Remember, once
upon a time, when we all knew how to play? I’m not talking about children
playing, that’s a whole other post! I’m talking about us. The adults in the
room. How long has it been since you laughed and played? It hasn’t been too
long for me. My grandchildren were here recently and we played games. I love to play Apples to Apples with them. It’s a
fun game with not a lot of competition and a lot of laughter.
I’ve always
enjoyed playing games. I remember the time when my sister and I kept a game of Monopoly going all summer. We changed
the rules a little and borrowed money every time we went broke. This past week, when it was so hot outside, I decided to
drag out my games. There was a problem though. I had no one to play the games with. Mr. H only likes to play Checkers and he beats me every time, so that’s no fun for me! I’m not a sore loser, I just would like to
win every now and then! I spent seven days playing with games. Notice I said
WITH games. I’ve been photographing them. To me, that’s play! Now, a little about that game Mr. H beats me
at, Checkers. The board game called “Checkers” in North America and “Draughts” in Europe is one of the
oldest games known to man. Evidence of Checker games have been found in
Egyptian burial chambers.
The curious
side of me wanted to know more about the games I played with, so off to Google I
went. I found
plenty of information. For instance, did you know that there are at least
twelve games that are still popular today, but that were invented over 50 years
ago? Here’s the list: Risk, Candyland,
Clue, Chutes & Ladders, Scrabble, Sorry, Stratego, Monopoly, Chinese
Checkers, Life, Chess, and Checkers. I have nine of these in my game
cabinet. I don’t have Risk, Stratego,
or a Chess game, but I have played
them. They require a little too much thinking for them to be fun to me!
My Chinese Checker
game is from my childhood. Chinese Checkers was invented in Germany in 1892. The name Chinese Checkers originated in the
United States as a marketing scheme by Bill and Jack Pressman in 1928. It has
always been my favorite game. Not only do I love marbles, but I love the sound of them hitting the metal as you jump across the board.
Digging
around in my sash of games I found our Clue
game. Clue was invented by Anthony E. Pratt in 1944. Pratt came up with
the idea during the Second World War. He once said “Between the wars all the
bright young things would congregate in each other’s homes for parties at
weekends. We’d play a stupid game called Murder,
where guests crept up on each other in corridors and the victim would shriek
and fall on the floor.” He missed playing parlor games and attending parties
during the blackouts and decided to create a board game of his favorite parlor
game, Murder.
I’m
embarrassed to say that I never wondered who was murdered. I guess I never read
the directions, my mom probably taught us how to play. I went to the directions
and there was my answer. “Mr. Boddy – apparently
the victim of foul play – is found in one of the rooms of his mansion.” Did you
know it was a Mr. Boddy that was murdered? Millions of times the mystery of who,
what, and where has been solved, but nobody knows why the unfortunate Mr. Boddy
was killed in his mansion.
I
think I’ll stop this post now. I’ve shown you three of the seven games I played
with. I’ll be back next week with the
rest of them. If I put them all in this post, it would be way too long. In the
meantime, take a little time to play and laugh!
"A good laugh is sunshine in a house."
~ Thackeray
Monopoly, Clue and Chinese checkers- all three were my childhood favorites, and I have two of those in the back of my closet right now. There are also several card games that I have enjoyed over the years- from solitaire to slap jack. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteSummers were so hot where I grew up that we spent many hours lying on the floor under the cooler vent playing games. (Do you know what a swamp cooler is? That's what we had.) We played card games mostly, but one of my favorites was a board game called Dai Jobe that I've never seen since. Uncle Wiggly was another favorite. The folks preferred Scrabble, and occasionally I was invited to play. Sometimes I even won! That was pretty heady stuff for a 12 or 13 year old! The strange thing is that I no longer care for games at all. I'd much rather read a book, but maybe that's because I no longer have anyone to play with so I'm out of the habit.
ReplyDeleteI sure enjoyed reading your blog. I have always liked games and I do remember playing monopoly all summer. My kids out grew games and I was so sad. I also enjoyed the presentation of the photos.
ReplyDeletei LOVE board games!!! we have that checkers, from cracker barrel. monopoly has always been one of my favorite, we've had some real family feuds over that game!! your captures are really amazing!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet little project! And the photos are wonderful. My son-in-law is a game board fanatic. Every holiday when we're together, board games come out. In fact, he's taking my daughter and granddaughter to a board game convention next weekend. Whoever heard of such a thing?
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see the games you have enjoyed in the past and the ones that you like to still play with your grandsons. The game of 'checkers' is indeed called 'draughts' in Britain, but in other European countries they have their own names. In France for example it's called 'Le jeu de Dames' (which means 'the ladies' game!)
ReplyDeleteI've never been a huge fan of board games, but I remember liking 'Snakes and Ladders'and Yahtzee and UNO. I also like guessing games with mimes or clues!
Thanks for the memory back to when I was younger. I remember when we had a cabin in the mountains while the kids were little and such fun times where had when we would have friends over on a snowy night and sit around the table having fun with the kids and a game. Simple times somewhat lost that need to be brought back. We did play a game on the 4th of July this year after dinner and waiting for the fireworks to begin. That always brings for a good time. I had to look up Apple to Apples and that will be on my Christmas list for the grands. :)
ReplyDeleteThis post brought back so many memories, Cathy. I was and still am an avid game player. I think I spent a whole summer playing Clue. Now I enjoy playing games with my grandkids, it makes me feel so young! There are some fun adult games too....have you have played fictionary? Some one finds an obscure word in the dictionary and everyone writes a definition for it. Then then definitions are read and voted on, and you get points for every person who votes for your made-up definition of the word. One of the definitions is the correct one, of course, but many of them sound credible. Great fun! Thanks so much for this enjoyable post!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! I loved playing games as a kid, Monopoly being the best on rainy afternoons, or snowy Sunday afternoons. Occasionally we get Scrabble out and play that for a while. Usually though we stick to Rummy or Yahtzee.
ReplyDeleteWell that was fun. I've never played Chess before (to complicated for me) but have played Checkers, The Chinese Checkers, and Sorry. You didn't mention Yahtzee which I find fun to play.
ReplyDelete