From JSTOR Daily:
Croquet arrived in the U.S. from England during the Civil War. It immediately became hugely popular and was hailed as a genteel, refined activity appropriate for groups of mixed ages and genders. But, as historian Jon Sterngass writes, to some critics it represented a danger to female morality.
Today, we might expect criticism of croquet to run along the lines expressed by Mark Twain, who called the game “ineffably insipid.” But Sterngass writes that many observers were disturbed by the way women shortened their dresses to play more comfortably, and the way young people took the co-ed sport as an opportunity to flirt. One magazine described the game as a “source of slumbering depravity, a veritable Frankenstein monster of recreation” and suggested that “it would be well if the enthusiasm of the clergy and laity were enlisted for suppressing the immoral practice of croquet.”
. . . .
Croquet apparently had the potential to stir up not just lust but also the other deadly sins of anger and envy. Milton Bradley’s patented croquet set came with this advice to beginners: “KEEP YOUR TEMPER, and remember when your turn comes.” The International Herald Tribune reported that a woman testified during a separation hearing that her husband refused to speak to her for days after she questioned whether his ball had really gone through the hoop. The judge responded, “I do not think there is any game which is so liable to put one out of humour as croquet.”
Link to the rest at JSTOR Daily
PG was reminded of an old movie scene about the unseen dangers of certain recreational activities:
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Members of the Algonquin Round Table played ruthless croquet. Harpo Marx discussed it in his autobiography. They played at Alexander Woolcott’s summer home and also in New York.
Ah, PG – what Robert Preston sang of was a FAR greater danger to public morals than croquet!
Those dens of iniquity also sold beer, and gambling over the games was common. Not to mention that eventually the young girls would be convinced to play – which of course involved them leaning over the table!
My mother’s father owned various billiard and snooker halls back when. Mom apparently was a pretty mean snooker player; she made some of her college money taking on the unwise guys in her Dad’s establishments. It didn’t hurt that she was a “stacked” redhead for the distraction factor.
Later, she and her boyfriend, later my father, made even more running booze over the back roads from Nebraska when Prohibition was repealed, but Kansas stayed “dry.”
Dang, do I ever miss her…
It sounds like your mother was a natural entrepreneur, W.