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.
Wrong!
Tell your guests that there are three words in the English language which are particularly difficult to spell, and that a person who can spell them correctly can spell almost any word. Ask some individual to spell the word “receive.” He spells it correctly and you compliment him and then ask him to spell “believe.” He does spell it right, but you shake your head and laughingly say, “Wrong”! Say nothing more than that but repeat it several times at his insisting that he spelled “believe” correctly. Usually the next step is, “Well let’s start over again because I know I spelled those words correctly!” If the request is not forthcoming, make the suggestion yourself and start all over with “receive,” and after “believe” again shake your head and look shocked beyond words at the ignorance evidenced, and say “Wrong!”
If you are not fatally injured by this time, suggest again that you start from the beginning, and again after “believe” say “Wrong,” with a shocked look. Eventually your victim will arrive and spell “W-r-o-n-g!”