Obstacle Race.
The course is not longer than fifty yards, and a line of obstacles is set out for each one of the three teams, two men or boys in each team.
Runners No. 1 start the race. They are to:
1. Go through a barrel.
2. Sing up the scale.
3. Turn two somersaults.
4. Take off their shoes and put them on again.
5. Climb a designated tree.
They then hurry back to touch off No. 2 of their team, who must go through the same performance. There is one rule that is strictly enforced. That is that the singing must be done clearly and distinctly and as musically as possible!
Lobster Race.
Any number of men or boys may enter as contestants. At a given signal runners turn around, get down on all fours on the starting line, and speed to the goal and return, going backwards and on all fours all the way. It is remarkable, the great similarity to lobsters out for a stroll!
Hippity-hop.
Girls are pitted against the men. The girls stand in one line and the men in another, the first one in each line being about fifteen feet away from a tree directly in front of that line. At a signal the first girl and the first man start hippity-hopping, each one up to and around his tree and back to his line, touching the hand of the next runner who immediately starts to hippity-hop over the same course, while those who ran first go to the end of the line. When the second runner gets back, he touches the hand of the third one, and he too hippity-hops to the tree and back, each one going at once to the end of the line when he has finished. This goes on till everyone has hopped and members of the team whose last runner first touches the first runner’s hand win the game and a dish of ice cream.
I have never yet seen a group of girls who couldn’t out-hippity-hop any group of men!