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Venerable games popular Photo by Drew Fleming Stuart Fety, 12, of Rogue River, hops along in the second leg of a combination three-legged race and sack race Saturday at Ashland's Railroad Park. The Southern Oregon Historical Society put on a day of old-fashioned games to showcase its new Ashland Branch. Society cracks history books for specifics By VICKI GUARINO ASHLAND -- The Southern Oregon Historical Society asked Ashland to come out and play Saturday, catching morning strollers, bicyclists, even a few slow-moving motorists by surprise. "Come on and join us," museum staffer Jay Leighton yelled as drivers braked at the sight of the makeshift playground in Railroad Park. "Watermelon seed spitting? Marbles? Come on," Leighton's playground partner Sabrina Rode urged. The games were SOHS's playful welcome to its newest museum, the Ashland Branch in the old armory building on nearby Oak Street. Opened last fall, the center just this spring began a regular schedule of events. The games -- all of a historical nature -- were organized to raise public awareness and interest in the center. "We're trying to see if there is an interest for this kind of thing in Ashland," said Rode, who coordinated the event and runs the society's youth activities. "And this is a nice way to get to know people." Family by family, visitors became playmates. They spit seeds at a bull's-eye target, linked knees for three-legged races, and hunkered down for marble shooting -- players taking home the marbles they won. Young historical society volunteers such as twins Allegra and Stuart Fety, 12, of Rogue River, played along. Allegra drew the hopscotch courses on the sidewalk. All of the games pre-dated World War II, Rode said. She and Leighton worked from books, but were aided by memory. As Rode read about players using a piece of corrugated tin roofing as a field for marble shooting, for instance, she could clearly picture how to set up the match. "I'd seen it in movies," she said. "When I read it in the article, I said, `I know exactly what they are doing.' "And it seems to be working." Indeed, 7-year-old April Oleson, Ashland, quickly won enough marbles to set up the game herself at home. Parents Jim and Tanya Oleson played along. They ran a near tie with April and son Lee, 8, in a relay that was part three-legged race, part sack race. "I don't remember ever doing this," Jim Oleson said, panting at the finish line. "I wish I had." Rode noted that all of the games use common materials, follow simple rules, and could easily be set up at home. The bull's-eye for seed spitters was hand-drawn on an old bed sheet. The shooting line was a strip of masking tape stuck to the lawn. No corrugated tin for marbles? Tanya Oleson figured tracks drawn in the dirt, or string run down a hallway would work just as well. Not sure of the rules? The historical society printed up instructions for several games that included some game history. Native American culture was represented in cat's cradle, a string game later adopted by settlers. Partners pluck up crisscrossed strands in a single loop of string; solo players weave out intricate designs between their fingers. Either way, the object is to avoid unraveling the web, or pulling it into a tangle. Demonstrating the technique challenged Leighton's memory as much as it did her dexterity. "I have to do this one fast or I can't remember how," she apologized to a cluster of cat's cradle novices who had lost track of her maneuvers. "I haven't done this since I was in college, and that was 20 years ago." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA