Lets Flipstick Into Spring

Across the Fence #234

This is a great time of year. The grass and fields are beginning to turn green and the drab, brown colors are finally fading. The trees are even budding out and the allergies are kicking in. We feel alive again and renewed as the sun warms us. It's May in Wisconsin (Iowa and Minnesota too), and time to finally wash the long underwear and hang them in the closet for a couple of months. I'm still keeping my winter coat and hat handy just in case.

A friend mentioned this week that winter seems to last longer every year... at least half the year. The area where we live is supposed to have four seasons. That only leaves two months for each of the remaining seasons. No wonder winter seems to last forever.

It's kind of like when you were young, the school year seemed to last forever and summer vacation flew by. That last month of the school year must have been hard for the teachers and probably still is. Some things never change. It reminds me of when we let the cows out in the spring after they'd been cooped up in the barn all winter. they ran around, jumped, and head-butted each other. Spring will do that to you if you live in the Midwest.

The best part of spring was not spending half the recess dressing and undressing in order to play outside for a few minutes without freezing to death.

Lets take a trip back in time to Smith School, where I went to grade school. When Spring Fever hit, we spent more time staring out the windows and found it harder to concentrate on our lessons. There were ballgames to play, girls to chase (it was spring after all), places to explore on Birch Hill, and other games like Annie Over and Flipstick to play.

I was recently discussing the finer points of Flipstick with Margaret (Lee) Hanson, one of my Smith School classmates. The ensuing years seem to have dulled our memories to some extent, but we managed to remember some of the main points. Did you ever play Flipstick? It was a great game to play once the snow had disappeared and the mud became solid ground.

The equipment needed was easy to obtain and cheap. Just fins a couple of sticks about an inch in diameter. Make one about two feet long and the other about six inches. We remembered scooping out a small hole or slit in the ground using one of the sticks. Then we chose up two sides and were ready to begin. The short stick was placed across the slit in the ground and the long stick placed under it. The "batter" then flipped the small stick as far as he could and the people on the other team tried to catch it. That's where the name of the game, Flipstick, comes from.

This is where our memories become a bit lacking in content. There was a point system for keeping score but neither of us can remember how it was done. We think the person who caught the stick would throw it back in and see how close to the hole they could come. The batter could try to hit the stick away from the hole. The distance from the hole to where the short stick ended up was measured by the number of lengths of the long stick and points were awarded.

Another part of Flipstick was the "Pinkle." Yes, the pinkle. Don't ask us what that means. I thought it was "Tinkle" but Margaret assured me it was pinkle. The art of pinkling was accomplished by balancing the short stick on the long stick and then hitting it into the air at least twice or as many times as you could before swatting it into the field. Can you imagine having a sharp-pointed stick flying toward your head at 200 miles an hour? Well, it was probably a lot slower than that, but it seemed like a guided missle as it streaked toward your head. That's when you had a choice. You could show off your bravery and try catching it, or duck and let it hit some poor soul behind you. There were points awarded for bravery if you caught it, but we have no idea how many.

I even checked the Internet, where you can find just about anything these days. I found nothing on the game of Flipstick. I know other people must have played the game too and not just us Smith Schoolers.

I can understand it not being known about these days. There's no way the "Playground Police" would allow such a game to be played in this day and age. Most games we played would probably be outlawed as too dangerous.

We all survived, had a lot of fun playing, and I think today's kids are missing out on a great game played with simple, cheap equipment, that offered a lot of exercise to boot. As long as there were trees and sticks in the vicinity, we were in business.

Remembering all this is giving me a severe case of Spring Fever. I think I'll go outside, find me a couple sticks, and do a little pinkling practice in my backyard. Anyone want to join me for a game of Flipstick?