Going Coo Coo For Old Stunts
07.17.08By Deanna Dahlsad
Coo Coo, “The Game that Gingers up the Gang” and “Puts Pep In Parties”; Peg-Way, Herbert Specialty Mfg. Co., Chicago. (Apparently dates to 1921.)
You punch out the little hole, get a slip of paper, and follow the instructions to perform your stunt — if you don’t, you’re Coo Coo! After one round of taking &/or refusing to perform the stunts, all the Coo Coos must stand in the center of the circle and perform one stunt — that the others have selected from those already done — together. Oh, the horror!
Series number 1, the company was convinced of it’s popularity; you could get paid $1 for suggesting a stunt. That was enough money to buy two of these games back in the day!
I don’t find many of these punch-out Peg-Way games; and when I do they are $10 or more, which is past my budget. (I did not pay the $10 penciled on the back of the box.) But I still look for them.
Which isn’t so smart because the Coo Coo game taunts me…
Curiosity hasn’t killed this cat, but it has forced me to punch out one of the slips… I had to. Don’t write hate letters stating how I’ve destroyed a collectible; you sit there and stare down a 100 little circles of vintage stunts and see how you fare.
The paper is too old and brittle to scan well, so I wrote it down and gently, but firmly, stuffed it back in. My stunt was to, “Imitate a modest maid powdering her nose in public.”
The funniest thing about that, my family would say, is for me to be a “modest maid”. Even the kids think I’m either too “come hither” or too “hammy” to qualify as a modest anything. But imagine a room full of couples (or mixed genders) in the 20’s watching a man do this. And I bet any lady that drew this stunt was also accused of being “too come hither”. Thus, pink embarrassed cheeks & flushed laughing faces filled the room.
This is part of the entertainment of collecting these old stunts, retro games, & vintage activities — rediscovering the context of the culture of the past. What was funny then? Why? Is it still funny now? Or is it just corny?
If it’s in any way amusing, I’ll play it still. (And likely force family & friends to do so too. Such activity beats passive TV or movie viewing for group entertainment.) If it’s not, I’ll ponder the differences between now & then. (That’s not always a solo activity either; I’ll force at least hubby to converse with me about it.)
This is why I am fascinated by vintage and retro stunt & activity books, and hostess & party planning guides. Even the ones which were pure advertising. Which sort of leads into the old etiquette books… Which leads into more vintage cookbooks. And so, you see, I am ever widening my collection definition; and slimming the space on the bookshelves.
But getting me to stop would be more than a stunt; it would be hard work. And I’d surely go coo-coo.
