Mumbletly-Peg
Paul Simms writes, in A Prayer, in The New Yorker (5 July 2004):
[Lord?] …Please don’t let me cut my own head off while trying to revive the lost Scouting pastime of mumblety-peg…
And while surely this is a wish that no one could argue against, or criticize in any way, I am left to wonder, “Is mumblety-peg lost?”
I fear that it is.
I mean, I am 50 years old, and I learnt it myself only from what was even then a somewhat ancient book of Pastimes for Boys, and had to teach it to my contemporaries in order to have opponents with which to compete.
(”It’s more fun to compete!” — Gottlieb Super Jumbo)
And we’ve surely, for some reason, passed the time when we expected small boys to carry small knives as a matter of course.
Still, alas.
Someone once asked Dad: “But what do you want to save time for? What are you going to do with it?”
“For work, if you love that best,” said Dad. “For education, for beauty, for art, for pleasure.” He looked over the top of his pince-nez. “For mumblety-peg, if that’s where your heart lies.”
Efficiency Expert Frank Gilbreth, quoted in the book, Cheaper by the Dozen
Learn the Lost Art of Mumblety-Peg.
“Root, Root!”
John Blackburn wrote:
Nicely presented, and with pictures! I had heard of mumblety-peg, but never knew what it was, always just thinking it was one of those old-timey games that went out with the ice delivery man.
Posted 04 Aug 2006 at 6:48 am ¶
Chris Gibson wrote:
I played a bit of mumbly-peg in the Boy Scouts when we went to camp on Catalina Island every summer. I remember it differently, though, from the pictures presented. It may be just bad memory…it was a LONG time ago, though I do still remember the ferry trip with fondness (as someone immune to seasickness, I would clean up on our quarter-a-hand blackjack and knock poker games).
I was a bit concerned with some of the motions presented on the web site. Starting around the tenth motion, I saw that (a) the tip of my knife would likely draw blood just from the starting position, and (b) using the suggested “downward motion” would seem to result in sending several inches of dirt-clotted steel into your brain, your thumb, your knee, or other some such body part. As I said, I remember the game somewhat differently, and don’t recall placing the tip of my quite sharp knife on my scalp (though perhaps on my fingertips).
..Chris..
Posted 06 Aug 2006 at 10:17 am ¶