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Carnival Games

By Capper's Staff
Published on March 27, 2013

I will try to describe some of the events such as booths for chance and cake walks. Chance was a major attraction at the carnivals. Children would set up booths and people would try their luck, just as they do today. Some of the prizes given away were odd dishes, small boxes of kleenex and other small objects that people didn’t need anymore. They would have lipstick, pins and beads, handkerchiefs, powder and balloons.

Cake walks were another attraction. People brought cakes and they would be given away by playing a game. The people participating would then stand on or behind the numbers. When the music began, the people began walking around the numbers. When the music stopped, all the people stopped walking and the person standing on or behind the number of the cake would win the cake.

Georgia Callen
Amazonia, Missouri


Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then Capper’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.