Entertaining Made Easy Part 5

During the luncheon the hostess played several Hawaiian musical selections on her phonograph. If any of her friends had owned or played a ukelele, doubtless the plaintive music would have been a feature.

A WATERMELON FROLIC

When watermelons were ripe and plentiful, big pink posters cut oval with a painted border of green and black lettering on the pink startled the village with the notice of a watermelon frolic.

They read:

_Do you like watermelon?

Anyway Be sure to come to a watermelon party on the local fairgrounds next Tuesday evening Admission 25 cents This ent.i.tles you to see the minstrel show Proceeds for the Epworth League of ---- Church_

Long plank tables on wooden horses were improvised for serving the watermelons which were contributed by the members of the society. Some of the men acted as carvers of the melons, and the girls served the portions, which were sold for ten cents each.

The grounds were lighted with strings of electric lights in pink and green paper lanterns.

Besides the main attraction there were several booths and side shows, arranged country fair fashion, which drew well. One was labeled THE WATERMELON PATCH. For this, real watermelon vines had been obtained from somebody's garden and placed naturally on the ground. To the vines were tied any number of artificial melons made of green paper stuffed with cotton wadding which concealed tiny favors.

On payment of ten cents any person had the privilege of picking a melon. The prize inside was supposed to be worth the fee.

At another booth, "watermelon cake" was served at five cents a slice.

The secret of this was that in making a plain cake the batter had been colored with pink sugar and sprinkled with raisins. The cake was then baked in a round tin and when sliced resembled the pink of watermelon filled with black seeds.

As it was sweet corn season, and as corn is also typical of the South, there was a hot corn vender, who sold steaming ears straight from kettle to buyer.

One feature of the evening was a watermelon contest among the boys.

Volunteers were called for and lined up at a table. They were then supplied with large wedges of melon and at the sound of the referee's whistle the race began.

The prize was a whole watermelon.

There was also a watermelon hurdle race. The course was laid out with big watermelons and time was kept for each hurdler.

The main attraction of the evening, however, was the minstrel show. On a raised wooden platform sat the performers with blackened hands and faces. They wore grotesque garb and each one fingered a guitar, mandolin, or banjo.

First they gave a number of well-known Southern melodies such as _Old Black Joe, Swanee Riber, Dixie, Ma.s.sa's in de Cold, Cold Ground_. Some whistling numbers were much appreciated and _My Alabama c.o.o.n_, with its humming and strumming, proved a great success. As a special item of their musical program they sang a parody of _Apple Blossom Time_ called _It's Watermelon Time in Dixie_.

The watermelon frolic was a great success and is recommended to any organization in town or country at watermelon time as a fun--and funds--producing social.

_Parody_

"When It's Watermelon Time in Dixie"[1]

After

"When It's Apple Blossom Time in Normandie"

(_Sing with appropriate motions_)

_Repeat_:

When it's watermelon time in Dixie Land[1]

Ah wants to be Right dher[2] you see In dat dear old melon patch To eat a batch!

When it's watermelon time in Dixie Land Dat's de time of all de year When Ah grin[3] with cheer from ear to ear Watermelon's jes' GRAND!!!

[Footnote 1: Sway heads and bodies]

[Footnote 2: Jerk thumbs backward over shoulder]

[Footnote 3: Grin broadly--stretch hands from corners of mouth to ears.]

A j.a.pANESE GARDEN PARTY

A girl who wished to entertain for a visiting school friend one evening in midsummer sent out invitations to a j.a.panese Garden Party.

She wrote them on the pretty little hand-decorated place-cards which are to be found in most shops now. The j.a.panese writing paper which comes in rolls is another possibility for them.

She had a wide porch and a big lawn which she decorated for the occasion with strings of pink, yellow and green j.a.panese lanterns with electric bulbs inside. Settees and wicker chairs were scattered in cosy groups through the shrubbery, and there was a faint odor of burning incense.

For entertainment there was dancing on the porch to the tune of a phonograph and a program of j.a.panese music, including some selections from "b.u.t.terfly" and "The Mikado."

A clever reader gave one of the Hashimura Togo stories, and also the hostess had arranged some artistic tableaux in j.a.panese fashion.

When it was refreshment time, cunning little girl friends of the hostess appeared in j.a.panese kimonos, hair done high and stuck full of tiny fans or flowers. They bore j.a.panese lacquer trays with tiny sandwiches (filled with preserved ginger), cherry ice and rice wafers.

A wee j.a.panese flag was stuck in each portion of cherry ice.

The favors were wee j.a.panese doilies which the guests were bidden to hunt for under a certain group of trees. While doing so, a sudden surprise shower of seeming cherry blossoms covered them with pink and white petals. These were really confetti petals obligingly scattered by the nimble little waitresses perched in the branches above.

A COMMENCEMENT PICNIC

Instead of giving the usual banquet and reception to the seniors, the juniors in a small school might well plan an outdoor picnic and supper. It has the possibility of being jollier than the regulation affair, and is certainly less expensive.

Individual invitations may be sent out to the senior cla.s.s--quite unusual and mysterious invitations--for each one may consist of a colored feather quill with a message written on a slip of paper wrapped about the end. This reads:

_Greetings from the Tribe of Twenteequas To the Tribe of Nyneteenwas: Will the Tribe of Nyneteenwas Smoke the pipe of friendship Round the camp-fire of the Twenteequas On the sixteenth day of the Moon of Roses One hour before waysawi (sunset)?

One of the Twenteequas will act as your guide_.

As soon as the two cla.s.ses have gathered at the picnic ground, the juniors, already decked in head bands of ribbon in their own cla.s.s colors, may present the seniors with similar ribbons. The boys may have feathers stuck in theirs--if they don't object to head bands.

The chief of the Twenteequas may announce the first stunt as a Hunt for Game, and all must hunt in pairs, matching partners by means of selecting, blindfolded, colored beads from a basket. Pasteboard bows and arrows are supplied, and everyone is told to return at the summons of a beaten tom-tom.