Deceased female relatives

[skybytch 259]

Anybody remember, played, know details about the beginnings of the Deceased Female Relatives "game"?

I've been an Antmaster in the past... but I've only ever played it at the dz I grew up at.

[chuteless 1]

You mean you played "Dead Ants"


Thats something.

Bill Cole D-41

[skybytch 259]

Quote

You mean you played "Dead Ants"

You're an Antmaster? Ack!



"I'm an ant, I'm an ant, I'm a dirty dead ant!"

Was always great fun to be the Antmaster and say the words with a bunch of jumpers in a crowded restaurant.

[chuteless 1]

Mike Swain's book the Endless Fall tells about playing Dead Ants. We did so near Cleveland Ohio, broken glass all over the place, everyone lying in it, beer spilled (and my milk) .. scared the daylights out of the normal folks.

No one said all those words....but they sure heard "DEAD ANTS" just before pandamonium broke loose.

Bill Cole D-41

[jerry81 10]

Okay old-timers, share it with us. I can't quite figure it out- is this like a game where an 'antmaster' says a magic word and everyone else has to perform some kind of trick or are you just having a collective acid flashback?

---

[chuteless 1]

Antmaster: This is a "game" that takes place in a bar..(of course). There is the appointed Antmaster, and everyone is sitting, minding their own business, drinking their suds, and without any warning the Antmaster hollers at the top of his voice

"Dead Ants" and instantly everyone dives for the floor, lying on their back, with all fours up in the air. and you must be motionless...you are dead.

Drinks fly in every direction, glasses are broken and you end up lying in he shards, but cannot move...you are a dead ant.

The last person to become a dead ant, has to buy the next round of drinks, and he becomes the antmaster, and can holler "dead Ants" at anytime he chooses, and the whole action is repeated, often without having the broken glass swept up.

Sometimes its costly for the bar owner...and is sometimes stopped before he has to replenish his supply of drinking glasses.

Cuts and bleeding dont matter, you are a Dead ant....no complaining.

I almost spilled my glass of milk once.

Now there you have it from a guy who has never tasted beer in his life.

One of the best descriptions of the game is in Mike Swain's book, The Endless Fall, and if you all buy it, I may get royalties. LOL

Bill Cole D-41

[jerry81 10]

Hardcore! A friend once taught me a game where every person present in the drinking group has the right to yell "heads up!" once during the evening, meaning everyone has to raise their glasses and pour the contents over their heads, but this is baby stuff compared to these 'ants'.

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[chuteless 1]

have you ever heard of the "Boat Race" game.....4 people on each team.

Each has two beers, starting at one end, each guy downs a beer as fast as he can, and turns the bottle upside down on his head, and then the next guy, and the next, and then the Boat anchor...who has to drink two beers as fast as he can, and then back down the line in the opposite direction.

First team to the end where they started wins...but the anchor usually is throwibng up by that time.

Didqualified if he does.

I cant believe people abuse themselves with acts like this, but Ive seen it done....yuck


The worst thing one can get from dead ants, is a few cuts, and have to buy the next round.

I'll take milk please.

Bill Cole D-41

[Tinkerbelle 5]

What about the one played among jumpers in the bar in which everyone stands in a circle holding hands, at either ends the persons put a folk in an electrical socket, giving the whole circle a circuit jolt! Then one by one people get out 'till there are just 2 brave souls left getting shocked, along with all the shocked onlookers! They play that one at Skydive Dallas!
Fun with beer, friends, and electricity!
Aren't jumpers fun after hours, just can't sit still like normal folks!
Tink

Rehab is for quitters.

[chuteless 1]

certainly you arent suggesting skydivers are normal....or anything close to normal.

I dont know of another sport where participants seem to go bananas after the sporting part is done.

Imagine Tiger Woods and others golfers doing the things skydivers do...not very likely.


somebody has to stay sane in this crazy world...dontcha think???

Bill Cole

[markd_nscr986 0]

Well,some of the kaleidoscope guys had a variant of that....it involved a bare wire extension cord and started with 10+ people.But the fondest (haziest?) memories for me are the hours spent playing "Cardinal Puff"......

Marc SCR 6046 SCS 3004

[airtwardo 6]

A few years ago..

(Notice how all my stories start that way?!)

Someone died because of playing "Dead Ants!"

True Story, though not well 'publicized' for obvious reasons.

A group of Blue Angles were playing dead ants at some bar
following an Air Show performance...
One of them hit the chair pretty hard on the way down...
breaking a few ribs...

Later that week, while doing their normal practice routine
prior to another performance at another site.
Said jet jockey had some internal problems causing him to ball it up...

So be careful kids...don't EVER play Dead Ants and then
jump in your F~18...!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[chuteless 1]

do you know what year that was....or where. I was the first to get to the body of a Blue Angel...I sure hope it wasnt the same one..

Bill Cole

[jonstark 8]

I was the first to get to the body of a Blue Angel...
-------------------------------------------

What do you mean Bill?

[chuteless 1]

I was there when a Blue Angel crashed right in front of where I was. I got to his body...he was face down in the mud, both legs ripped off at the knees. It wasnt a nice thing to find..

It still upsets me...many years later. One of those things from which the pain never leaves within you.

I dont think it was the same Blue Angel crash you spoke of, because I recall something else that happened the night before, so I "dont think" it was the pilot who played Dead Ants.

Bill Cole D-41

[airtwardo 6]

Bill~

It was '99 if I remember the story correctly
The "Blues" had finished a show in the Quad Cities
...post performance party,
and were doing their practice in a southern state,
can't remember which...

I got the story from an "ex" Blue Angel
that I know.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[airtwardo 6]

Quote

What about the one played among jumpers in the bar in which everyone stands in a circle holding hands, at either ends the persons put a folk in an electrical socket, giving the whole circle a circuit jolt! Then one by one people get out 'till there are just 2 brave souls left getting shocked, along with all the shocked onlookers! They play that one at Skydive Dallas!
Fun with beer, friends, and electricity!
Aren't jumpers fun after hours, just can't sit still like normal folks!
Tink

***

"IndegoSky' has a story about that in the
"Scary Stories" Thread....

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[chuteless 1]

Thanks...that wasnt the one I was involved in.

The crash I was at was in 1965 .

This pilot was a very accomplished Piano player, could have played in any great music hall. What a loss ...two great talents, piano and flying.

I can fly, but cant play the piano..wish I could. This guy was great at both.

Bill

[RogerRamjet 0]

Dead Ants was played often at a bar up the road from Z-Hills in the early 70's (I think it was called the Valley Inn). The two most common games I saw in those times were Dead Ants and Cardinal Puff. Cardinal Puff was usually played on the dropzone after jumping was over for the day (a good thing too)...

-----------------------
Roger "Ramjet" Clark
FB# 271, SCR 3245, SCS 1519

[lodestar 0]

That's correct Roger, I can remember walking into that bar on one occasion and seeing everyone laying on the floor....the bar owner was not especially happy about it, seems some of the regulars got knocked over in the process...My memory is dim but I think we were banned from doing it any more due to broken tables and chairs, not to mention all the spilled beer and drinks when everyone hit the floor...
It got so bad that when discussing events surrounding the game we resorted to "Expired pizmeyer" as a safe way to mention the game without getting a major reaction to it.

[crustySCSA69 0]

Quote

What about the one played among jumpers in the bar in which everyone stands in a circle holding hands, at either ends the persons put a folk in an electrical socket, giving the whole circle a circuit jolt! Then one by one people get out 'till there are just 2 brave souls left getting shocked, along with all the shocked onlookers! They play that one at Skydive Dallas!
Fun with beer, friends, and electricity!
Aren't jumpers fun after hours, just can't sit still like normal folks!
Tink

an Electric Star !!!
it was pretty weird how there was just a tingle with about 10-12 in, but as people tracked off, 'electrifying!!'

[Jim_Hooper 3]

The command "Dead Ants!" (like "Hang it!" when attempting Cardinal Puff) was final and irrevokable, and required lightning-fast reactions to avoid buying the next round. I well remember Phil "The Foul" Smith sitting at the bar in the Wolverine, glass at lips, when the words were shouted. His free hand launched him and bar stool backwards, the resulting thud almost as impressive as the coordination required to come to a stop on his back with glass vertical and still full.

To make things more interesting, it was up to the Ant Master to give the order as loudly or softly as he wanted. Saying the two words quietly produced the most interesting effect; those nearest reacted first, followed by an outward ripple of crashing chairs and thudding bodies.

Thus, to ensure that one could refer to the game without others overhearing and taking the words as a command - one couldn't risk noting if they came from the current Ant Master - we always used 'expired pismires' in conversation. Giving the formal order when not the Ant Master was considered the gravest of sins, for which the penance was buying at least two rounds for all those thus inconvenienced.

No Expired Pismires anymore, no Cardinal Puff - what do they do these days - knit? Whether DZ bum or brain surgeon, 'twas all part of the warp and woof of skydiving. Once upon a time.

Hoop (aka Pope James the Lenient)

[airtwardo 6]

We use to frequent the same little bar en mass in Sparta, Il. back in the 70's.

The locals were really cool about the bunch of loony skydivers that would come in every Saturday night and be constantly divin' for the deck...

The regulars from town would gladly buy the required rounds for making the shout-out without being the designated antmaster...made for a cheap drunk on a college budget!


Twardo (aka Pope James the Deviant)

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[patmoore 14]

I watched Phil Smith drop backward at the Wolverine that night. Impressive sight! I had a shorter distance to fall and beat him to the floor. The Wolverine was legendary. I was part of a 17 person streak there one night. The bar owner's sister whom we called Aunt Margaret had driven an ambulance in the first world war. I was one of the sky divers selected as a pallbearer at her funeral.

A young underage jumper walked up to the bar one night and would have gotten away with it if he hadn't asked Aunt Margaret for a "bourbon and scotch".

There was an attached house to the bar and it was there that we watched Apollo 11 land on the moon on an ancient black and white TV. The place certainly brings back memories, especially when I became "Pope Patrick the Minor"

DZGone.com
B-4600, C-3615, D-1814, Gold Wings #326, Diamond Wings #152.

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room!

[lodestar 0]

Thanks for those thoughts Pat, I well remember the Wolverine, and was one of those chosen to be a pall bearer as well, it seems Aunt Margaret requested "six of the biggest skydivers" as pall bearers and so it was that I was chosen.
In normal times I was usually stuck in the loft packing rigs for the next day and usually showed up later at the Wolverine but that was okay since most of the others were six beers to the wind by the time I got there...I always left early though since I had to be alive for the first load the next day and get the students rigged up for first jumps, open the loft and check fuel and oil in the aircraft.
Hoop, I share your sentiments :" No Expired Pismires anymore, no Cardinal Puff - what do they do these days - knit? Whether DZ bum or brain surgeon, 'twas all part of the warp and woof of skydiving. Once upon a time."
Z Hills was a special place in those years and certainly changed my life (better or worse depending) having come down from Jeff's place in Milwaukee and being around for the first few years of it's existence was a memorable time for me. One that I certainly won't forget.