It’s time to post something like “The 10 Best Vacation Getaways!” and “Summertime Activities With the Kids!” and I do not want to disappoint! Let’s look at some old-fashioned summer activities and how you can learn more about them at the library.
Let’s Watch an Old Time Baseball Game
When you enjoy or play baseball this Summer, whether it is a game in the backyard with friends or a professional game played by your favorite team, you are continuing an activity that started in mid-1800s. According to Britannica: “it was once thought to have been invented in 1839 by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, N.Y., but it is more likely that baseball developed from an 18th-century English game called rounders that was modified by Alexander Cartwright.” The first American league was formed in 1871 to help organize and publicize the professional teams being formed.
If you would like to watch an old-fashioned game, the Vintage Base Ball Association supports a number of historic recreation teams playing in replica uniforms by the rules commonly used in 1850s to 1880s. These teams sport fabric-authentic uniforms, rules and baseball customs. I can’t find that Boone or Callaway Counties have a team but St. Louis has several. The Cyclones home field is Lafayette Park and the St. Louis Brown Stockings is out of Kirkwood. I saw that Joplin hosts games as well.
Want to learn more about the history of baseball?
One of the St. Louis worthies who influenced the game was Christian William Friedrich Von Der Ahe, a German-American entrepreneur who expanded his grocery store to include a saloon in the back. Taking advantage of the local custom of visiting his saloon after a game, Von Der Ahe bought the St. Louis Brown Stockings, propelled them out of bankruptcy and into the American League, and made a great deal of money from his investments. “The Summer of Beer and Whiskey” by Edward Achorn tells of the riotous acts of Von Der Ahe and other members of the new American League who used cheap tickets, cheap drinks and dramatic theatrics to fill the stadiums and propel baseball to become America’s favorite pastime. FYI, the Brown Stockings was one of the first baseball teams in America and their history is associated with the St. Louis Cardinals. That is quite the legacy.
If you can’t make one of our Missouri teams’ games, dive into the history of “Baseball” with Ken Burns, whose use of historical images and film should give you some great insights into the historic game.
There are over 1,600 items in our catalog about baseball. Something for every age!
Bring an Old Fashioned Picnic
After the game, you can continue the experience by spreading a blanket out and having a Victorian-style picnic. The customs of the Victorians often spread to the States although, as we did with their game of rounders, we recreate things to suit ourselves.
The Victorians originally thought of a picnic as something where everyone brought food to an outdoor venue. Share and share alike and unless someone was actually organizing a list, it might have been a picnic with all salads, no deserts. It’s all good, just don’t forget the beverages, right? In the latter part of the Victorian era, the picnic evolved into the ‘basket full of goodies’ we envision today, a traditional picnic with the sturdy basket packed to the brim with goodies carefully prepared at home.
To help you organize your own picnic basket is a charming and personable book by friends Marnie Hanel, Andrea Slonecker and Jen Stevenson. “The Picnic: Recipes and Inspiration from Basket to Blanket” contains packing lists, safety precautions and lawn games. There are clever ways to use mason jars to create individual crudités and deserts. The friends share recipes such as Coronation Chicken, Hand Pies and Meatball Pitas, just a few of the imaginative foods you can create for your guests. Marnie, Andrea and Jen hosted monthly get-togethers for four years and from those experiences pulled together the perfect handbook for a traditional picnic.
Tailgating is the current form of the Victorian picnic. It’s considered the pre-game warmup, not a surprise to anyone following Mizzou sports! Today’s outdoor eating experiences feature crockpots, large coolers and Tupperware organized in a parking lot or outdoor space before a game, a music festival or other public event. Investigate our tailgating cookbooks if you want to spice up your pre-game nibbles. “The Tailgate Cookbook” by Beth Peterson caught my eye because of the yummy and crafty serving suggestion images and the clever recipes. Like this one: Grilled Apple Cider Donuts. Bake the donuts ahead of time. To serve, fire up your grill, dip each donut in a glaze and throw on the fire to toast and crisp up. Yum! She also suggests creating bread bowls out of 4″ pretzel rolls, which I thought was a great idea for any time, especially with children. If you don’t find anything you like here, there are 12 other books about picnic cooking.
Walk Off That Wonderful Meal
Taking a pleasant walk or a vigorous hike after your picnic would round off the day, wouldn’t it? (We have 725 items about hiking.) Let’s take a look back into 1850s history to talk about letterboxing, a sort of hiking game that began in 1854 in Dartmoor, England. Hikers followed clues to find a hidden box on a trail and would leave letters and postcards, which were later picked up and sent to friends, relatives or even themselves. We don’t have any easily found materials on letterboxing but we do have a number on scavenger hunting, including “STL Scavenger” by Dea Hoover. This book will have you planning a trip to St. Louis neighborhoods to explore. Solve the riddles to get a general idea of which building is being described then hunt to find the architectural feature pictured in the book. Some are easy:
Founded by Wash U students in ’69
If you like reading, this place is a shrine.
Browse the collection, with covers so pretty
Don’t forget to lean down and pet the kitty!
Do you know the answer? Let me know in the comments if you do! (And what is this cat??)
In the next month, we will be sharing another form of scavenger hunting at all four of our branches. Geocaching is a treasure hunt using a website, a GPS-capable device and your feet and eyes. I wrote a description in the post “Explore Your World with Geocaching” and I hope you enjoy it. But if you want to come to a live presentation, we are at Calloway County Public Library on Tuesday, July, 11. Holt Summit Public Library on Thursday, July 20. Southern Boone County Public Library on Wednesday, August 2. And at Columbia Public Library on Wednesday, August 9. I love the hunt. I hope you give it a try! Letterboxing is one of the forms of geocaching which includes Earthcache, Mystery Cache and several others.
Have Fun!
I’m writing this in the middle of a July heat wave with warnings around the state and a discussion of how the Cardinals are going to do with a double-header. Everyone hopes they get enough electrolytes and water to support them through that second game. I hope YOU take care whenever this Summer you are outside, taking part in our great Missouri outdoors!
