A Texas Rite of Passage

When I was five or six years old, my mother gave me my first pocket knife - a pearl-handled, single-blade jack knife with a blade probably two inches long. I’ll never forget that little beauty. Mom impressed upon me the responsibility that was now mine. Act in a reasonable manner, not like a wild Indian.

My grandfather Baird instructed me in the safe use of pocket knives. Always whittle away from you. I still recall his demonstration – his big hand taking slow, careful strokes that peeled curved slivers from a mesquite twig. Always whittle away from you. That little knife had a sharp blade!

In contrast to grandfather, my grandmother Baird was something else altogether. She taught me to play mumblety-peg. Down on your knees in the dirt, you grasped the knife by the blade and flipped it so it would stick up in the ground. There were several tricks you had to perform. One of them I remember involved flipping the knife over the back of your hand. If the knife didn’t stick up, you lost your turn. My favorite trick was “Slap the Baby.” You stuck the knife in the ground and then gave it a sharp slap, making it turn over and over. If it ended with the point stuck into the ground, you won.

Would a modern mother give her six-year-old a sharp knife to play with? Would a grandmother give lessons in knife play? I think mumblety-peg is a game long forgotten, except by readers of Mark Twain’s Missouri stories.

My fellow writer Irene B. suggested that a boy’s first pocket knife marked a gender difference. Girls did not carry pocket knives.

Irene, you didn’t know Grandmother Baird.

Dac Crossley
January 14, 2012

“The real menace in dealing with a five-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a five-year-old.” – Jean Kerr.

Comments

[Wayne]

OK Dac,at our next visit we will play a game of mumblety-peg. I was the champion in northern Virginia.
Wayne

[irene black]

Don't know about knives, but I taught gun safety for years. Saw some figures a while back that based on the number of hunting licenses issued in only SIX states the US has the largest standing army in the world. To get a KY gun license you must have passed a gun safety class within the last 18 months.
PS 99.8% of that army return home safely.
Irene B.

[irene black]

Slide rule -- blessed slide rule, if I hadn't known how to operate one I'd never made it through physics lab in college. That and the ability to convert fractions & decimals--Dr. Hamilton called it my bastard method of math.
Irene B.

[Augie]

Dac thank you for this post it is so sad that today if a child is caught with a knife, especially on a school campus they would be expelled and charged a crime, which I think is a crime...it would be wonderful if the days of innocence still prevailed. Perhaps this is why I love reading your post, I can relive a time of peace and the respect of its elders. Augie

[Caroline Clemmons]

Wish I'd known your Baird grandparents, who sound pretty amazing. So do your parents, and so IS their son.

[Shirley White]

I always had to "root the peg" and got dirt in my mouth. Was fun, tho.
Shirley

[Dac Crossley]

I carry a Swiss Army Knife - one with a Phillips and a blade screwdriver, a bottle cap puller and (of course) a knife blade.

[Elizabeth Chilson]

Beautiful, Dac!

[J. R. Lindermuth]

This brings back memories, Dac. I believe I still have one of my first pocket knives. I still carry one--though you have to be careful where you go with it these days.
Barlows were always my favorite, too.

[Dac Crossley]

Shirley - glad that there's someone else who remembers mumblety-peg.

[Shirley White]

I, too , had a pocket knife and Daddy taught me the mumblety peg game. Mama would take a walk when we started playing with it. She just couldn't watch. shirley

[Dac Crossley]

Mary - I didn't know about THAT one.

The Rhonfelt kids next door gave me a little hatchet one birthday. I chased them with it.

[Dac Crossley]

Slide rules - there's another one gone. I still have my first one - a Christmas present when i was in high school.

[Chris]

Hi, Dac, I was luckier than most little girls because my dad had an upholstery shop behind our house and he taught me early how to use his tools, including how to sharpen them. He and I wore bandaids as badges of endeavor. I still turn to wood first, to solve a need.
About a week ago I had a dream in which I was carrying a baby around and realized I needed a stroller. The next part of the dream involved some intricate joining of 1x1 pieces of wood to make the base. I didn't ever get to the wheels.
I still carry my dad's tiny pen knife.
Happy New Year
Chris

[Patricia Gligor]

When I think back to my childhood, I remember all the westerns on TV. My brother got a cowboy hat and set of shiny western revolvers in their holster for Christmas one year. I, being a girl, got dolls. The interesting thing is that I grew up to manage a sporting goods department where I sold (and fired) a lot of guns! So much for gender discrimination!

[mary]

Well, someone gave me a Barlow pocket knife when I was maybe 6 or 7. Can't remember who gave it to me, but Papaw Money took it away after I chased the little girl Kim (from next door) knife drawn, around that house on Reagan Ave a couple of laps. I remember Papaw being quite amused.

[Alan]

times they are a changing....

still there are many fathers/dads teaching their boys to shoot guns...

not sure about knives

probably not in eastern big cities.

I was a boy scout before I had my first knife

My father ALWAYS carried a pocket knife, had a pocket protector for his pens and a slide rule until the first hand calculators were created