Week Twenty-Two: Treasure Hunt Party

Of all the parties that Cokesbury would have us throw, this may be the one that has lasted the test of time. But we probably don’t have the gosh-golly feeling Cokesbury does about some of the technology that makes a Treasure Hunt Party so fun to do, unless, of course, there’s an app for that.

Best hear it from Cokesbury:

In the days of the automobiles when it is a small matter to go places, a treasure hunt will be a good idea for an evening of fun. Let the treasure be a large box of candy, or the refreshments for the evening, or a handsome prize. Guests should be sent all over the city and even out in the country searching for it.

Of course, we’re not talking about some Anglo-Saxon gold hoard or something like that. If, in fact, the treasure is the refreshments for the evening, your guests will have to settle for a box of sandwiches and cocoa, or sandwiches and coffee – just go wild here for a moment – rather than 11 pounds of Latin-inscribed gold.

No invitation with this party, for some reason. But a lot of variations. You can have a map treasure hunt, in which searchers are provided a map “showing certain points to be visited and certain insructions on how to look for the treasure at each point.” Or you can have a letter hunt, in which a letter is read “giving full instructions as to where to look for the treasure and how it is likely to be found.” Or you can drip-drip the clues out one at a time, doling them out as each destination is reached.

Or – and this is the way I’d do it – go the Smiler Grogan Way, viz (fast-forward to 4:20 for the start of the film. It’s a great intro, but very, very long):

Yes, there’d be no better way to start off your treasure hunt than with the death of a mysterious, proboscisally-endowed old gentleman, especially if you’ve got friends who can mimic Phil Silvers or Buddy Hackett. (My introduction to this movie is something again I owe to Mr. Loertscher.)

But I digress. Once the treasure hunt is over – yes, it isn’t yet the highlight of the evening, and should be planned to it takes an hour and a half or less to complete – the guests are to reunite at your home or licking their lips under the Big Dubya for further entertainment, and the refreshments, that is if the finders actually remembered to dig them up and bring them with them.

So you’re done with the treasure hunt. Now do it again in miniature:

Hidden objects. Have objects hidden about the room and give to each guest a slip of paper on which is written some object that they are to find whenever the leader’s whistle is blown. These objects might be, for example, a spool of thread, a needle, a spoon, a pipe, a match, etc. No one must give information to anyone else, and anyone caught giving this information should be required to pay a forfeit.

Better yet, test the acuity of your guests as treasure hunters:

Are You A Good Treasure Hunter? Sense of Smell. Try out different individuals, blindfolded, to see who can name the largest number of a group of articles by the sense of smell. Use Vick’s Salve, an onion, limburger cheese, castor oil, smoking tobacco, etc.

Guests should, of course, make sure their onions are tied to their belts, which was the style at the time. There are other tests for hearing and sight, but the best one is this:

Can You See in the Dark? Blindfold about four or five persons for this stunt. Before they are blindfolded objects are placed on the floor, and they look at them. They are then told that after they are blindfolded they must walk the length of the room without stepping on any of the objects. When all have been blindfolded they must walk the length of the room without stepping on any of the objects. When all have been blindfolded and placed in position to walk one behind the other, noiselessly remove the objects from the floor. It will be amusing to see them trying to avoid these objects.

Especially if one of the objects was a baby and you lave a doll out on the floor and when a person steps on the doll, somebody pinches the baby and . . . oh, wait. This is supposed to be a fun party. Forget I said anything.

Now it’s on to refreshments. Pick the dirt, worms and pillbugs out of the buried box of foodstuffs and have at it. But be prepared, sinners, for the next Cokesbury party which is sure to bring about Armageddon, or at least an evening of tiresome arguments between the enraptured and the atheists. Behold the clouds parteth to reveal the Cokesbury Bible Party. Hope nobody turns into a pillar of salt . . .