I love learning about childhood in days gone by. I used to run history programs for kids, so I'm still drawn to old photos of children and the like in antique stores. Yesterday I found 255 Party Games to Play by Graeffe Kearney (Pioneer Publications, 1938). Here is a recommended game for kids three-quarters of a century ago:
Snap Dragon
"You need only a large pan, some alcohol and a package of raisins. Pour the alcohol in the pan and light it with a match. Then throw the raisins into the burning liquid -- and let the adventurous ones snatch out raisins as best they can."
Well, hot doggity! I just found the right party game for Eli's 6th birthday in December! The book continues soothingly...
"It's exciting, but it isn't dangerous, for as long as you don't let your fingers linger in the dish you won't be burned. And it's a splendid way to get the iron one's system requires!
One precaution may be advisable: don't put the pan on a good table, else it may be burned by drops of liquid being splashed on it."
I'm sure I'm not the only person to come up with this. There's probably a whole Pinterest board devoted to it. But it sure is handy...
Eli loves games. Because he has parents who are history geeks, he has quite the collection of old-fashioned toys. Bless him, this boy loves marbles. I think our basement has one or two runaway marbles lurking in every corner. So this morning I went to the hardware store and bought four pre-cut lengths of PVC pipe and four elbows for putting them together. It pops apart and stows away easily when we don't need it and we can take it on the go if we want. You can use three sides as a backstop or put together four to make a complete corral.
For less than ten bucks, I made a pop-together backstop that literally keeps Eli from losing his marbles. It works nicely for tiny ninepins sets (mini bowling) and toy cars too.
In the picture above, Eli was playing with his marble bridge. It is a wooden piece with arches cut in it and each hole has a different point value if you can get a marble to roll through it. (Click HERE to make your own.) Eli also loves Skill Ball where you try to roll marbles into different holes for points.
And he discovered that rolling the marble through the pipe can add a whole new wrinkle to a game. (Please pardon the odd angle. I took the picture upside down.)
The PVC pipes are spiffy toys all on their own. They come in different diameters, but I bought 1-1/2 inch so that a Matchbox car would fit through so Eli can use it like a tunnel or even a ramp. They also come in different lengths and have different types of connectors, so you can make a "toy corral" that completely encircles a play area. I may soon expand our backstop and turn it into a corral so I can teach Eli to play a real game of marbles. (Insert happy sigh here.)
I get a kick out of learning about other cultures through holidays and food. When I worked at a public library, I used to thumb through the big reference book Folklore of World Holidays to come up with an excuse (and a theme) for treats to share with staff in the break room. Now that Eli is old enough to be my "partner in crime" for such shenanigans, I've had fun tracking down picture books that explain holidays and recipes to go with them. Last month I found Timothy Hubble and the King Cake Party by Anita C. Pireto and Mimi's First Mardi Gras by Alice Couvillon and Elizabeth Moore. Dull and chilly February is a great time to host a king cake party!
I was tempted to do a real party and enjoy having lots of buddies over, but I was a little daunted by the recipe for king cake. It has quite a few steps and if you over-bake it even slightly, it gets too dry. This year we hosted just a small group of regular buddies to come be our king cake guinea pigs. Our first step was to share the two picture books in advance with them so the kids would understand what a king cake party is all about.
On the morning of our party, Eli helped me get the yeast going. While he was at school, I kept my kitchen timer close at hand so I could keep track of when to punch down the dough and then when to make it into an oval rope to slide into the oven. It was actually easy.
Time-wise it was a squeak, but I sprinkled on the last bit of colored sugar just before heading to pick Eli up from school. It turned out well! I wish I'd been able to find liquid purple food coloring, though. Mixing blue and red made for a fairly somber shade.
The kids didn't mind the dusky color. They were just happy for homebaked treats. And since they had already learned that a king cake contains a bead, bean, or tiny plastic baby as a prize, everybody's first action was to poke a finger in to search...
Ta dah! Usually the baby in your piece of king cake means you get to host the next party. Just before serving, though, we slid sneaky little babies into the bottom of each slice so every kid would get one. (Party stores usually carry tiny plastic babies in the baby shower section.)
As the preschooler party silliness commenced, babies were used as icing spoons...
Babies went swimming in chocolate milk...
Why, those goofy Mardi Gras babies even did wild rumpus dances!
A good time was had by all!
One Mama's Two Cents: The king cake was easier to bake than I thought, so hopefully we'll expand our party next year. I'll purchase brighter liquid purple food color on the web so our sugars shine a bit better. (Ugh. I try to steer clear of food coloring, but sometimes you just gotta use a little. All things in moderation.) The cake is fairly messy because of the sugar sprinkled over the top, so an outdoor party may be best for younger kiddos. If you do your own party, let the kids know in advance that king cake is really more like cinnamon bread with glaze rather than the type of cake they get at birthday parties so nobody is disappointed. We told our friends beforehand, but some of the kids were still a little taken aback. However, most of them soon licked their plates clean!
I used a recipe I found in Louisiana Cookin' magazine (vol. 17, issue 1, Jan/Feb. 2014), but I doubled the cinnamon for a little more warm flavor. A comparable recipe can be found at Allrecipes.com. (Click HERE.) I discovered that there are mixes for king cake and many local bakeries produce them for the Fat Tuesday. Although it is too late for 2014, mail order king cake is also a possibility. My magazine listed the top king cakes bakers in Louisiana and several deliver -- Ambrosia Bakery, Gambino's Bakery, Haydel's Bakery, and Manny Randazzo King Cakes.
After my post about goofy songs that kids like, I didn't get any blog comments, but I sure got email and Facebook messages! Thanks, everybody! Your input helped me find new songs as well as happily remember ones I loved as a kid. (Click HERE to see that post.)
There is no way I could ever create an exhaustive list. There's an avalanche of such music, so I just listed classics or particular favorites. Some may not be politically correct or appropriate for all ages, so please use your own judgment before tracking them down and playing them for the kiddos in your life.
In alphabetical order...
Goofy Songs Kids Might Like
A Boy Named Sue – Johnny Cash
A Little Bit of Soap - The Jarmels
Ahab, the Arab - Ray Stevens
Alley Oop – The Hollywood Argyles
Baby Bumble Bee – Various/folk
Baby Talk – Jan & Dean
Ballad of Davy Crockett – Bill Hayes
Bananaphone – Raffi
Barbie Girl – Aqua
Beep, Beep - The Playmates
Big Rock Candy Mountain – Harry McClintock
Blackberry Boogie – Tennessee Ernie Ford
Blob – The Five Blobs
Bumble Boogie - B-Bumble and Stingers
Charlie Brown – The Coasters
Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips – Bruce Springsteen
Cinnamon Cinder - Pastel Six
Civilization – Andrews Sisters & Danny Kaye
Come On, Get Happy – Partridge Family
Cotton-Eye Joe - Rednex
Day O (Banana Boat Song) – Harry Belafonte
Dirty Water - The Standells
Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor – Lonnie Donegan
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
Farmer John - The Premiers
Flying Saucer – Buchanan & Goodman
Froggie Went a Courtin' - Various/folk (Burl Ives is my favorite)
Funky Broadway - Dyke & the Blazers
Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr.
Guitarzan – Ray Stevens
Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (Letter from Camp) – Sherman/Busch
Hot Rod Lincoln – Johnny Bond
Hound Dog – Elvis Presley
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – Gayla Peevey
Back in kindergarten, my teacher made the mistake of playing us the song "Sneaky Snake" by Tom T. Hall. I say 'mistake' because my classmate Alton proceeded thereafter to ask for it every day.
Every. Single. Day.
My memories of kindergarten are a little sketchy, yet I do remember the teacher getting exasperated with the lobbying by Alton (and soon the rest of us) for wild "Sneaky Snake" dance parties during recess. But who could resist inventing crazy dance moves with your buddies while listening to a song about a snake who will slurp up all your root beer?
A love of goofy songs started there, but it didn't end there. Anybody remember K-Tel, the "As Seen on TV" company? My next door neighbor and good buddy Dominic solved a rainy weekend by dipping into his parents' record collection and pulling out K-Tel's 40 Funky Hits. The musicians were grownups pitching to a grownup audience, yet they were singing goofy songs about everything from cavemen to lollipops to the one-horned one-eyed flying purple people eater. Even as kids, we instantly recognized these songs had all the irreverent, rubbery, slapstick appeal of cartoons. We spent all weekend building sofa forts and Lego towers that kept getting destroyed because we were forever rhythmically jumping and be-bopping around the house -- some of my favorite childhood memories. (Click HERE for a list of songs on 40 Funky Hits and to see the funny album cover.)
A few years ago I went searching online only to discover 40 Funky Hits never made it to a CD and is now "a collectible" that can sell for hundreds of dollars! But the songs live on, many available on other compilations or on iTunes. Dominic's sons were reaching what I now think of as the Goofy Song Phase (which hopefully lasts throughout life), so I sent them some albums on CD. And then guess what happened this December? Eli suddenly couldn't get enough of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean and jettisoned everything of Raffi except for a deep love of "Bananaphone." Yes, with a proud sniff I realized my son, too, has reached the Goofy Song Phase. It was time to track down "Sneaky Snake" and create a Funky Hits playlist on my iPod.
Besides just getting a chance to sing silly songs on the way to the grocery store, part of the appeal of the Funky Hits playlist is that it takes us out of our music rut. I tend to listen to Celtic and Country while Eli sticks to his children's CDs or the pop songs made famous by recent animated movies. (How many times have we listened to Katy Perry's "Firework" from Madagascar 3?!) Many of the old goofball songs popped up in the 1950s or 1960s and have their roots in Doo-wop or early Rock n' Roll. Our playlist slides us into rhythms and styles that are no longer run-of-the-mill. By the time the 1970s and 1980s rolled around, performers like Ray Stevens, Steve Martin, and Weird Al Yankovic were taking a page from Vaudeville and blurring the lines between comedy sketches and music -- much to a five year-old's delight.
Want to make your own Funky Hits playlist? Chances are you probably already have some fun, silly songs hiding in your music stash. ("Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles or "Barbie Girl" by Aqua?) The link to the original 40 Funky Hits playlist above can give you ideas and I'm adding some links below to albums we like.
Ah, goofball Christmas memories from early years...
Know that carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"? My parents had that on an old HiFi record from the holiday clearance rack at Sears. My brother and I could never resist singing along with the operatic soaring soprano: "Oh, brrrrrrrring us some fig-gy puuuuuuudding!" As little kids feeling the December pressure of Santa's scrutiny, there was real appeal to declaring loudly that we wanted treats now and wouldn't go until we got some.
The other day that carol came on in the car and I sang along opera-style to make Eli giggle. (Alas, my voice cannot even approach a soar.) Then I got to wondering for the 1,001st time... What in the heck is figgy pudding? And is it worth issuing cheeky commands to get a few bites? So I did a little sleuthing on the web. It turns out that the Christmas carol is about five centuries old and the English usage of the word "pudding" usually refers to a steamed cake. After sifting through various links, it became clear that there are dozens of versions of Figgy Pudding. Some are laced with alcohol while some are not. (Oh, the excitement of a dessert set aflame!) There are "blondes" and "brunettes," pale or dark puddings. Figgy Pudding comes molded into mounds or rings but can also be cooked as a lump inside a linen sack. Figgy Pudding may be packed with various dried fruits while other recipes take the purist approach and include only figs. My curiosity was almost sated when I ran across the positive reviews for a non-alcoholic Figgy Pudding recipe by Chef James Thomas. Hey. Why not try making the stuff?
Soft, seedy, sticky little figs chopped and dropped into a pan, awaiting a bath in hot milk to turn them into mush...
After making a thick batter largely composed of eggs and breadcrumbs, the magic baking process began. The Figgy Pudding bakes in a Bundt pan, but one that is covered in buttered foil and sits in a deep bath of water.
Most of the flavor in the pudding comes from cinnamon, nutmeg, and fresh orange peel. Oh, does it ever make the kitchen smell good during its two-hour cook time!
And then at last I unmolded the very moist cake, fragrant with spices and fresh citrus. It is springy but dense and hides chewy bits of fig. It isn't one of those desserts where you cut yourself a huge, rich hunk. Instead, this is one of those treats you could almost eat with a spoon, savoring each warm bite with some steamy winter beverage. This is a grown up dessert with complex flavors that linger on the palate.
Yes. If I was out Christmas caroling on a chilly night and smelled warm Figgy Pudding wafting out of someone's brightly-lit doorway, I might very well refuse to go until I got some.
Note: Figgy Pudding is often served with hard sauce (a sweet, buttery sauce usually made with brandy or other alcohol). In the recipe reviews, however, someone mentioned making Raspberry Fig Sauce to go with it. Sounded good to me, so that's what I did too. I'm glad I did because it was easy, yummy, and the jewel-like color was lovely alongside the caramel-colored pudding.
Just yesterday we were putting up with humidity and clouds of biting sand gnats. Hours later, we woke up to a world where the chilly wind whistled down our coat collars. Today we had a wealth of beaches, historic forts or plantations, lighthouse tours, piers, and hiking trails for our choosing. Sigh. None seemed very attractive on the first truly cold day of the season. Then I found a blurb on the web about the St. Marys Submarine Museum. Why not?
They had the expected glass cases full of submarine models, medals, construction plans, and the like. But they had other tidbits too...
Here's a Styrofoam cup that a submarine crew sent down into the crushing depths of the ocean. When it reached the surface again, it was wrinkled and about half its original size. It looked like a deflated shot glass.
After we first arrived, I feared that the museum wouldn't have much appeal for a preschooler. But then Eli discovered a control panel where he could sit down and pretend to command a sub. Captain Eli pushed buttons and peered at gauges for quite a while.
And then -- oh, bliss -- he discovered that the museum has a real working periscope that pops out of the top of its two-story building. It was a quiet day at the museum, so Eli could endlessly search the streets and waterway outside for all signs of life. Eli also loved their 45-minute kids' documentary called The Big Submarine (Little Mammoth Media's Big Adventure series). We learned a lot from the film and it may turn up in Eli's Christmas stocking.
After the museum, we strolled the streets of St. Mary's historic district. The Cumberland Island National Seashore Museum is also located there, but it was closed today. We still enjoyed popping into the various shops and strolling along the waterway.
We left St. Marys and got back to Interstate 95. We planned to stop for a snack, and I suddenly got a crazy idea to get a little something to eat in Florida. It is a state Eli had never been to before, the border was just a few miles away, and the Visitor's Center gives away free orange juice. Mmmm.
The Visitor's Center has a little photo booth where they superimpose an image of an alligator in the foreground of your picture. The catch is that the photo must be emailed to you -- and thus they have your email address for spamming you with Florida vacation information. But I have a junk email box just for such purposes anyway...
So we ended up having a lovely day despite the chill. In addition to the adventures outlined above, we had a nice lunch (including treats from a cupcake bakery) in Brunswick's historic district. We found a few antique stores. In the late afternoon we braved the beach for a few minutes, marveling at the rough waves. (Eli looked at the pounding surf for a moment and said, "If any sand gnats come out tonight, I bet they get blown away by the wind and smack into a tree.")
But as the sun began to set, the wind settled a little and the foam along the water took on a soft glow.
It wasn't the coastal vacation day I planned, but it sure was fun anyway.
I know! I know! It has been a while since I've written a post in the British Reading Adventure series. Thankfully, it was a break in blogging rather than a lack of reading. The big move this summer and settling in thereafter soaked up much of my writing time, but during that period I still usually ended the day by drifting away onto heather-covered moors or the long-ago streets of London.
In case anyone is new to the series, the idea is to read through many of the wonderful book offerings for children that have come out of Great Britain in the last 150 years or so. Some are famous like the Narnia stories and Tolkien, but there are many great books that are largely forgotten. (Click here for a rationale and a list of the books I've highlighted so far.) I want to be able to share these books with Eli during his childhood, but our family also hopes to take Eli to see the locations of the various stories when he's older.
Although the project began in earnest last year, it was travel reading during our 2007 honeymoon to London that provided the first spark. I enjoyed Melanie Wentz's Once Upon a Time in Great Britain, a guide to the sites linked to children's literature. She touched on one author I wasn't familiar with -- Arthur Ransome -- so I picked up the first book of his children's series and read it on jet-lagged nights once we got home.
Although Ransome first published Swallows and Amazons in 1930, the adventures of his young heroes still captivate. The kids are turned loose during summer vacation to set up an island camp and explore a lake in their own small sailboats. The mixture of the kids' make-believe with their real scrapes and hardships keeps the reader page after page. I liked the book and was glad I bought it as a hardback "keeper" edition. That might have been all, but thankfully this reading project coaxed me into moving deeper into the twelve-book series. Swallows is good, but there are some in the series that I put on my all time favorite books list.
After doing some reading online, I get the impression that the Swallows and Amazons series is still fairly popular in England and many other countries. This reading project has taught me that there are actually quite a few British authors that made a big splash both at home and abroad but made barely a ripple in the United States. I'm not sure why that is. (For Ransome's books perhaps publishers here were put off by the name of one of his main characters. No American author would have chosen 'Titty'!) Regardless of why some authors aren't as well known here, it means that there are some great books for Americans to discover.
So why is Ransome still popular in Britain eight decades after his first children's book came out? Hmmm. My immediate answer is the characters. These kids have a strong moral compass and don't waste much time fussing at each other, yet they are likable and real. Each one has a clearly defined personality and something special to offer the series. When I hit the last few pages of book twelve, I felt a sharp sense of loss that there would be no new adventures with these young people who had become my friends.
Beloved characters aside, I also think Ransome had a strong feel for what makes for a good adventure. I know nothing about sailing, but easily gave myself over to the challenges of riding the winds. In addition, across the series I foiled robbers, found my way out of deep fogs, discovered a valuable mine, met interesting local characters, battled a forest fire, survived a shipwreck, and got attacked by pirates more than once. The stories are good in themselves but also as a sort of time machine so that you can experience life in the 1930s. I'm only sorry that there aren't twice as many books. Eli isn't quite old enough for them yet, but I can't wait to read them aloud on vacations!
The Books:
Swallows and Amazons -- The Walker family (siblings John, Susan, Titty, and Roger) go to the Lake District for the holidays. They can't believe their luck that their parents let them camp out on Wildcat Island -- even when they begin to see signs that they aren't the only ones frequenting their camp.
Swallowdale -- When John accidentally wrecks their sailboat, the Walker kids and the Blackett sisters (Nancy and Peggy) take to the forests and high hills above the lake.
Peter Duck -- Although the author never lets on if this is a "real story" or one of Titty's tales, the reader ventures with the Walkers and Blacketts from England to the Caribbean while being chased by greedy pirates eager to race them to hidden treasure.
Winter Holiday -- Happy sigh. I love this one. The Walkers and Blacketts befriend visitors Dick and Dorothea Callum over the winter holiday, finding a whole new set of adventures when the temperatures plunge and the lake freezes over. (This would be a great read over the Christmas holidays.)
Coot Club -- The Callums get a chance to vacation in the Norfolk Broads river region and learn how to sail. They soon befriend a group of kids who know the area intimately and defend it from heartless tourists who care nothing for the wildlife.
Pigeon Post -- The Walkers, Blacketts, and Callums search for gold in the hills above the lake despite the fact that a summer drought makes camping rougher, there is a strong threat of forest fires, and a mysterious stranger is trying to muscle in on their discoveries.
We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea -- While vacationing on a river northeast of London, the Walker kids were only visiting a new friend's sailboat when they accidentally get swept into the North Sea.
Secret Water -- When the Walkers' vacation was ruined by their Navy father being called back to duty, it is decided that the children will be purposefully stranded on a river island to explore and map it. When local kids jump in to defend their island from these new strangers, the story heats up.
The Big Six -- The Callums return to the river area called The Broads, teaming up with local friends to foil thieves.
Missee Lee -- The Walkers and Blacketts sail to Asia with "Captain Flint," the Blacketts' uncle. When the ship breaks apart in a storm, they accidentally fall in with warlords.
The Picts and the Martyrs -- Another huge favorite. Back at their home lake, the Blacketts gear up for an exciting holiday with the Callums. When it looks like all their plans will be foiled by their stodgy and controlling great aunt, the kids decide to create a secret camp. Will Great Aunt find out and ruin everything?
Great Northern? -- While sailing around the wild and mysterious Hebrides islands off of Scotland, the kids accidentally tip off a fanatic egg collector that there is a pair of rare birds in the area. Now they have to save the birds -- no easy feat when the rich egg-collector has henchmen and the local shepherding community misunderstands their intentions.
Click on the book cover below to learn about Christina Hardyment's recent image-rich book combining a biography of Ransome with in-depth peeks at the places he wrote about.
Arthur Ransome's Children's Books and Related Reading:
P.S. I didn't have a decent camera while I was on my honeymoon and thus only have a few dozen snapshots of my trip to England. I'll be throwing in spare photos from everyday life just to give the British Reading Adventure posts a little more visual appeal.
I found this little photo for fifty cents. But just looking at its condition, I think that at one time it was considered priceless.
What's so remarkable about a little fellow in a silly hat (more "Jughead" than beret), one leg crossed jauntily over the other, shoes dapper in spats, plus a sidekick stuffed dog at his side? Ah, I'm thinking it is the grin. Pure sunshine.
When this photo was new, it was the usual rectangular shape. Slowly, it became a tattered oval after someone carried it in their wallet for years. Somebody looked at this photo now and then to make themselves feel happy. All these years later, it makes me happy too.
Someone scrawled on the back of this photo: "Lucian Averett & Sister."
Can anybody suggest a more suitable caption? Or, even better, a story?
Here are some comments from blog readers:
"Finally! A practical use for that ugly lampshade."
"When Herman promised Bertha 'something with tassels' that she could slip into, alas, she definitely did not envision this hat."
"Perhaps this hat will disguise my antennae from the prying eyes of the curious earthlings."
"Melba had almost given up hope of trying to hide the damage where the goat had eaten her braids, but then she spied the waste paper can in the corner..."
"The Easter Bunny ran out of bonnets and thus only had baskets to give."
" 'Oh, go soak your head!' wasn't said to her with good will, but it sure gave Henrietta some millinery ideas."
"It was the last hat on the rack, but at least it was affordable. And if I happen to stop by the grocer's, I have a handy way to carry my turnips."
P.S. Apparently when you click through to JourneyLeaf from Facebook, it indicates that the comments are closed. They aren't! If you'd like to leave a comment, please visit the blog site directly at http://journeyleaf.typepad.com. Thanks! (I'd been wondering why the comments suddenly dried up!)
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