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A Smiles Social
- N the door of the parish house as well as in the post-office window appeared a poster adorned with a big smiling face the kind made by drawing a circle and putting inside of it two eye dots, a nose line, and a cheerful curve for a mouth.
Beneath it the invitation urged everybody to come to a Smiles Social, wearing a smile and bringing an extra one in the pocket.
Admission, one smile.
The parish house parlors were decorated with all the laughing or smiling pictures that could be found by the committee in charge. "Mona Lisa" was there with her inscrutable smile, "The Laughing Cavalier," as well as less famous characters, such as smiling girls on calendars and magazine covers. An amusing display of newspaper cartoons also filled one portion of the wall space. Smilax was appropriately enough used for trimming. [16] At the door was stationed a smiling admission collector, who insisted on an entering smile from everyone. The extra one was not demanded at this point.
With such a beginning and the gallery of smiles about the room to break the ice, the social was assured of the success that followed.
The first stunt tried was called "Throwing Smiles," not a new amusement but always a fun-maker.
One person starts the game by smiling broadly and then pretending to wipe off the smile and throw it to somebody else. As soon as it lands on the next person's face, that person must in turn wipe it off and fling it at a third player. As soon as a smile is supposedly wiped off, the owner of it must maintain a perfectly sober expression.
The company was in screams of laughter before this game had gone very far.
Another amusing game for a large number which goes under various names was called on this occasion "The Smile Factory." The company is divided into two groups which [17] line up opposite each other. Someone is appointed to stand between the two lines with a man's soft hat in hand. If upon being tossed in the air, the hat lands right side up, one group has to laugh while the opposite one remains absolutely sober. When the hat lands upside down, the first group remains solemn and the other group laughs. A member of either side who fails to follow this rule goes over to the opposite side. The side which wins all the members of the other side is announced victorious.
The old-fashioned game of "Poor Pussy" was also played because the point of it is trying not to smile. The younger folk will enjoy it. You may remember that a ring is formed and the person within the ring who is "it," kneels before someone in the circle and mews or purrs appealingly three times successively. Each time the person confronted must answer sternly or calmly "Poor Pussy," never smiling. In case of a smile or a laugh, this person takes the place of "Poor Pussy." [18] Midway of the evening the extra smiles brought to the social were asked for. Jokes and funny rhymes or sayings were read in turn. If various persons dislike the publicity of such a procedure, all the "smiles" may be collected and presented by two or three clever persons in the form of a minstrel show. This can be called "Smiles in Black and White."
The popular song "Smiles" was in order as well as the older favorite, "Pack up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile."
The following conundrum was also propounded: What is the longest word in the English language? The answer is "Smiles" because there's a mile between the first and last syllables.
Humorous recitations and others relating to smiles were given by some good readers.
Just before the refreshments came a smilemeasuring contest. All stood in line and grinned broadly while a girl with a tape measure took account of each one in turn. [19] The winner received as a prize a grinning little china darky.
The refreshments were enough to make everyone smile - they consisted of pink lemonade and ginger cookies with features marked on them in white icing. The most conspicuous feature was of course the grin. [20]
There is barely any food on this page. It is a plan for an evening in a parish hall, and what it is really describing is how to get a room full of people past the first ten minutes.
- The refreshments are never describedThe page spends everything on the games and then stops at the word. For a hall and an unknown number of comers that is the honest order of priority: whatever a committee could make in quantity and hand across a table, decided last.
- One item should be dropped, not adaptedSmiles in Black and White is a blackface minstrel show. It is not an item to rename or soften; leave it out. Nothing else in the evening depends on it, and the rest of the programme runs perfectly well without.
- The whole material listA poster, borrowed pictures and calendar covers, newspaper cartoons pinned to a wall, a soft hat, and some greenery. Every game here — Throwing Smiles, the Smile Factory, Poor Pussy — needs no equipment at all, which is the genuinely transferable part of the page.
- Smilax, chosen for its nameThe greenery is used here because the word begins the same way as the evening’s theme. That is the level at which the decoration is working, and it is worth seeing before you go hunting for the vine.
- The conundrum is slightly wrongThe page says there is a mile between the first and last syllables of smiles. There is a mile between the first and last letters — s, mile, s. Fix it before you tell it.
The admission is one smile, with a collector on the door insisting on it, and guests are told to bring a spare one in a pocket to be handed over halfway through the evening. That is the whole structure: a stated price that costs nothing, and a second instalment to carry the room past the point where an evening usually sags. The two songs sung are the ones everybody had, and the page ranks them itself — one the popular song of the moment, the other already the older favourite about packing your troubles in a kit bag. Read alongside the trench pantomimes elsewhere in this book, an evening whose one instruction is to arrive cheerful starts to look less like a whim and more like a prescription.