Richmond Press, Inc.                          Richmond, VA                          1938

Plugging Buttons

There were several games that the old-time boys played with buttons. In the first place, we pitched them at a tack, just as we did when pitching cents. only there was no whirling by the nearest for heads or tails, but the one whose button was nearest the tack took all. We still see boys pitching cents, but pitching buttons seems to be a lost game.

Then, oh, then! There was the delightful game of plugging buttons! This was played with tops. A three-cornered ring was drawn in the dirt, where there was a smooth place, and each boy would put in a button. Then, at a signal, each boy would begin plugging, there being no limit to the times he might plug, without regard to whether his opponent was ready, or not. And, as soon as both buttons were plugged out of the ring, a new round was started.

Sometimes you might see a boy with a double handful of buttons of all makes and descriptions, for nothing was barred that had even the appearance of a button; and so metal, glass, china, pearl, or what not, they were all gambled for. There was a building in Manchester, down in the region alled Baconsville, near the end of Mayo's Bridge, from which boys would bring, from time to time, quaint old wooden buttons, darkened with age, which had been manufactured during the Confederate War. And these were held to be just as fair as the most expensive and orate.

Sometimes a little gambler would go broke; and, like all desperate players, would cut a button from his coat, then another, and so on, until he had no more to put up; and so would go home to be whipped by his mother, without a single button left on coat, vest or pants.