Acorn Men...
By Darkwing
@Darkwing (21583)
May 26, 2007 10:50pm CST
It's ok... I've only gone back to my childhood. lol.
Do you remember in the Autumn, when the acorns were freshly fallen, we used to go collect some and make a whole family of acorn people. Well, I did anyway... please, somebody else remember making them.:-)
I'd take an acorn in its cup, twist the stem off the top, and use that for the man's head. Then, I'd ask my Mum for a few peppercorns and use two of these for his eyes, making two holes first and then pushing he peppercorns in. Then, I'd use a peppercorn for his nose and just use a pencil to cut a mouth shape. Then, I had to cadge Dad's used matchsticks. He'd take the ends off of them, because they were dirty and tasted of singed sulphur, lol. I'd break one of these in half and insert it in the bottom of the head, for a neck. Then, I'd take a larger acorn and push it onto the other end of the matchstick, making a body. Next came the boots. These were made by cutting an acorn in half, but when i was really young, Dad used to do this part. The flat part was placed downwards and one whole matchstick pushed in the top of each, toward the back. Then, the other ends of the two matchsticks were pushed into the bottom of the body and voila, we had legs and boots. Two more matchsticks were pushed into the sides of the body to make arms.
The matchstick men could be balanced and stood up, as the flat parts of the acorns used, were strong enough to take the man. If you really wanted to go the whole hog, you could bind a couple of oak leaves around them to make a cloak.
That was something else I amused myself with for ages. lol. At times, there was a whole army of them marching along the windowsill.
Did you ever make acorn men, women, or children?
5 people like this
7 responses
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
27 May 07
Welllllllll I didn't make Men out of them but I did collect them and for a reason to
When my Brother used to be horrible to me I used to get some elastic and ping them at him, hehehe
He is younger then me but believe me he had one evil streak in him and I always got the blame for everything
The only thing was though I went to shoot one at him once and my Mother got in the way and yes you guessed right it got her and she spotted me and I could not sit down after she had finished with me
Of course the little Git was laughing
@Darkwing (21583)
•
27 May 07
These things have a habit of coming back to you, Gabs. lol. I had to chuckle though... I think you were a little bit of a minx even back then! Who else would have thought of firing acorns with a piece of elastic?
Sounds like good fun, actually... I'll have to try that on unsuspecting passers by who've upset me! he he
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
27 May 07
When I was a little girl I lived in Nebraska. We didn’t have oak trees. But I would visit my grandparents often. My great grandmother lived with them. She and I were pretty good companions then. Grandma always had some pretty flowers growing around her yard with a lot of hollyhocks among them. My great grandmother taught me how to make princess dolls from the blossoms and the buds. We would use twig stuck in the bud bottom then attach it to the bottom of the blossom then turn them over and we would have a princess. If my cousins were there we would have whole court.. Grandma also taught us how to make jewelry from the stems of dandelions. When we found the dandelions that had gone to seed we would blow then and make wishes if we could blow all the seeds off the head.. This was back before it was a bad thing to have them in the yard.
@mummymo (23706)
•
28 May 07
Darkwing honey I find this fascinating - I am sorry to say I never made Acorn men, women or children, in fact I have never heard of them before! It sounds like you had a fantastic time making these when you were younger and I wish I had had a chance to make them! If I am fit in the autumn I will certainly try and do this with the kids - Niamh in particular would love this and be in her element! xxxx
@Darkwing (21583)
•
17 Jul 07
Yes, I'm sure Niamh would enjoy it. You can make little cloaks for them from oak leaves, too... and how about a crown for the cloaked ones, to make them into princes, kings, queens, and princesses? I'm sure a little piece of gold paper could make many crowns! :)
Brightest Blessings and enjoy! xxx
1 person likes this
@Perspectives (7131)
• Canada
17 Jul 07
I think it fun to go back to childhood...as often as possible. I try to live by two inner child mottos...You are only young once..but you can be a kid forever and...growing old is mandatory...growing up optional.
I don't recall making acorn men quite that way...and I thank you for offering how to do it. Maybe you can kick-start something...having a wide variety of Mylotters making acorn people marking along...whereever.
Your directions have been cut and pasted because even though my hubby and are a 'kid-less couple' we believe it takes a village to raise a child. We've been involved with the Big Brother/Sister organization and mentored two sets of 'littles.' I love to have new things to do with them...and this will be a fun project.
Thanks...from one big kid to another!
@Perspectives (7131)
• Canada
17 Jul 07
Blessings to you, your family and all members of your acorn family!
@3lilangels (4639)
• United States
12 Aug 07
when i was a kid we enjoyed making acron place mats.we use to glue acrons to a small card and tuck little pieces of flowers around them,and then glue it on the left side,and on the right side we use to put family names or friends name,and then we put them next to their place setting at the tabel.this was real fun to do.my mom tought us how.
@cloudwatcher (6861)
• Australia
12 Aug 07
The only thing I remember (of that kind) from childhood was making daisy chains. I don't recall any acorns around at the time.
Over here, gum nuts of various sorts and sizes are used in much the same way. I have a key hanger made by one of my boys, that was made with gum nut decorations, with little gum nut men in the corners. I have a mounted branch of very large gum nuts on my shelf in the lounge room. These I bought when visiting Wave Rock in Western Australia. That shop had a lot of ornamented ones for sale.
