Childhood Games

I spotted this a few weekends ago in Ellicott City, and it made me grin. Creativity and recycling packaged together...who could ask for more?

Aimee asked us to think about childhood games. Ahem, Aimee, a 60 year old brain has to think wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy  back for this one. In fact, this 60 year old brain partnered up with google to jump start some memories. After quite a bit of rooting about in these brain cells, I came up with:

Old Maid: We played this for hours and I can picture Denise, mom, and I sitting on the floor in a circle playing this one. No one wanted to end up with that Old Maid! I can still see her with a black hat perched on white hair, a pair of black glasses, white belt, and blue jacket. Now, please tell me why it is that I can see her so clearly when I had to google games from the 50s and 60s? So not politically correct today, but much fun, none the less!

Chinese Checkers: I loved this game with all of its multicolored little marbles. It seemed quite exotic to me, and I know that I thought it really was Chinese. So foreign and exciting. I felt quite the woman of the world. Truth be told, I just loved the colors and the noise they made rolling around in the game tin.

Rummy/Gin: 4 kids + a job as a milkman = not much disposable income. In hindsight, I think we might well have been classified as "poor" or nearly so. We never felt it, though. Cards didn't cost much and they proved quite versatile with all that you could do with them, including building a house of cards, a good old fashioned game of "War,"  and a bit later, learning to play solitare.

Scrabble: Honestly, I remember my parents playing this more than I did. Dad always won. Always. Here's what mom didn't know for a very long time. Dad had learned to glance away and then look back at the tiles. The grain on the dreaded x and q varied a bit from the other letters; dad could tell them apart, so he never ended up with them. With each loss, mom muttered some words that I generally didn't hear otherwise. Fast forward years later...Phil's brother, Mike, gave us this game for our first anniversary. It nearly led to divorce court and to this day, we refuse to play this game together. Let's just say we interpret the rules VERY differently.

Monopoly: Once we got past the arguing over who got what piece, we loved this game. Of course, we didn't play by the "official rules," but since we all agreed to the variations of those rules, it didn't much matter. For some reason, I loved the railroads. The lure of travel? Who knows, but I made it my mission to acquire them. Utilities ran a close second. Denise played smarter; she went after "Boardwalk." Guess who won more?

Googling this did reassure me that I didn't completely fail the memory game. Turns out that kids in the 50s made their own fun more than playing store bought games. Thanks, google...appreciate it!

 

 

Comments

[seabluelee]

This took me back. We used to spend hours during the summer playing card and board games, because it was too hot to go outside until after the sun went down. Favorite card games were Buffalo Rummy and Seven Up, neither of which I can recall much about. My favorite board game was Dai Jobi. I remember that one so well that I could make one if I wanted to. Good memories!

[San Antonio Maid Service]

Wonderful conversation. I loved reading this, it just brings me back to my childhood.