a knife and a leatherman everyday and encourage my son to carry a knife as well. His mom encourages the hand sanitizer, but he fights her on that.
Each time this subject comes up in its many forms, I immediately recall an episode of the Andy Griffin show.
This episode was about Opie wanting to win a gift for his father at the carnival shooting gallery. Picture Opie with a loaded .22 semi-auto rifle and strolling in the midway behind him is a mother with a child in hand. This scene was normal then but today they would call out the SWAT Team.
"If you protect a man from folly, you will soon have a nation of fools." -- William Penn
BB guns were the first guns boys received in days past. My boys didn’t shoot humans or animals with them but they did get into trouble for taking potshots at laundry hanging on the line and putting holes in their sisters’ underwear.
How times have changed.
When I was in the 1st grade in Atlanta, during recess I used to play Mumbly-peg with my Case. Nowadays that would get you dosed with Ritalin, suspended, parents jailed and you in the care of Child Protective Services....with a Federal rap sheet, to boot!
We played it all the time when I was a kid...often at recess. Having a pocket knife at school today would probably get a kid arrested and expelled.
WOW! Great quote!
I’ve never heard of L.P. Hartley, so I did a search and found this page of his quotes.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/51606.L_P_Hartley
These are a few I like:
“To see things as they really were—what an empoverishment!”
” He had very little to laugh about, I thought, and yet he laughed. His gaiety had a background of the hospital and the battlefield. I felt he had some inner reserve of strength which no reverse, however serious, would break down.”
LOL, this reminds me. We used to play this at school when I was in high school.
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