Cake walks were an early introduction to gambling according to my kill-joy grandma.Every school party or fair had a cake walk, even church Primary parties had one. I don’t see them anymore. The last one I saw at a school party gave out cupcakes instead of full-size cakes. I thought that was ridiculous.
I sure hope some kids somewhere are still having that kind of fun. Although, with the fear of food allergies and obesity concerns I can easily see adults banning it.
I never won a cake but always had hope. Not a very good gambler.

Margaret,
I wanna come to your childhood ward Halloween Carnival! I’ve never heard of a doll walk. And you actually got real fair food! How completely fun. Why don’t wards do that anymore? (Not That I Am Volunteering To Be In Charge, Mind You.)

Living – my ward growing up used to have a ward rodeo complete with a greased pig contest (you catch it, you keep it) and a chicken catching contest (you catch them, you keep them). Many a parent dreaded having their kids enter those contests as no one wanted the pigs or chickens (except the kids).

The last activity my wife ran was a Relief Society Carnival for the RS Birthday. The two activities she had me help her with was to set up the numbers on the floor for the cake walk, and the displays for the auction. She was pretty sly though–she didn’t tell me the cake we got was for the cake walk. I thought it was for refreshments, and that I would have at least a shot at having leftovers when I helped clean up afterwards. I was disappointed that she didn’t win anything on the cake walk, but she did win the item she wanted most at the auction.

CS Eric – so what did she win?

Devyn,

She won a framed picture of Christ–her favorite one. She had to go toe-to-toe with at least two other sisters there. There were hard feelings. I used that picture for the cover of her funeral program a couple of months later.

Devyn,

Actually, the Christ picture was a relatively small issue. Everybody bid based on “points” they got based on how they answered a series of questions–points for reading the scriptures, having FHE, things like that. Some tables got together and pooled points for the more popular items for bid. Was that cheating, or creatively cooperating? It depended on whether your table pooled their points or not.

Venn Diagram, H,L, Mencken, Mormanism and Puritanism.

I often think we can make a Venn diagram out of one circle of Puritan beliefs and practices and one of Mormon beliefa and practices. Where those circles intersect, we have a commonalities of behaviors and ideas. We can see this today with women’s clothing. Both groups could wear a “Berthas Collar” to achieve proper modest dress. We can see differewces also. Early Puritan men shaved their heads (becoming roundheads) and Mormen men shave their faces.

The one small area area of the larger overlap in regards fun and games I have labeled the H.L.encken zone. Mencken defined Puritanism as the “haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be happy.” I am afraid the anti-red punch as it is the symbol of Satan, anti-cakewalk and anti-PG movie or we will see copies of Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang hidden under his bed crew have been far too successful in their efforts.

13. CS Eric – ah thanks for the color on it.

16. Margaret Joseph – wow – sounds like a fun time. I remember road shows and Gold and Green Balls.