| "I'm tired of always being the youngest in the family," | | | | colored tissue paper which represented balls of |
| sputtered the rebellious Linda one day. Her mother | | | | Grandmother's yarn.Each girl was then given a |
| laughed at her crossness and then had an idea."How | | | | cardboard fan (file folders make good fans). Then |
| would you like to be a grandmother for a day?" she | | | | each girl tried for one minute to fan as many balls of |
| asked.Linda forgot her crossness and brightened up, | | | | yarn as possible into the work basket. Linda's mother |
| "How?" "How could I?""We could plan a Grandmother's | | | | timed each contestant and awarded a small prize to |
| party and invite your friends in for an afternoon tea like | | | | the most successful. This game is very tricky because |
| Grandmother used to enjoy when she was | | | | the thin paper blows out of the basket as easily as it |
| young."And this was the start of Linda's | | | | blows in.In Grandmother's childhood homemade feather |
| "Grandmother's" party. To give her invitations an | | | | beds and pillows were common in every home, so |
| old-fashioned touch Linda pasted colored rickrack braid | | | | Linda planned a feather relay. Her guests were divided |
| around the edges of small white cards. On the cards | | | | into two groups. The first player of each group was |
| she printed "Come to Linda's for Grandmother's | | | | given a feather. Each girl keeps her feather in the air |
| Day."When her excited guests arrived they were | | | | by blowing on it while she crosses the room and |
| directed to the back bedroom where they found two | | | | returns. She then hands her feather to the next in line. |
| large boxes - one filled with old long dresses (one for | | | | The side finishing first wins the relay.The next game |
| each little guest), the other filled with hats, gloves, | | | | was "Grandma." Linda was the first Grandma and |
| beads, and other fancies.Around the room Linda had | | | | stood with her face to the wall. The other players |
| pinned a few old-fashioned pictures which the girls | | | | stood in a line across the room. The idea of the game |
| studied to get ideas about hair styles. Also they were | | | | is for the players to creep up on Grandma without |
| not familiar with the black court-plaster beauty spots | | | | being seen.Grandma could turn at any time to look |
| until they saw an old photograph.After considerable | | | | over her left shoulder or her right shoulder, but she |
| hilarity over "dressing-up" and a proper time devoted to | | | | could not at any time turn all the way around. If |
| primping, Linda announced a style show to discover | | | | Grandma caught sight of a player moving she sent her |
| the prettiest costume, the funniest, and the cleverest. | | | | back to the starting point. The player who first was |
| Winners would be judged by the applause of the | | | | able to creep up on Grandma and touch her took |
| guests and awarded prizes.After all this excitement | | | | Linda's place and became the next Grandma.Teatime |
| the girls went to the living room for a "Quilting Bee" - | | | | came all too quickly. It consisted of thin nut-bread |
| so popular when Grandmother was a girl. Each girl | | | | sandwiches cut with fancy cookie cutters, and cocoa. |
| was given a small square of tarlatan and enough tiny | | | | Old-fashioned snowballs and plenty of ice cream |
| squares of gay cotton material to cover it plus a tube | | | | satisfied the sweet tooth. Snowballs, so popular in |
| of glue. Each girl then glued her cotton squares to the | | | | Grandmother's day, are squares of white cake frosted |
| tarlatan back to make a doll-sized quilt. The girl with the | | | | on all sides with white coconut frosting.Linda and her |
| nicest looking quilt was awarded a prize.Because even | | | | guests all decided that having a "Grandmother's" party |
| interested girls do not like to sit still too long, the next | | | | was lots of fun.John Lenaghan writes about party |
| game was an active one. Linda put a work basket in | | | | ideas and other party-related topics for the Party |
| the center of the floor and around it circles of various | | | | Ideas 4u website. |