Lawn Darts

Last night, Husband and I were having one of those conversations about the stupid toys we had in our childhoods – the ones that are now banned because they were dangerous. This started because we saw an ad for that pre-school game “Hi-Ho Cherry-O.” I had no idea that game was still around. Those little cherries are the perfect size for a toddler to swallow; and they are probably more enticing than other similarly sized game-pieces because they are actually shaped like a food object.

Frankly, I was kind of excited that there were still dangerous toys around. Not because I wish ill on children, but well, just because. It’s not fun unless it’s dangerous, right? Okay, maybe not. Maybe I should just drop this line of thinking and move on to a rough reconstruction of the Lawn Darts conversation.

I said, “It was a stupid concept from the get-go.”

He replied, “What do you mean, it’s like darts or horseshoes. You throw the darts into the target, it’s just on the ground.”

I answered, “Yes, but the whole concept it flawed. Who thought it was a good idea to throw steel projectiles at one another.”

He stared at me and said, “What?”

I then described the game as I understood it, that you set up the hoops like 10 or 20 yards apart and threw the darts at your hoop while standing by your opponents hoop.

He replied in carefully measured words, “No. You stand behind the person throwing the darts.”

Okay, that does make sense. I have no idea what I was thinking. Maybe my cousins didn’t play the game while facing one another. Maybe I just have vague memories of it being played that way because of the alarmist tone of news stories when the game was banned. If someone tells you that you saw or did something enough times, you can start to believe it.

Or maybe my memory is correct, because we are after all talking about my cousins. Maybe they were just playing by some alternate form of rules. You know how in Monopoly there are
alternate rules for shorter games? Perhaps they were using the Lawn Darts Natural Selection Rules? Who can know.