Does anyone remember playing the game Mumbly-peg
when they were in elementary school? I'm sure I am dating
myself by bringing this up.
Today I wrote a brief story for my history and thought I
would share it even if this isn't the final draft.
" Mumbly-peg is usually a game boys play, but not at
our
school. We girls enjoyed playing it
as much as the boys
and often competed with them during recess.
Mumbly-peg is played with small pocket knives. Two players
stand opposite of each other with
their feet and legs together.
One person
takes the point of his knife in his fingers and flips
the knife so it turns
over once in the air and lands in the ground
near or a slight distance from the
other person’s foot. The knife
was flipped from different
parts of the body such as the elbow,
wrist, nose, chest, etc. The
point of the knife had to go into the
ground firmly enough so that the knife
would stand without
falling over. That
person would then move one foot to the spot
where the knife had landed, keeping
his other foot firmly planted
on the ground.
He would then bend down and pick up the knife,
making sure no part of his
body except the feet touched the
ground.
If you did touch the ground, you automatically lost
the match.
We would take turns doing this until one or the
other could
stretch no further without collapsing on the ground. We often
found ourselves in some interesting
contortions, before either
winning or conceding to our opponent.
We had such fun playing this game until one day when my
friend,
Madelyn and I were playing the game during recess
and things took a
turn for the worse. I remember flipping
the point of my pocket knife towards Madelyn whose feet
were stretched out
almost into a split position. Instead of
the
point going into the ground, the knife hit her near her eye.
The cut started to bleed and we rushed her
into the school
nurse to be checked and to make sure her eye was ok. I was
really scared.
I remember how upset and angry she was with me. I had not
done it on purpose. It was an accident. I felt very bad. Her
parents were called to come to the school to
get her and take
her to the doctor to make sure everything was alright and
there was no damage to her eye. I don’t
recall if we were
reprimanded or not.
But the fear I felt and the sadness of
knowing I had hurt my friend and
could have put her eye out,
was discipline enough for me. I know that she still has a
scar as a reminder
of our game that day.
I believe we were in about the 4th or 5th
grade when this
took place.
I can’t believe we were allowed to bring knives,
albeit small
pocket knives, to school.
Today, you would be suspended for
having a knife in your possession, your
parents would be called
in, and who knows what other disciplinary procedures
would
take place."
We live in such a different time now. How innocent we were
back then and how much simpler life was.
