Mumbly Peg Game Research...

Codger_64 said:
Yes, the aforementioned linguistics survey suggested that it may have been somewhat regional. And I grew up on a farm in a rural community, most other kids being farmers' children as well. Shock and surprise, I had a single shot .22 for my 7th and a shotgun for my eighth birthday. Likely you didn't. Cap pistols? I have a picture of me on my third or fourth birthday with a genuine Roy Rogers double hip rig!
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Yep!
Cap Pistols! We were in Kansas until I was about three and I remember some commotion and stories about the time when I pointed my cap pistol from my car seat at the dog in the police car parked next to us. LOL

I purchased my first firearm when I was 18 years all by myself. A Ruger 10/22. My father had served in the 8th army Air Force in England during WWII and was bombed by the germans in England and lost so many friends that he flew with over germany that though he did give me my first knife he didn't want anything to do with firearms anymore.
 
billym said:
Yes I suppose kids in both the UK and US rarely carry knives or even play outdoors in some cases.
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Yes it's true. I've noticed a small group of kids at the bottom of my street who often play out, kicking a ball about in the street and even climbing trees, it's quite refreshing to see because it's so rare these days.
 
Robert Paul Smith's 1958 book How to Do Nothing With Nobody All Alone By Yourself.

It is, in effect, a Dangerous Book for Boys for the 1950s. There's even a 20-page section on how to play Mumblety-Peg with a penknife -- something which no children's publisher in their right mind would dare to publish today.
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Funny, I looked up the book and they talk about a game called "Killers" with Horse Chestnuts, sounds like Conkers!

Here are some things you can do following the instructions in this book:

Make a spool tank (a homemade windup toy that creeps forward slowly like an army tank); a "button buzz-saw;" a handkerchief parachute; a harmless handkerchief "blackjack." Make a squeaky noise with two blades of grass. Do cool things with dandelion stems and leaves. Make a little basket out of burrs. Put your name on a pencil. Give a pencil a decorative checkerboard grip. Play Mumbly-Peg with a boy scout knife. Make a bracelet out of a clamshell. Make a needle dart. Make a leather sucker. Play "killers" with horse chestnuts. Make a Spanish bolas with horse chestnuts. Make a bull-roarer, an indoor boomerang, an outdoor boomerang, several kinds of slingshot, a throwing-stick. Make a bow and arrow out of a broken umbrella. Make polly-noses from maple tree wing things. Pop jewel-weed pods. Make pussy-willow bees and cats. Make a pin piano. Make a "bavoom-thing," a peach-pit basket, a rubber-band-powered paddlewheel boat, a paper airplane, a paper helicopter, and a thing made from a wishbone that surprises people by jumping suddenly into the air.


Cool book.
 
billym said:
Funny, I looked up the book and they talk about a game called "Killers" with Horse Chestnuts, sounds like Conkers!

Here are some things you can do following the instructions in this book:

Make a spool tank (a homemade windup toy that creeps forward slowly like an army tank); a "button buzz-saw;" a handkerchief parachute; a harmless handkerchief "blackjack." Make a squeaky noise with two blades of grass. Do cool things with dandelion stems and leaves. Make a little basket out of burrs. Put your name on a pencil. Give a pencil a decorative checkerboard grip. Play Mumbly-Peg with a boy scout knife. Make a bracelet out of a clamshell. Make a needle dart. Make a leather sucker. Play "killers" with horse chestnuts. Make a Spanish bolas with horse chestnuts. Make a bull-roarer, an indoor boomerang, an outdoor boomerang, several kinds of slingshot, a throwing-stick. Make a bow and arrow out of a broken umbrella. Make polly-noses from maple tree wing things. Pop jewel-weed pods. Make pussy-willow bees and cats. Make a pin piano. Make a "bavoom-thing," a peach-pit basket, a rubber-band-powered paddlewheel boat, a paper airplane, a paper helicopter, and a thing made from a wishbone that surprises people by jumping suddenly into the air.


Cool book.
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Maybe if they called it 'killers' here, the kids would like it better! :D

That's a VERY cool book, I can remember doing more than half that stuff. I haven't seen anyone make a spool tank since I was a kid! :D :thumbup:
 
The original post was about "Mumbly Peg". It is played with KNIVES. And on a forum devoted to KNIVES, KNIFE content is a requirement of successful posting. Please post about KNIVES, not the myriad of other games children play.
 
knarfeng said:
The original post was about "Mumbly Peg". It is played with KNIVES. And on a forum devoted to KNIVES, KNIFE content is a requirement of successful posting. Please post about KNIVES, not the myriad of other games children play.
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Sorry Frank, fair point :thumbup:
 
I remember David Fleenor, IIRC, getting his knife back on the last day of classes in one or another grade at our elementary school after the teacher confiscated it earlier in the year for some sort of in-class knife infraction. Probably slicing something he shouldn't have. Don't remember the confiscation just him beaming when he got the knife back at the end of the school year. Today he'd probably be kicked out of school and arrested with his parents looking for an alternative education system. I also remember pitching pennies in second or third grade at that school in the hallway waiting for class to start. Don't remember which kid got us started on that. I also remember it not sitting well with the teacher. That was only days-long short-lived fun.
 
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Even here at crossroads of worlds we had same (or at least very similar) game,i don't recall exact name but it had most of "moves" i found in previous posts.Sadly i don't see anymore that or many other games from my youth.
 
Mumbly peg here, I don't recall all the variations of throwing or dropping the knife though.
 
I think I need to find a nice patch of grass and an opponent....knives I got plenty of.
It's funny sometimes the "Traditional" life subjects are just as intriguing as the knives. Part of what make this sub forum #1. Sorry for the derail. :)
 
We called it splits (back in the 1960s) and the preferred knife was a toothpick aka Dixie Switch. I think I remember some calling it stretch or chicken, but I can't be sure. We could take knives to school, but getting caught playing splits on the school grounds would mean your knife being taken by a teacher (for the day) .... and a warning to not get caught again or you would go to the principal's office where he would apply his leather strap to your backside.

I remember commenting on this in another thread some time ago. I just found that thread and realize now that I did a "drive-by" :( ... my apologies, Jack Black, for not answering your question at the time, but yes, we called it splits, too -- at least where I grew up.


As others have said, this is a great thread. Harkening back to days gone by. Things change, I know -- but how great the change. Our yesteryear ways would likely earn us a spot in today's reform schools.
 
It was called mumbledy-peg here when I was growing up (NE PA), and on the way out by the time I got my first knife around 1970. I remember playing it with a few kids in the neighborhood but not often.

Not long ago we were on a camping trip with the Troop and the Cub Pack, and one of the Cub parents was unhappy that a Scout was showing a bunch of Cubs how to play. That ended quickly :(
 
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