Heavy, Heavy Hangs Over Thy Head.
Contestants are lined up against the rear wall in couples with two couples to each team, one couple standing in front of the other. Both members of the first couple of each team are given beanbags which they place on their heads. At a signal from the leader, all these first couples with beanbags on their heads run to the other end of the room and back and give their beanbags to the second couples of their teams, whereupon these second couples put the beanbags on their heads and run the same course. The couple first reaching home wins the race.
It sounds easy. There is one technicality however that adds to the troubles of the runners. Partners must run with arms linked, and if a beanbag falls, they must stoop for it with arms still linked. That is so easy when one of the stoopers has a beanbag on his head!
CHAPTER IV.
TRICK GAMES.
Plato said, “One can discover more about a person in an hour’s play with him than is possible in a year’s conversation with him.”
We found out the real truth of that in our war work with soldiers and sailors, and we are continuing to see its truth in our recreation work in communities all over this country. It is a real revelation to a church to see how splendid an example of good sportsmanship the minister sets when he is absolutely duped in a trick game that sent the others into gales of good-natured laughter, with him, not at him, and yet comes through it laughing as heartily as anyone, and sincerely glad for the huge enjoyment the game created!
Trick games are invaluable not only for developing the finest kind of sportsmanship in victims and onlookers alike, however, but they are invaluable too as “fillers-in” for awkward pauses in an evening’s program. That is their forte, to bridge over awkward pauses, to keep interest high, to call forth hearty laughter and best of all, to create the finest kind of spirit in a social gathering.