ABSTRACT
Presumably of French origin, with written references dating back to the 1400s, quoits involved tossing flat rings of iron or rope to encircle a stake. This popular European pastime reached our shores earlier than 1920–1940 but did not become a fad until then. At first, country people played quoits or, as the game was known to them, “barnyard golf.” It provided a much needed respite between stints of hard labor.
In the old game, according to common belief, the players stepped off a convenient distance in the barnyard, drove pegs, hunted up a pair of old Dobbin's cast-off shoes, and calmly and neighborly tested their skill. The best players curled a sinewy finger around the heel calk of the shoes and pitched a rapid whirling, flat-floating shoe. Ringers were rare, greeted with whoops of joy; arguments over leaners were common causes for dispute, and on a close decision a stick or branch off a tree measured which shoe was the nearer.
