davintosh

Apparently this game goes by many names — Blongo-Ball, BoloToss, Cowboy Golf, Redneck Golf, Hillbilly Golf, Hillbilly Horseshoes, The Snake Game, Snake Toss, Ladder Ball, Ladder Golf, Slither, Snakes & Ladders, Flingy Ball, Norwegian Golf, Swedish Golf, Polish Horshoes, Bolo Ball, Montana Golf, Australian Horseshoes, Ladder Game, Monkey Balls, Monkey Bar Golf, Rattlerail Toss, Spin It, Golfball Horseshoes, Arizona Golf Balls, & Ball Dangle… We learned about it in 2003 while on vacation in Michigan. A retired guy at Gunn Lake had built one and was playing outside Rick & Heather’s cabin. He called it Hillbilly Horseshoes, and that’s what it is for our family.

Update: We went to make another set of Hillbilly Horseshoes racks for Grandma & Grandpa last Saturday using the instruction sheet I had made, and in the process discovered a couple of glitches in the measurements and in the parts list. I had originally specified about half the pipe that was needed — less than enough to make one rack! So, I updated the instruction sheet, and am taking the opportunity to bump this post back to the top of the stack. Click on the icon below to download the plans.

It’s horribly simple to build and play; basically two “ladders” made from PVC pipe and fittings, plus six game pieces made from two golf balls each strung together with about a 1-foot length of rope. The ladders are placed about this far apart (yeah, exactly that far!) and the players stand together & take turns tossing their balls toward the far ladder, trying to hang them on one of the rungs. An underhand toss seems to work best. Caleb has tried overhand, and it usually ends up in the neighbor’s garage roof gutter.

Different sites that talk about this game have different scoring rules, but this is what works for us; hanging one on the top rung is worth one point, on the bottom is worth two points, and three in the middle. In our experience, hanging it on the middle rung is the most difficult, so that’s worth more. If you hang one on a rung and your opponent knocks it off, too bad for you.

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One of the things that always amazes me is how good food in advertisements can look. When I worked at CCL, we did a lot of labels for food products, and it seemed like those jobs only came up just before lunch (at least the more memorable ones did!) Always made me hungry(er!)

But another thing that produces a similar amazement is when you go to a fast food restaurant and order the food you’ve seen in the ads, and how little resemblance it bears to what you’ve seen advertised. The image above shows a Big Mac from a McDonald’s ad compared to a real one from a real McDonald’s. Well, turns out I’m not the only one noticing the discrepancy; Jeff Kay of the West Virginia Surf Report* has a page chronicling that phenomenon here. Keep up the great work, Jeff (and thanks for the photos!)
* hey, wait a minute; wouldn’t that be the same as the South Dakota Surf Report? Where do you surf in WV?

One exception that I can recall was a Big Mac that I purchased at a McDonald’s in York, UK, when visiting there in 1984. I remember being dumbfounded that the thing was so perfect; both all-beef patties visible from the side, a little bit of special sauce dribbling down the patties onto the bun, a proper amount of lettuce beneath the patties, the cheese slices readily visible; all melty and delicious looking, a pickle or two & some onion sticking out from the perfectly toasted sesame seed bun… It was truly a work of art. I concluded that that was where they did all the photo shoots for their advertising.