Game, equipment in your headquarters comes in handy during parties, and also is a pre-meeting attraction. The one danger is that sometimes the games are so popular they stretch the pre-meeting period over the major part of the evening. However, that can be avoided by a gentlemen’s agreement to close the games at a definite time on meeting nights.
Game equipment can be bought, of course, but it can be made inexpensively.
Darts is a game the GI’s found popular in war-time England. Make the target of corrugated cardboard cut from a large carton. Mark colored concentric circles on it with crayons. Make each dart of a match stick (kitchen size). On one end lash a needle with thread. On the other glue four small paper fins. Hang the target on the wall and let fly with the darts, making sure the firing range is not a thoroughfare.
Table tennis requires a smooth 5´ × 9´ playing surface. If you don’t have a suitable table, get a piece of half-inch plywood. Sometimes you can make a better deal by taking two large scraps of standard pieces, sawing them to 5´ × 4½´ and then hinging or cleating them together on the bottom. If you don’t want to bother putting legs on this playing surface, lay it on a large table or two small ones, just so it is at least 30 inches off the floor.
Make paddles of quarter or eighth-inch wood, whittled or cut with a coping saw to shape and then sandpapered. They may be any size, but generally are 6″ × 12″ over-all.
The net must be 6″ above the table. Make it of cheese cloth or muslin, hemmed and reinforced with strong cord threaded through the hems. Hang it from dowels set in cleats that extend beyond the table edge at the center line.
Buy a supply of balls at the dime or sports store, or mail order house, and soon you’ll be searching for them under the furniture.
Other games for which you can make most of your own equipment are shuffleboard and paddle tennis, providing you have floor space of 52´ × 6´ for the first, and 20´ × 44´ for the second. Buy or borrow a rule book, find dimensions of equipment, and turn it out in your workshop.