The Single Action Shooting Society–SASS–is for folks who “…share a common interest in preserving the history of the Old West and competitive shooting.”  [SASS website, www.sassnet.com.] There are clubs all in all fifty states, andCanada,New Zealand, Europe,Australia andSouth Africa, too.

Personally, spending a Saturday or two a month enjoying the sport of shooting sounds like a lot of fun. And every club member we met agreed. The day consists of target shooting with revolvers, a shotgun, and a lever-action rifle.

“Cowboy Action Shooting is a multi-faceted shooting sport in which contestants compete with firearms typical of those used in the taming of the Old West: single action revolvers, pistol caliber lever action rifles, and old time shotguns.” [www.sassnet.com]

Every member of the ACSA carried reproduction or original period firearms. There were Colt Peacemakers,Winchester1873s, Model No. 3 “Russians” (pictured to the left), Model 1873 repeating rifles, 1866 “Yellow Boys”… You name it, someone was probably carrying it.

We saw 1897 pump-action and 1887 lever-action shotguns–that one “Terminator” fans would recognize–and lots of double-barreled or side-by-side Coach guns.

There were stations set up on the range, with different targets, arrangements and distances. At one station, participants emptied both revolvers at steel gunslinger- shaped targets, or “steels,” then switched to their rifles and pinged off nine shots at five dinner-plate sized targets from 10 yards away. At the next station, the targets were 25 yards away. And at another, knocking down one “steel” tossed a clay target into the air. Bonus points were awarded for shattering it. There’s also a long-range rifle competition, but we didn’t get up early enough to observe that.

Another fun aspect of the sport is that every participant got to be someone else for a day. “One of the unique aspects of SASS approved Cowboy Action Shooting™ is the requirement placed on costuming. Each participant is required to adopt a shooting alias appropriate to a character or profession of the late 19th century, a Hollywoodwestern star, or an appropriate character from fiction. Their costume is then developed accordingly. Many event participants gain more enjoyment from the costuming aspect of our sport than from the shooting competition, itself. Regardless of a SASS member’s individual area of interest, SASS events provide regular opportunities for fellowship and fun with like-minded folks and families.” [www.sassnet.com]

For sheer fun while shooting, you’d be hard pressed to beat Cowboy Action Shooting. Unless it was mounted cowboy action shooting–but that’s for another post.

I’m a huge tennis fan, and this weekend the finals of the last Grand Slam tournament of 2011 will be going on in New York at the US Open. I’m always amazed at the athleticism and power of the top contenders, but I wonder how they would fare if someone turned back the clock 120 years and gave them the equipment and clothing of their predecessors.

Like most sports, the game of tennis evolved over several centuries, but it wasn’t until the 1870s that the first lawn tennis club was established in England. The first tennis championship took place in 1877 at a lovely little place called Wimbledon. Just a few years later in 1881,  the United States National Lawn Tennis Association was formed, and the US National Men’s Singles Championship (later to become the US Open) was held in Newport, Rhode Island. 

The sport became a fashionable rage in the 1880′s and 90′s, especially among the middle classes, and soon men and women both were taking up racquets and installing private lawn tennis courts at their homes. However, women’s clothing of the time made few concessions to the sport. Men were able to play in loose-fitting trousers, shirt sleeves, and a bare head while women were still expected to wear dresses with high-neck bodices, floor-length skirts, layers of petticoats, hats, and yes. . . corsets. The restrictive clothing made it nearly impossible for a woman to bend over and retrieve a ball, so beautifully embroidered tennis aprons with large pockets became the style.

In the beginning, tennis was simply a recreational activity, much like croquet. The fun came in the gathering of friends. Players stood close to the net and simply patted the ball to each other. Yet competitive natures prevailed, and it soon became a sport for athletes. During this time of change, women began making strides in adapting their clothing to better accommodate the physical aspects of the game. Maud Watson became the first female champion at Wimbledon in 1884 and she shocked many with her agressive style of play and *gasp* her short skirts. They barely reached her ankles!

American MaySutton stunned spectators when she rolled up her sleeves during a match and bared her forearms.

However, it was Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen in the 1920′s who took women’s sportwear to a whole new level. Her calf-length cotton dresses were considered indecent since she wore neither corset nor petticoat. And instead of a hat, she wore a silk bandeau around her head to help keep her hair out of her eyes. But it was her grace and skill on the court that made her a sporting heroine and inspired women everywhere to give up the shakles of fashion to embrace functionality when it came to sport apparel.

Can you imagine trying to play tennis or any serious sport while trussed up in a corset? I don’t know how they did it. But if it weren’t for those early competive females like Maude Watson who started taking small revolutionary steps, the women’s movement might not have gained the momentum it did at the turn of the century.

Are any of you tennis fans? Want to strap on a corset and long skirt and join me for a reenactment match?

No?

I’m shocked. Truly shocked.

Fairs have been around for a long time. They date as far back as the days of Rome. So it stands to reason that the American colonies would want to continue the tradition of showing off livestock, agricultural products, and trade wares in the New World. Life was grim, and any excuse for a good time was welcome indeed.  The first American fair was held in York, Pennsylvania, in 1765, eleven years before our nation was founded. The York Fair spread out over the town’s commons, and folks considered those two days as “the liveliest days of the whole year.”

Fast forward about a hundred years. By now, many American states had some kind of exposition, from a few cows and horses on display to full-blown extravaganzas! The California State Fair is a good example of how a little exposition in 1854 to enhance the state’s reputation as the ideal place for farming and industry became one of the largest fairs around (Minnesota and Texas being the largest in attendance).

San Francisco hosted that first fair, but the next year, the fair organizers decided “fair’s fair” (no pun intended) and travel was hard. The fair went on the road for the next four years so more people could enjoy it. Sacramento, San Jose, Stockton, and Marysville hosted the fair to thousands of visitors (15,000 a day) until those in charge decided to permanently locate the fair in Sacramento.

So, what did our great-grandparents enjoy about the fair? For one thing, the state fair was the #1 entertainment of the whole year. It’s hard to imagine nowadays, but there weren’t a lot of diversions in the 1800s. Work, work, work, and boredom in between. The highlight of the work week was riding into town to attend church (if you were a God-fearing individual) or spending your pay at the saloon (if you were the wild type). Looking forward to the yearly fair added a sense of excitement and anticipation that could carry your family through the long, back-breaking days of mundane work.

Folks liked to eye the produce at the fair, like a 3-foot-long, 10-pound carrot, a 72-pound beet, or 2-inch-long peanuts. The farmers shook their heads at the “new-fangled” inventions on display, like a post-hole digger or a new well driller. The men hung around exhibits of pumps, plows, and gopher traps, while the ladies oohed and ahhed over a demonstration of “The Light Running Domestic Sewing Machine.”

The ladies also enjoyed watching the judging of everything from butter to biscuits and from stockings to sweaters. Most hoped to win a ribbon. The best “six jars” of jelly won a blue ribbon and a premium of $5.00; the best needlework, $3.00. For the men, the best two-year-old bull won $50. Even a chicken was worth entering in the fair. The best chicken won a $5.00 premium. Children got into the act as well, entering their best pin cushions, embroidered hankies, and patchwork quilts.

And those races! What would a California state fair be without a horse race—especially one worth a purse of $5,000 in 1874, with a brand-new grandstand up and ready to seat 7,000 people?

Instead of rides, the 1880s fair midway offered attractions no 21^st century fair-goer is likely to see: the thrill show (i.e. sideshow). Besides the usual sword-swallower, fire-eater, and the strong man lifting a pony, there were also the ever-popular freaks of nature, like a (live) two-headed calf, human deformities, and bizarre animals no one in America could imagine. One year, near the turn of the 20^th century, the California State Fair even staged a train wreck of two locomotives crashing head-on into a jumble of twisted, steaming steel! I’m sure that would be considered a real “thrill” back then.

An interesting aspect of one world’s fair was the practice of giving away prizes. On “Exhibitor Day” at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909, exhibitors gave away items in a raffle-like contest. Fair-goers’ ticket numbers were drawn at random. If you carried that ticket, you won a prize. A pony was given away, as were other prizes from exhibitors. The most unusual was the prize given away by the children’s home. A month-old baby boy name Ernest was offered. Although the winning ticket was drawn, nobody claimed this human “prize.”

We’ve come a long way since then. Now, it’s rides and games and rock bands and rodeos. But one thing has remained the same: fair food. Is there anything like it in the whole world?

*************

Andi’s Fair Surprise is a peek into the 1874 California State Fair through the eyes of six-year-old Andi. If she can’t take her new foal to the fair, she doesn’t even want to go. After all, what fun is a fair if Taffy can’t win a blue ribbon? But the fair turns out to be so exciting that Andi is glad she came . . . until her big brother tells her she can’t keep the prize she won fair and square!

There are free coloring pages and learning activities to download at www.andiandtaffy.com. We’re giving away Andi’s Fair Surprise to one lucky reader.  All you have to do is leave a comment and share your favorite childhood Fair Memory.

My dining has recently been converted into a billiard room…so of course I had to look into the history of billiard halls. I’ve never read much about billiard tables in western novels, and while I know their popularity in Europe goes back for centuries, I figured this particular form of recreation had to be around during the old west era. Sure enough, the popularity of “pool tables” here in the States began to boom in the 1800’s. In fact, the Americanized name came about during this era due to tendencies for wages to be placed on the games or gambling pool as it were, and the name “Pool Table” stuck.

As for a general history on billiard tables, no one really knows of the very first origin. Billiards was played as an out door lawn game, resembling golf or croquet, in Northern Europe during the 1500 century.The first actual evidence of billiards was found in the 1470 inventory of King Louis XI of France in the form of a billiard game boards. Historians are unclear about the reasons for the evolution of these games. Whether it was merely for entertainment or served some social or religious functions in ancient times is still an intriguing debate among historians.

Billiards graduated to indoor games and became popular among aristocrats and commoners in France by the mid 1500′s. Billiards a game of subtle physical deliverance, profound concentration and metal agility allowed fair play and equal footage to players of both sexes. By the mid 1600′s, the table version similar to today’s games appeared. Soon, billiards acquired its status as a scientific game with precisely designed equipment, manufacturing plants for tables, standardized rules.

Billiard equipment improved rapidly in England after 1800, largely because of the Industrial Revolution. Chalk was used to increase friction between the ball and the cue stick even before cues had tips. The leather cue tip, with which a player can apply side-spin to the ball, was perfected by 1823. Tables originally had flat walls for rails and their only function was to keep the balls from falling off. They resembled river banks and even used to be called “banks”. Players discovered that balls could bounce off the rails and began deliberately aiming at them. Thus a “bank shot” is one in which a ball is made to rebound from a cushion as part of the shot.

The leather cue tip initially designed by Captain Minguard for protection of the cue added a new dimension to the game. By 1850′s, billiards invaded most of the world. In 1826, England’s John Thurstion changed the wooden game board to slate. By 1797, new fabric replaced cotton or wool to improve smoothness and friction. Balls evolved from wood to ivory to the present Colloidal coated plastic form by 1869.

From 1878 until 1956, pool and billiard championship tournaments were held almost annually, with one-on-one challenge matches filling the remaining months. At times, including during the Civil War, billiard results received wider coverage than war news. Players were so renowned that cigarette cards were issued featuring them. Pool went to war several times as a popular recreation for the troops. Professional players toured military posts giving exhibitions; some even worked in the defense Industry.

Today pool tables come in all kinds of styles and range from seven to nine feet. They have converter tops so you can use it as dining room table…which we will be implementing.

I’ve found shooting a round to be really relaxing…especially when playing against myself *g*, although I have a bunch of nephews who are eager to give their auntie valuable pointers

Anyone else enjoy a game of pool?  What’s in your game room? 

 

Once again I was trying to come up with some activity or thing the children in my current WIP could use to amuse themselves.  One idea I thought of was paper dolls.  But how common were they in 1894?  So off I went to do some research.  And here is a summary of what I found.

First of all, identifying the date of the appearance of the first paper dolls depends on your definition of what a paper doll is.  As early as AD 900 the Japanese were using paper figurines in purification ceremonies.  In the thirteenth century the Chinese use large stick-mounted figures in their puppet shows.  But most historians agree that paper dolls as we currently think of them originated in the late eighteenth century when French dressmakers employed them as a way to illustrate the latest fashions to their customers.  Today you can find a rare set of  hand painted figures from the 1780s housed in the Winerhur Museum in Delaware.

In Europe, many of the early sets of paper dolls depicted actors and actresses of the stage and there were separately crafted toy stages to go with them.

In Pioneer America, however, paper was a prized resource and any child lucky enough to get paper dolls treasured them greatly.  They were carefully pressed between the pages of books or placed in a sturdy box.

In 1810, S&J Fuller Company of London produced the first commercially popular paper doll.  Named ‘Little Fanny’, the doll was printed in a 15 page book that boasted seven figures.  In addition to the various doll poses and outfits, the book included a moral tale for the edification of the children to whom it was presented.  Two years later, J. Belcher of America printed a similar doll with accompanying moral tale, this one named Little Henry.   Within ten years paper dolls were a popular toy for children in both America and Europe.

In the early days, basic paper dolls were created in various states of dress.  Some came modestly dressed with permanently painted on clothing, while others were attired only in undergarments.  Also, the early versions were missing the tabs for affixing the clothing that are common place today.  Before these came along,  children carefully applied tiny drops of sealing wax to the paper ‘clothes’ as a temporary glue.

Before chroma-lithography came into common usage, paper dolls were colored by hand.  Civil War widows often supplemented depleted incomes by embellishing the printed dolls .  However, even after the advent of lithography, some of the manufacturers continued to print in black and white for children to color themselves.

In 1856, Anson Randolph published the book Paper Dolls and How to Make Them, A Book for Little Girls.  Inside the pages were illustrations of dolls and clothing to cut out and play with.  According to The New York Evangelist   “Paper Dolls and How to Make Them, is a book of a thousand for little girls. It contains instructions how to make those ingenious and beautiful little paper dolls, clothed with every variety of costume, and every style of appearance, which are sometimes sold at the shops. The instructions are so plain, and the plates giving illus­trations so numerous, that every little girl can learn the art, and in learning it, will have a perpetual field for the exercise of taste and ingenuity. The study is exceed­ingly attractive, and will furnish means of enjoyment to the nursery and fireside that may well alternate with books and plays. The author has displayed great tact in giving the descriptions, and a genial loving desire to promote the happiness of children — a trait which we place among the highest virtues, in anybody. As there is nothing of the kind in market, and opens a bound­less field of occupation and enjoyment, the little book must become a favorite.”

(Ah-ha – this is something I can use in my book!)

In 1859 Godey’s Lady’s Book became the first magazine to include a paper doll in its pages.  Other magazines quickly followed suit, including Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping and Women’s Home Companion.  These dolls carried such names as Lettie Lane, Polly Pratt, and the famous Kewpie Dolls, and often included figures comprising full families, including servants and pets.   The most popular of these ‘magazine dolls’ came along in 1951 from MacCall’s Magazine – Betsy McCall.

As paper dolls grew in popularity, manufacturers of household goods saw them as a great medium to promote their products.  Some of the products advertised include Pillsbury flour, Singer sewing machines, Hood’s Sarsaparilla, Clark threads and Lyon’s coffee.  These dolls were produced either as die cut items or as printed cards to cut out.  They were produced in large quantities and many examples can still be found today.  J&P Coats company (now Coats and Clark) took this a step farther when they came up with a unique take on the paper doll.  There were five different dolls available to purchasers of Spool and Crochet Cotton.  The unique feature of these dolls were that they had mechanical heads.  The head piece was separate from the body and was actually constructed in a wheel formation that contained three heads painted on both sides, so that the doll could be viewed with any one of six expressions, and even some slight variations on hairstyles.  This head was attached to the body of the doll at the neck with an eyelet,  The clothing for these ‘mechanical paper dolls’ were constructed with a fold and slipped over the head in the same fashion as a ‘real’ dress.

Another group that jumped on the paper doll band wagon were newspapers.  In the 1890s the Boston Herald printed two paper dolls, a blonde and a brunette along with instructions for ordering additional dolls.  They kept the interest alive by printing clothing for the dolls in subsequent issues.  The Boston Globe, not to be outdone, began printing their own series of dolls and clothing.  After the turn of the century a Teddy Bear paper doll series made an appearance in the paper as well.  By 1916 several other papers had begun following suit.  During the Great Depression, newspaper produced paper dolls enjoyed a huge comeback.  Many of the characters were pulled directly from the comic papers, characters such as Dick Tracy, Li’l Abner, the Katzenjammer Kids and Brenda Starr.

The 1940s and 1950s was the advent of America’s romanticized love of the Wild West and this was reflected in paper dolls as well.  Many sets of paper dolls were crafted after characters from western movies and television shows, and of the imagined life at a dude ranch.

By the early 1960s, Barbie had appeared on the paper doll scene and quickly became the most popular paper doll among American children of all time, a title she still holds today.

So what about you?  Did you play with paper dolls as a child?  Do you have a particular set you remember fondly?