A PEANUT PARTY
In which peanuts are featured in a variety of old and new ways.
Invitations: Carefully split a large-sized peanut and fold inside a small piece of white Japanese tissue on which the invitation is written. Tie the peanut together with a narrow orange ribbon. Or write the invitation on an orange-colored card and attach to it several round peanuts, the shells of which have been grotesquely decorated to represent tiny faces. The color, orange, is suggested in the invitations, properties and decorations only because it vividly contrasts with the neutral shade of the peanut.
Properties: Upon arriving, the guests are given small orange-colored paper or tarlatan bags in which they may keep the peanuts won in the various games. At the end of the party there is a final counting and the person having the greatest number of peanuts in his bag wins the prize.
Note: The games suggested need not be played in the following order. This is one arrangement which has proved satisfactory for both large and small groups. The first three games are played at a table around which four or six people sit. A bowl of peanuts and two or three hatpins should be placed on each table before the game starts.
1. GUESSING GAME
At a given signal from the director, each person at the table tries to guess the number of peanuts in the bowl. After all the players have had their chance, the peanuts are counted. The person who came nearest to the correct number receives four peanuts as a reward, which he keeps for the final counting. All the other peanuts are returned to the bowl for the next game.
2. PIERCING GAME
Each person is given a hatpin with which he tries to pierce the peanuts in the bowl. He has three trials. All the peanuts he pierces he may keep.
3. GRABBING GAME
Each person in turn grabs all the peanuts he can hold in his hand. After counting the number grabbed, he returns all of them to the bowl and the next player tries his grabbing capacity. The person grabbing the largest number may keep that number of peanuts as a reward.
4. PEANUT RELAY
Chairs and tables are pushed aside and the players are lined up for a relay race in two, three or four even lines, depending upon the size of the crowd.
Draw on the floor two chalk circles for each relay line, one directly in front of each leader and another several yards beyond, at the farther end of the room. Place one peanut in each circle. At a given signal each leader picks up, with a table knife, the peanut from the circle directly in front of him and runs with it to the circle at the other end of the room. He must then pick up the peanut from that circle and carry it back to the first circle. Then he touches off the next player in his line, who tries to do the same stunt, that is, exchange the peanuts from one circle to the other circle. The winning line is the one which accomplishes this feat most quickly. Each member of it gets three peanuts as a reward; the line which finishes second gets two peanuts each.
5. PEANUT THROWING
From these relay lines swing into one big circle, with hands joined.
Place an empty waste-basket in the middle of the circle. Give each player three peanuts. At a given signal each player tries to throw his three peanuts into the basket. Those that fall on the floor he loses. Those that land in the basket he may reclaim. As a reward he receives twice the number reclaimed.
6. PEANUT PASSING
Line up two even groups facing each other with hands joined. At a given signal each leader, the first person in each line, picks up with his free hand as many peanuts as possible from a large bag at his feet. He passes them to the person next to him, who in turn passes them to the person next to him, and so on. The person at the very end of the line deposits them in a bag at his feet. At the end of two or three minutes a signal from the director ends the game. The peanuts passed by each line are counted and the total amount is divided among the players of the line which passed the greatest number in the given time.
Of course in passing the peanuts the players must not unclasp hands. If a peanut is dropped, two people with hands clasped must pick it up.
7. PEANUT ALPHABET
Retain the players in the same formation as for the peanut passing.
Have two sets of cardboard letters which spell the word “peanut.” Choose any twelve players, six from each side. Line up these teams of six opposite each other. Give a letter “p” to the first player on either side, a letter “e” to the next one, and so on, so that each team spells the word “peanut.” The director then calls off a word like “net.” Each player who has the letter “n” must step out in front of his team, holding up his letter so it may be plainly seen by the director. The person on that team holding the “e” must step out beside him, and so on until the required word is formed. The team that forms the words most quickly wins. As a reward each member of the team and everyone on that side gets a peanut. Use simple words like “pa,” “tune,” “pat,” “pen,” “aunt,” “pun,” “ate,” “pan,” and finally the word “peanut.”
8. MUSICAL PEANUT
Let the crowd break up and seat themselves about the room.
Send someone out of the room. Give to any member of the group a “musical peanut,” which is of course an ordinary peanut. Explain to the group that when the searcher enters, all must sing some popular song, at first very softly, and then more loudly as the searcher wanders in the vicinity of the musical peanut. The searcher is then invited in and, guided by the song of the group, tries to find the peanut. When the peanut is found, the person holding the musical peanut becomes the searcher.
9. PEANUT BAGS
Before the guests arrive, paper bags containing various numbers of peanuts are strung across the end of the room, about eight feet from the floor. Give each player three peanuts and line them all up about twenty or twenty-five feet from the bags. At a given signal the entire line tries to hit a bag. Each person has three throws. He may have the contents of each bag he hits.
Note: It is usually necessary to leave someone near the line to cut down the bags the moment they are won, otherwise there will be much confusion.
10. PEANUT HUNT
At a given signal the players scurry around, looking for peanuts which have been hidden in all parts of the room. Each player may keep all he finds.
11. PEANUT PRIZE
After the players have counted the number of peanuts won throughout the evening, have them march to music around the room in a big circle. When the music stops, those having less than fifteen peanuts drop out of the circle. The marching continues until the music again stops, when those having less than twenty-five peanuts drop out, and so on until the person having the largest number of peanuts stands alone. As a reward he is given a grotesque doll made of peanuts.