Know any upholstery games?

[Rich]

Recently, our town office has gotten together with local businesses in my town to organize a business and professional organization to get the word out about what each of us does. Among other things, we will be participating in a local event called Heritage Days. This is an annual event that features old time tractors, farm demonstrations, games for kids, historical exhibits etc. We have been discussing activities that the local businesses could offer, maybe games for kids to promote awareness of our businesses. So, I'm trying to think of what my upholstery shop could do to participate. So far, foam dodgeball and a spring toss are about all I've come up with. Anyone have any creative ideas?
Thanks,
Rich

[sofadoc]

Remember the game called "Barrel of Monkeys", where you would try to pick up as many plastic monkeys as you could by hooking them together? As a kid growing up in an upholstery shop, I would play that game using hog rings.

Or you could play "Running with the scissors", or "Catch a staple between your teeth"............or maybe not.

[Peppy]

It's not really a game but I've been saving all the thick walled cardboard tubes we get cutting them in various lengths and upholstering the ends with scrap vinyl so for to make drums. They actually have pretty good sound and if you make a lot many kids could play at once. Or you could the kids paint/decorate them and take them home.

[gene]

Sword fights with those paper tubes?!?

Hey Mr. Sofadoc: I reported your reply to the moderator for being just a bit too funny. LOL

I have always told my kids, "Never run with scissors or knives in your hand unless they are pointed at someone else and you intend to do serious bodily injury to that person."

Here's an idea based on a really funny comment I had several years ago: Have the kids put a gun belt with two gun holsters on the ground in front of them, including the two guns. You then yell "UP HOLSTER!" The kid who gets his gun holster and guns on, in the correct position, wins a prize. Maybe use real guns and they have to hit a target like those people in the Olympics who ski and then have to stop and shoot targets.

Good luck,

Gene

[sofadoc]

Maybe use real guns and they have to hit a target like those people in the Olympics who ski and then have to stop and shoot targets.

You guys may already know this, but I just recently learned the origin of that olympic event.
In WW2, Alpine skiers would ski down a hill, fire at the Germans, and then quickly ski away.

[Cheryl]

Oh my...   if i had a dollar for every sword fight my boys had when they were little with those cardboard tubes!  Seriously... kids love them!

[Rich]

Well, I can tell by these replies that you folks are from the same childhood era as me. A time when we had fun even if a few bumps and scrapes resulted. Today, everything has to be guaranteed not to cause bruises or hurt feelings, or someon's going to be held liable.
BORING! But I'm sure there's something that can be done. This past weekend my wife and I attended a big Chevelle show and they always have a game planned. One year it was a fan belt toss (try to get it to land around a stake in the ground). Another time it was a piston toss. This time it was a lifter toss (you had to try to get them to land in an oil pan placed on the ground) and they even had a wet T-shirt contest, for the kids! OK, here's how it went. Each participant soaked a T-shirt in a tub of water, then ran to his or her bucket to wring it out. A few dozen trips later, the bucket gets filled and the first one to fill theirs is the winner. These ideas are good for an auto business, but I would like to use upholstery items for my business at this event.
Thanks,
Rich

[byhammerandhand]

Giant slingshot with elastic webbing -- try to land a beanbag nearest the target or in a basket.

Use a compressor to blow something out of a fabric tube bazooka.  Soft ball or something.

Shoot staples into a coffee can from a few feet away (not for the kids).  Best score of 10 or so.

[Rich]

hammerandhand, those are thoughtful! Thanks.
You know what I'm starting to realize? We work with a lot of potentially hazardous stuff!
Rich

[gene]

Ok. I have been motivated to think.

I like the bazooka idea. How about blowing water out of several paper tubes. Then, point the next paper tube so it will blow over the crowd, and out comes... feathers. (A play on the old Harlem Globe Trotters water in a bucket gag.)

Lay down on a bed of decorative tacks.

Make a hole in the back of a club chair so kids can put their head into the hole from behind the chair and have their picture taken from the front of the chair. You know those plywood posters of people that you can put your head in and it looks like you are a knight or a hillbilly or a dancer? This would make it look like the kids head is part of the chair. If it's a small chair have holes so their arms and hands can go through it also.

Kids can sit in a swivel chair and you spin it around so many times. Then they have to get up and walk a straight line to win a prize.

How many tacks can you put in your mouth before you swallow one?

Fake cotton candy. Use synthetic cotton. Shred it up and put spray glue on a stick. Let the kids swirl the stick around in a big box of the shredded cotton. Add spray paint to make different colors. It will last forever and it won't rot out the kids teeth.

Use the paper tubes to have a didgeridoo contest. Cut the tubes to different lengths to make different tones.

Connect a bunch of paper tubes together to make one really long tube. Make 4 or 5 really long tubes like this. Put a mouse in each end of each really long tube. Have a piece of cheese at the other end of the really long tubes. The mouse that gets to the other end of their tube first, wins. Make sure you put little vests on each mouse with a number so everyone knows exactly who wins. Keep an eye out for cats and hawks.

Enough already!

It sounds like a fun time, no matter what you do.

Gene

[skegfish]

My wifes favorite game is " lets' find the sissors!".

How about the old cutting out of the multiple dolls, 5 folds, draw the figure and cut out, presto... multiples!

Or the old one cut star! Jeffin PA

[Mike8560]

My wifes favorite game is " lets' find the sissors!".

I play that game but my fav in " wheres my dam Tape measure?"

[Rich]

Well, as long as we're goofing around, my favorite is "how long will I keep stiching before I realize my bobbin ran out?"
Rich

[vu]

I would invent a kit with upholstery materials, which can be assembled using rather simple hardware into a toy or something useful for kids. Time them who can make it faster, use it in a game after it is done. Maybe easier said then done, but you are upholstery shop and kids should get a feel of it. It is interesting what you will come up with. Let us know.

[206RB]

Tack spitting contest! Now that's old school.
Hog ring spitting would be another.