Mumbledepeg and O'Leary

Carol W. Kimball

Mumbledepeg and O'Leary
children's games
pocketknives

Kim11-070

Scrapbook

8: Communication Artifact

Documentary Artifact

The Day

New London, CT

01/28/2008

Carol W. Kimball

Carol Kimball's brother complained that his favorite game, mumbledpeg, did not make her list of old time children's games in her December 10, 2007 article. It was played with a pocketknife. The object was to make the blade stick in the ground by flipping the knife in a number of different positions. If the knife fell flat, the player lost his turn. Pocketknives were considered essential then. They sharpened pencils, made willow whistles or cut poles for impromptu fishing. Girls and boys carried knives. Carol Kimball had her own treasured Girl Scout knife which hung on the approved hook on her green web belt with her official Girl Scout uniform. But Carol never played mumbledpeg. That was a boy's game. Sometimes the girls formed admiring circles to watch the boys play the game. There was another game of personal skill called One, Two, Three O'Leary, a game played with a bouncing ball, like a tennis ball, and a slab of cement, like a sidewalk. As the ball bounced to the rhyme of one, two, three O'Leary, four, five, six O'Leary, seven, eight, nine O'Leary was chanted and with each O'Leary you circled your right leg over the bouncing ball. The game went on forever, bouncing the ball while clapping, stamping the foot, skipping, hopping, and jumping, always circilng your leg over the ball with each O'Leary.

Kimball, Carol

mumbledpeg
old time children's games
Girl Scout and Boy Scout knives
pocketknife
One, Two, Three O'Leary