{"id":86179,"date":"2022-08-17T09:09:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T13:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=86179"},"modified":"2022-08-22T10:06:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T14:06:42","slug":"family-history-childrens-pastimes-and-toys-the-letter-c-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/family-history-childrens-pastimes-and-toys-the-letter-c-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Family History: Children\u2019s Pastimes and Toys (the Letter \u2018C\u2019), Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Jessica Edwards continues her series exploring the pastimes and toys our ancestors enjoyed when they were children, focusing on games that start with the letter \u201cC,\u201d Part 2. Jessica has had a lifelong interest in her family\u2019s history \u2013 especially on her father\u2019s side, which goes back to the first settlers in Pennsylvania, Jamestown and New England \u2013 and has documented and added more than 27,000 people to her family tree!<\/em><\/p>\n

In examining children\u2019s pastimes and toys from 1700 to 1950, we\u2019re looking at a time when children worked more and had less free time than children today. By studying how they played, we can learn about an aspect of our ancestors\u2019 lives not often dealt with in genealogy, and help bring those names and dates on the family tree back to life.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: children playing with a hoop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Criss-Crosswords:<\/strong> This game was the forerunner of our modern game of Scrabble and was invented in 1938. American architect\u00a0Alfred Mosher Butts\u00a0created the game as a variation on an earlier word game he invented, called\u00a0Lexiko; he came up with the idea while reading a short story by\u00a0Edgar Allan Poe. In Poe\u2019s\u00a0\u201cThe Gold Bug,\u201d a character decodes a message by comparing symbols to letters.<\/p>\n

Butts\u2019 two games had the same set of letter tiles, whose distributions and point values were worked out by performing a\u00a0frequency analysis\u00a0of letters from various sources. It took Butts\u00a0seven years to come up with the right balance of numbered letters.\u00a0He figured out the value for each letter in the game by examining the frequency of letters used in newspapers like the New York Times<\/em> and the Tribune<\/em>. In developing his game from Lexiko to Criss-Crosswords, Butts added a gameboard of 15\u00d715 spaces and a crossword-style gameplay. He manufactured a few sets himself but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day.<\/p>\n

A decade later, in 1948, James Brunot \u2013 one of the few owners of the original\u00a0Criss-Crosswords\u00a0game \u2013 bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every unit sold. Although he left most of the game (including the distribution of letters) unchanged, Brunot slightly rearranged the \u201cpremium\u201d squares of the board and simplified the rules. He also renamed the game\u00a0Scrabble. This name is said to be either a real word which means \u201cto scratch frantically,\u201d or a combination of two words: \u201cscraps\u201d and \u201cboggle.\u201d In 1949, Brunot and his family made 2,400 sets but lost money. According to legend,\u00a0Scrabble\u2019s big break came in 1952 when Jack Straus, president of\u00a0Macy\u2019s, played the game on vacation and, upon returning from vacation, was surprised to find that his store did not carry the game. He placed a large order, and within a year, \u201ceveryone had to have one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harriet T. Righter later licensed the game from entrepreneur James Brunot in 1952. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice little game. It will sell well in bookstores,\u201d she remembered saying about Scrabble when she first saw it. In its second year (1954) of being mass produced, nearly four million sets were sold!<\/p>\n

Ironically, Alfred Butts didn\u2019t like to spell.<\/p>\n

Crokinole:<\/strong> This game\u00a0can be\u00a0traced back\u00a0to 1876. It is a\u00a0board game\u00a0that remains very popular today. In Crokinole, there are two or four players in partnerships. The goal is to be the first team to reach 100 points by flicking small disks into a hole in the middle of the board called the \u201c20 Hole.\u201d Players earn 20 points for getting a disc into this hole. Several inches outside the 20 Hole are the posts, or pegs. These are bumpers that make it more difficult to get a disc inside that area. The outside edge of the board, which generally is lower than the main board, is the \u201cditch.\u201d Discs which are removed from play are put in the ditch. If not in the center hole, then you want to flick your disk into a higher-value region of the board, while at the same time knocking your opponent\u2019s disks into the ditch.<\/p>\n

The Crokinole board is placed on a table so that every player has equal access to it. With two players, each receives 12 wooden discs of a distinct color. With four players, each partnership receives 12 wooden discs of a distinct color (each player within a partnership receives 6 discs). Partners sit opposite each other. The starting player is picked randomly, with the play always proceeding clockwise.<\/p>\n

Once a game starts, the board may not be moved. Players may not move their chairs, nor may they lift themselves out of their chair. (This is often referred to as the \u201cone-cheek rule,\u201d as in \u201cone butt cheek must always touch the chair.\u201d) No player may touch the board unless it\u2019s their turn to shoot.<\/p>\n

The shooter places one of their discs on the starting line, with at least 50 percent of the disc within their quadrant. They shoot the disc by flicking it with their fingers (pushing it is not legal).<\/p>\n

The first shooter, and any subsequent shooter who takes their turn with no opponent\u2019s discs on the board, tries to shoot into the 20 Hole. If a disc lands completely within the hole, it\u2019s removed and set aside for scoring at the end of the round. But if the disc doesn\u2019t fall into the 20 Hole and instead remains on the board, and is either in the 15 Zone or at least touching the 15 Zone line, it remains on the board.<\/p>\n

If there are no opponent\u2019s discs on the board and a shooter\u2019s disc winds up in the 10 Zone or the 5 Zone, it\u2019s removed from the board.<\/p>\n

If one or more opponent\u2019s discs are on the board, the shooter must try to hit one of them.\u00a0NOTE: This can be done directly, by ricochet off a post or another disc, or even by knocking another of the shooter\u2019s discs into one of the opponent\u2019s discs.<\/p>\n

If the shooter fails to hit an opponent\u2019s disc, the disc that they shot is placed in the ditch. In addition, if the shooter fails to hit an opponent\u2019s disc but hits any of their own discs (or their partner\u2019s), those are also placed in the ditch.<\/p>\n

More coming!<\/p>\n

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