Thursday, January 8, 2009

game on

I recently sorted through some of the junk in our playroom, and look:
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We have a lot of games!
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I've got to say, the board games don’t get all that much action
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But this does:
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As does everyone’s favorite all-time classic passtime: pass the pigs (I guess Moki ate the other pig).
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Some games get more frequent use in ways not suggested in the directions
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My husband plays play this game with the kids, it was a fond memory from childhood that he asked for one birthday, except that he said it was called Carems. Thank you, ebay.
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Bill and I used to be bigger game people before we had kids. We enjoyed games like trivial pursuit, taboo, pictionary, scattergories, and a crazy thing called backwards that should have been more popular. One of the main reasons we had kids was to create our own fierce foursome for team games like these. We were pretty disappointed to find out that they were total amateurs.
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Growing up, we played games. We had this giant cube with games on each side, checkers of both the Chinese and American variety; backgammon, and who knows what else. That thing was cool, I totally want one. We played the classics: the game of life, parcheesi, monopoly, othello, clue, mastermind... my Uncle Brian taught us to play cribbage. My all-time favorite was when the whole family would gather around the kitchen table (a nice oval) and take down the big jar of pennies to play a game called Bonanza. Has anyone else ever heard of this game? I’d better go look it up. I have no recollection of how it was played, except that at some point it included poker. My parents knew how to party. In fact, my parents used to have bridge parties, just like the Bradys must have done. But I digress…. My point was that when my sisters and I were kids, we played a lot of games, surely due in large part to the fact that we were not allowed to turn the tv on during daylight hours.
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Our tv policies are dramatically less restrictive than my parents were, but my kids generally do not choose to veg in front of the tube unless they’re really tired or strung out. They love to play games, they are all-stars. Most of their games involve neither box nor board. When a glorious vacant spot of time opens up before them, one will turn to the other and say: “let’s play the game!” and off they go. The Game varies wildly, but the rules could never be contained by verbiage on the underside of a cardboard box top.
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The game this week is that they are rogue babies stay on the playground after recess has ended. (What kind of school is this?) They either “sissy fight” about everything, or play with their invented characters named “Tooshie and Megalon.” When my parents were here, the game was staged during wartime. My boy was the soldier and my girl was the doctor. At some point, my girl became the 11 year old boy’s 40 year old mother, then one age passed and he returned to find her paralyzed. She was paralyzed for an impressively long time, she thinks she might have died for a while.
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I’m sure that my boy won’t be long for this kind of open ended imaginary play. He happens to be the least competitive poor sport you have ever met in your life, and is thus the general naysayer when the idea of a family game is broached. But he is starting to show more interest in games of strategy.
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By the way, when did Battleship become a piece of crap?
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I see more family game nights in our future, which will be interesting because I flat out refuse to associate with pigs or other game pieces that have been retrieved from the dog’s poo.
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Post script: It took some looking to find the right version, the one we had with Michael Landon on the box and faux velvet chip cozies, but I perservered.
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Behold, Bonanza:
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Post post script: Turns out I didn't have a place for this photo, but did I stage it for naught? I think naught. Hey look, I just noticed that I did it wrong! ..
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A normal person would quit after the glory of Bonanza. Did You think I was normal? Silly goose. I really love backgammon. Especially when it is set up correctly. One time Ellie and I were playing, and in response to our repetitive utterances, my wee boy asked: "Is that game called dang?"

8 comments:

Pickles and Dimes said...

Oh, you have Operation! I wanted that game so bad as a kid.

That new Battleship looks totally lame. I definitely like the old-school version.

My favorite games as a kid were Husker Du and Aggravation. Ahh. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Dang!

Love thinking about all the games, Jacquie, especially Bonanza. And playing backgammon on Christmas in your driveway (Dang!). And cribbage.

Mistah is anti-game, the bastard. Although sometimes I can get him to play Trivial Pursuit with me, when we're camping, if I do everything except answer his questions. And, of course, Pass the Pigs, which you guys so generously donated to the Westy's gameroom. Before Moki was around to eat the piggies and poop them out.

Blech.

Ellie

Rita said...

You do have a good game stash! We are big game players here. Everyone gets in on Yahtzee, and we play Tripoly (cards, I know). Mike got me Booby Trap on Ebay for Christmas a while back, it's no longer available on the shelves. But, our game as of late has been Carcassonne.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

Me, I'm not much of a gamer. However, I did grow up playing endless games of Sorry! and Clue, and I also played a mean game of Hearts by the time I was 9, thanks to rainy afternoons spent at the Wells College Boathouse.

If forced to play games today, I like games that you can play while still drinking and being social, you know, games in which you don't have to strategize (how the hell do you spell this word?!?) too much, like Apples to Apples, or Taboo, or the like.

Kathi D said...

We were a big game-playing family. My dad was a real card shark, and he never believed in "letting kids win" so we got schooled big time. We loved Monopoly, although we were all so competitive that the board got upturned a couple of times by a sore loser. We also had The Game of Life and we never did figure out how to win or lose it.

Rick and I love games, too, but hardly find anyone these days who wants to play along, so we play the ones that are good for two, mostly Scrabble and a few card games, mostly Cribbage. I have started collecting games on my iPod touch, my current favorites being Scrabble, Monopoly, and Hearts. I would love to play Bridge on the iPod, but for some reason there are no Bridge applications for it, and that is puzzling.

Rick's mom and dad loved Bridge and other games, and always at Christmas, Rick's mom would bust out a party game for the whole family to play, to the delight of some and horror of others.

Anonymous said...

Bonanza!! WOWZER... so what was the goal of that game, to take control of the ranch? Cook with Hop Sing? Hang with Hoss? lmao An inquiring mind wants to know.

Di
The Blue Ridge Gal

Melissaand3boys said...

It's sad to open up a new version of a game that you had as a kid and realize how crappy it's become. I think our monopoly board folds into quarters. Everything is made so cheaply. The kids however don't really seem to notice the difference.

For some reason that I haven't analyzed we're not big gamers. It may have to do with what sore loosers the kids can be...and that can take the fun out of it! We play chess with Nick, and he plays with his brothers.

Thanks for the reminder. Playing a board game might be more fun now that the kids are older.

NucMEd is Hot said...

I love games! Sadly since I'm the only adult in the house I have no one to play with most of the time!