ANYONE FOR “ MUMBLY PEG?”
Young children, boys, in particular, used to enjoy playing a game called :”Mumbly Peg” Remember?
I had forgotten about it, until just the other day I chanced upon a mention of the rather odd name and much of it came flooding back to me.
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I say “much” because, in our family, at least, the game of mumbly-peg was not on the parentally approved list of past times suitable for play by young boys. Sometimes it was more “tolerated'” than recommended largely because neither of us - parents or children -were really aware of the actual rules of the game which was, at one time played extensively..
The negative votes usually came from the simple fact that parents did not like tube idea of their children tossing sharp knives around, which is .pretty much, what mumbly peg was very much about. As I remember it seemed to occur mostly shortly after Christmas as a way to show off how skilled we had become in the use of the new pocket knives so many of us got for gifts - oddly enough, often from our parents ..Some parents reacted strongly. Others watched the Display of such skills and, yet, could simply walk away while saying :“Boys will be boys!”or some other such evasive statement to remove themselves from any possible responsibility hook.
We played a cut-down version.. Actually, the game called for twenty-four different positions from which a knife must be thrown so that it dug in - point first - in a sod target of well-trimmed grass flat on the ground near the thrower's feet. At best, we used, perhaps, five or six of the suggested positions. The simple truth was we were afraid to try some of them and it also presented a wonderful opportunity to show how ignorance can, indeed, be used as an excuse.
No one for mumbly peg? Good.
A.L.M. March 15. 2004 [c326wds}
