Pitching _Buttons_

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/62720

pitch v The signs of Spring in Heart's content when I was a boy were girls 'skipping rope' and boys "_pitching buttons"_. I feel sure that girls "skip rope" everywhere in the Springtime, but I never have heard about "pitching buttons" except at Heart's Content. Concievably it could have been introduced to Heart's Content by Englishmen who with their families settled in the community as employees of the Anglo-American Telegraph Co after the cable was laid between Ireland and North America in 1866. This is how we played the game: Any number of boys could play, but usually it was restricted to five or six. A stick, about the size of a lead pencil, (over) [reverse] called a _"nag"_ was stuck into the ground and a hole was scuffed with you bout bout 12 or 14 feet away from the "nag". The object of the game was to pitch a button from the hole in the ground so that the button touched the "nag". It was always agreed among the group as to the number of buttons to be pitched. If one button, then you were allowed four tries; if two buttons, three tries; if three buttons, two tries; if four buttons, one try. Four buttons was a maximum. After everybody had pitched, then the person whose button touched the "nag" or the person whose button was neares gathered all the buttons off the ground, and putting them in both hands shook them up and let them fall to the ground. All the buttons that were "face-up" were claimed by him. The person whose button had been next closest to the"nag"then gathered up the remaining buttons and shook them, and tossed them to the ground. The buttons that fell "face up" were now claimed by him. And so each took his turn in the order in which his button had come close to the "nag". Every boy had a _"button-bag"_ which he always carried to school, and as soon as recess or dinner-hour or after-school rolled around groups of boys made for the pitching ground. I remember having hundreds of assorted buttons at one time. The mos prized ones were "brass" soldier buttons, buttons off policemen's uniforms and ...