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Grove Farm Homestead Museum’s Old Time Games event emphasizes the "fun" in "fundraiser."
When staffers at the restored 19th-century sugar plantation were brainstorming ideas for a benefit, they recalled the good times they always had at carnivals. They thought the museum’s expansive front lawn would be the perfect setting for an old-fashioned fair.
IF YOU GO …
OLD TIME GAMES
» Place: Grove Farm Homestead Museum, 4050 Nawiliwili Road, Lihue, Kauai
» Date: March 22
» Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
» Admission: $2 per person, $8 for families of four or more. A $5 entry ticket puts the bearer into a drawing for a two-day, one-night stay at Mahamoku, the century-old beach house on Hanalei Bay that was designed by and for Mabel Wilcox (George Wilcox’s niece) in 1914. The drawing will be held at 4 p.m.; it’s not necessary to be present to win.
» Phone: 245-3202
» Email: grovefarm@hawaiiantel.net
» Website: grovefarm.org
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Like the inaugural Old Time Games last year, the second annual event will feature games, races and contests that were popular from 1864 through 1933, when entrepreneur George N. Wilcox owned and lived at Grove Farm (2014 marks the sesquicentennial of Wilcox’s acquisition of Grove Farm). Proceeds will support ongoing preservation projects at Grove Farm and Waioli Mission House in Hanalei, which dates back to 1836.
"Our games originated long ago as ways people could develop the skills they needed to hunt," said Julie McLeod, Grove Farm’s secretary and chairwoman of the event’s planning committee. "Over the years, people continued to hone their agility, dexterity, coordination, teamwork and problem-solving abilities for hunting but also for just plain fun."
During their research for Old Time Games, committee members were motivated when they found articles pointing out the advantages of such simple diversions. A story titled "Games Children Play(ed)" in the spring/summer 2004 issue of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore discussed a similar event in New York. It noted that "today’s children can find pleasure in active, non-electronic pursuits" and that even rolling a hoop is an engaging physical activity for them.
Great care has been taken to keep everything for Old Time Games as true to the mid-1800s to early-1900s era as possible; for example, prizes will be toys of that period, including marbles, jacks, kaleidoscopes, handmade dolls and wooden whistles and yo-yos.
Food will be served on paper goods, not Styrofoam or plastic. "And there won’t be any amplified music or announcements," McLeod said. "Instead, we’ll be using megaphones."
Forty hand-painted signs made of wood and bamboo instead of foam core board will explain how the prizes, food and activities came to be (see sidebar about coconut shy). "We see Old Time Games as a great educational opportunity, too," McLeod said. "People can learn the interesting backgrounds of everything they’re doing and seeing at the event."
The pie- and watermelon-eating contests are again expected to draw enthusiastic crowds. Other popular offerings include a fortuneteller, a tin-plate model train display and a Sweet Shoppe filled with jars of jam and honey; homemade cookies, cupcakes and brownies; and old-time candy such as Tootsie Rolls, which date back to 1896.
Food booths will be selling popcorn, shave ice, hot dogs, corn on the cob, homemade chicken nuggets and — new this year — deep-fried Oreo cookies (introduced in 1912, Oreo is the best-selling cookie in the United States).
Also new will be the Slingshot game (see "How to play" sidebar), three-legged races, rope-jumping contests, puppet shows and an exhibit of miniature horses.
"Old Time Games is a wonderful family event that’s affordable, fun and educational," McLeod said. "It gets kids away from their cellphones, computers, laptops and tablets and teaches them about history and traditions. For older folks it’s an enjoyable walk down memory lane."
Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.
How to play
Here are some of the games that attendees can play for the chance to win prizes. Cost is $2 per game:
» Coconut shy: Try to knock four coconuts off their stands with a ball.
» Tic-tac-toe: Place three beanbags in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
» Ring toss: Toss a rope ring around a bottle.
» Troll roll: Roll a ball between two rods and score points if it drops into a hole. There are six holes, each worth between zero and five points. Three tries are added; a score of at least five wins a prize.
» Slingshot: The aim of this game is to hit the target using a ball and slingshot. A score of at least five points in three tries wins (the rings on the target are worth different points).
Coconut shy’s roots likely lie in England
Coconut shy involves throwing balls at coconuts balanced on posts in an attempt to dislodge them. Typically, players get three balls and win the coconuts they successfully knock to the ground.
In this context, "shy" is a British word meaning to toss or throw swiftly. How and when the game originated isn’t clear, but references to it started appearing in the late 1800s.
Some historians surmise coconut shy is a derivative of the game Aunt Sally, which is often played at British pubs and fairs. Competitors throw balls at the illustrated head of an old woman who has a clay pipe in her mouth. The goal is to hit the clay pipe out of "Aunt Sally’s" mouth.
Another theory says the game might have been born at a fair in Kingston town in the county of Surrey, England, in 1867. The town’s newspaper noted that "for the small sum of one penny, you could have three throws with sticks with the prospect of getting a cocoa nut."
Middle Mill nearby likely supplied the coconuts. Newspaper ads touted the mill as "the only cocoa nut fibre manufactory in Surrey. All descriptions of mats in cocoa nut fibre made to order wholesale."
H.G. Wells mentions coconut shy in his 1897 science fiction novel "The Invisible Man." The Oxford English Dictionary includes the game for the first time in its 1903 edition, and it’s the focus of "I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts," which, recorded by Merv Griffin, was among the top 10 songs in the U.S. in 1949.
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COURTESY JULIE MCLEOD
COURTESY ROBERT NOBLE