Tempe Entertainment

1 O’Connor, Jack, Horse and Buggy West, Alfred A. Knoff, New york, 1969, p. 142.
2 http://www.Answerbag.com.
3 Reid, Kenneth, personal reminiscence
4 http://home.att.net/~coledon/snipe.html.
5 O’Connor, p.142
6 Reid
7 Wells, Ken, Rocks in My Shoes, Ink Wells Publ., The Colony texas, 2004, p. 55.
8 O’Connor, 142
9 Crampton, Frank A., Deep Enough, U of Oklahma Press, Norman, 1993, p103.
10 Crampton, p. 104.
11 O’Connor p. 142.
I2 bid.
13 http//:www.readerly-writerlytexts.com/1prelude.htm.
14 McElrath, Jean Sybil, “The Badger Fight, Aged in Sage, http//:www.readerly-writerlytexts.com/1prelude.htm.
15 O’Connor, p. 143.
16 Goddard, Jesse, personal reminiscence
17 O’Connor, p. 143.
18 Windes, Bill, Growing up in Tempe 1909-1929, typescript, Tempe Public library, nd, p. 52
19 ibid.
20 Reid, Russell, personal reminiscence.
21 Windes, p. 52
22 Swearingin, John, Good Times, Hard Times, Old Times, p. 50-51
23 O’Connor, p.141.
24 American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed.., http//:www.bartleby.com/61/27/so352700.html
25 Zeilinger, Elna Rae Simpson, “Growing up in Tempe for Three Generations,” Benedict, Benedict and James, Memories of Old Settlers of Tempe, pp. 89-90.
26 Morrison, Naomi, typescript in author’s collection.

Forms of entertainment in early Tempe were similar to those that were enjoyed in small towns and rural areas across the western United States. Most of these antics would not be socially or politically correct today. They featured an unsuspecting victim of some prank who became subject to ridicule. The victim was usually a newcomer tenderfoot who was not knowledgeable about the ways of the West.

One of the most common ways to initiate the tenderfoot was the Snipe Hunt, which is still around today. “In the snipe hunt, a tenderfoot is told that when snipe are disturbed at night, they will fly toward a light.” There is usually “a ridiculous way of catching it – such as running around the woods carrying, a bag or making strange noises.” A common method of “catching a snipe,” used in the Tempe area, was for the newcomer to hold a bag behind a lantern and sometimes to bang two rocks together. After positioning the snipe catcher, those in on the joke would disappear into the darkness to “drive the snipe towards the victim.” The ones “taking him [the victim] on the hunt tell him [they are] going to move away and try and run the snipes towards the boy, so he can fill his sack full , and be deemed a successful hunter. Needless to say, after making a few calls", they disappear, leaving the boy alone in the woods with only his sack, sounds of the woods, and a very vivid imagination!” The veteran snipe hunters then return to camp and await the return of the unsuccessful snipe hunter. “When he decides he has been taken, the tenderfoot finds his way back as well as he can. It is from the classic snipe hunt that the Western expression ‘holding the bag’ originated.”

A “sport” usually left to grownups was the badger fight. “In a badger fight [a dude or] tenderfoot is conned into pulling a string which will open a box and bring out a badger to engage in battle with a dog.” The tenderfoot is usually “set up” by tales of how fierce badgers are and how dangerous it is to catch one. A group sent out to capture a badger tells “[t]all tales…of how close the [captors] had been to being clawed and bitten in making the capture.” People in earshot of the tenderfoot begin talking about the upcoming fight and how it will be an event that nobody would want to miss. Over the next several days, excitement is built for the big event. On the appointed day the stage would be set. “[T]he cage with the badger in it was at one end of the battle area… Men stood on either side, dogs held by chains…straining at their leashes and barking at they knew not what.” The tenderfoot will be conned into pulling a cord which will open a box and allow a badger to come out to engage in battle with a dog. “He is selected because he is neither pro-badger nor pro-dog and hence will not pull out the badger at a moment that will be disadvantageous to either contestant.” To further the illusion of danger, the tenderfoot is told to “roll up the legs of his trousers before he pulls the badger out so that he will not get them covered with blood.” Sometimes, stovepipes are put on the legs of the tenderfoot for “added protection.” A dog is brought to within a few feet of the box. The tenderfoot is instructed to grasp the rope tightly and when the signal is given to pull hard to drag the badger from the box. Often, there is resistance to the pull, and the tenderfoot is told to yank harder because the “badger must be digging in with those powerful claws.” Often two or three armed men will be stationed near the box “just in case.” “The signal is given and the tenderfoot yanks the cord expecting to see a ferocious badger come squealing out and hurl itself at the dog.” The resistance of the rope suddenly slackens, the tenderfoot often falls on his back. But instead of a fierce badger attacking him, “out comes a chamber pot or bed pan, usually full. If the jokers are kind, the contents are merely ground up crackers and water, rather than the authentic contents. “All the spectators howl with laughter, and the drinks are on the dude.”

Entertainment strictly for grown-ups was the Ruth Party. “The parties would be held at an abandoned farm house near Tempe….” As usual, the victim would be a tenderfoot or newcomer. The boys would tell him of a girl named Ruth who was very free with her favors. It would just happen that her husband (or father) was supposed to be out of town and the girl was home alone. One of the boys would offer to take the tenderfoot to see Ruth that night. “All of the boys who were invited to the party would hide out around the house while one of them armed with a shotgun or pistol would hide near the front door or just inside the house. When the two young men came to the house and knocked at the front door, the outraged ‘father’ [or ‘husband’] would come rushing out of the house yelling, ‘so you're the young punks who have been taking advantage of my daughter [or wife]!,’ …and fire off his gun. The ‘in’ boy would fall down screaming ‘I'm shot, run for your life!’” The victim would usually take off as fast as he could run. Often he would run into trees, get hung up on barbed-wire fences, or fall into irrigation ditches. On occasion, the victim would run to his car and leave the area entirely. One “young man started to flee to California after the ‘party’ when someone phoned a police authority in a west valley town where the boy was intercepted, filled in on the trick and turned around. George Gomez, a young Tempe auto mechanic, was [another] victim. When the shooting started, George ran out to his parked car, jumped in and tore off down the road at such high speed that he collided with another car.” In Florence, the sheriff finally put a stop to Ruth parties because of the car wrecks they had caused. Of course, all of the witnesses in hiding would have a big laugh and it would be the talk of the town until the next prank.

Newlyweds were the subject of pranks even if they were not newcomers. “When a young couple got married it was routine for his friends to to kidnap the groom and bride. It was considered wildly funny to to take the groom’s shoes away from him and put him down in the desert to make it back to his anxious bride as best as he could.” A more common prank was to Chivaree (one of many spellings) a young couple. The newlywed’s house is “mobbed by…the people of the town, vociferating and shouting with loud acclaim….[A]ll have some kind of discordant and noisy music, such as old kettles, and shovels and tongs.” Usually the groom would be subject to some sort of indignity, such as being wheeled around in a wheelbarrow, held prisoner somewhere, or having various body parts painted. Newlyweds would go to great lengths to avoid a chivaree. When Ed Simpson married Ruby Laird, “Ed overheard someone telling about plans to ‘arrest’ him as soon as the wedding reception was in “full swing.”… “They planned to keep Ed in jail a few hours and take him back to Ruby’s place and ‘Chivaree’ the place all night..” “To stop this from happening, Ruby and Ed sneaked out of the house as soon as they were wed and hid in the ‘rumble seat’ of Bertha Hasset’s car.” “Bertha…was to drive them to Wickenburg.” “Because of the rumble seat, their clothing became wrinkled and dirty. The first thing Ed had to do when the newlyweds arrived in Wickenburg was to buy new clothes for his bride and himself.”

Most of these entertainments are now a thing of the past. Perhaps, the movies, radio and television have had a civilizing influence on Tempe. However, it is more likely that in our modern world, the snipe hunters would be arrested for child abuse, the badger fight organizers would be ticketed by the health officials for pollution, the Ruth party organizers would be arrested for discharging a firearm in the city, and the perpetrators of a Chivaree would be shot by the groom.

Sometimes a Chivaree could be more sociable. When Herbert and Grace Reid, who lived in the rock house at what now is the Phoenix Zoo, returned from their honeymoon in Prescott, “they were Chivareed the first night back. The townspeople “got together with pots, pans, skillets, etc., waited until the lights went out and ran around the house yelling and hollering and singing until the newlyweds came out and invited them into the house. The ones throwing the chivaree had brought food

Before Movies, Radio, TV, or the Internet

Tempe Entertainment

Notes

and drink and a party was in order.” Although it was more of a social event than rowdy chivaree, the bride, being from the Midwest and knowing nothing of chivarees was appalled by the crassness of the west.

Another was to initiate the newcomer was the “strongest person in town.” One of the larger boys would state that he could lift three men. After the newcomer expressed doubts, a demonstration was arranged. He was told to lie on the ground and two of the other boys would then lie on either side of him. The three would then link arms and legs supposedly to enable the strong man to lift all three at once. Actually, the newcomer was held securely to the ground and various indignities would be inflicted on his, such as pulling his pants off, painting parts of his body or putting axle grease into his hair. Sometimes the initiation would backfire. Ken Wells, longtime Tempe resident relates that “on one such occasion I was on the left when the ‘new guy’ became so infuriated he took a bite out of my right arm. I still have a scar where his teeth drew blood.”

Sometimes the tables are turned. “When I was a Tenderfoot Boy Scout, our troop had a campout at Bartlett Lake. The featured event of the first night was a snipe hunt. The new scouts, David and I, would have the ‘honor’ of catching the birds. However, being from a small town in Arizona, I was well aware of what a snipe hunt was, and when the other scouts left David and me in the woods I informed him about snipe hunts. We left our sacks and flashlights and hurried back to camp, avoiding the experienced scouts who were in the bushes making ‘snipe’ sounds. When they returned to camp, David and I were comfortably sitting on a log awaiting their return. Our status as campers rose greatly that night,”

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