I'm thinking of simpler times with my folks at home today. We were all introverted homebodies, so we spent a handful of nights together "bonding." We didn't talk about what mattered to us necessarily (well,
I did, but, I'm the talkative one in the group) but we would watch movies together or
Monk on Fridays. And, every once in a while, we'd pull out a board game.
This is something I hardly do anymore. I remember when my brothers were younger, we'd play that
Trivial Pursuit game that's themed after
HARRY POTTER. I think John had a tendency to beat us... as he still does in the evolution of the video game board game (
Mario Party... John always wins). The whole family played
LIFE now and again... I think there was a Star Wars themed game somewhere in the mix... We weren't too fond of
Monopoly. I remember playing
CANDY LAND with Mom before my brothers were born... and as those who belong to this group understand, I was one of those kids who played
Hungry, Hungry Hippo by myself.
(from www.productwiki.com)My aunts and my mother get together with me once in a while to play Canasta. We always partner the same way... Me with Jeanette, Mom with Judy (every time we've tried to cut the cards for partners, it always comes out the same way). My mother is quite the card shark (like her mother) and ruthlessly blocks our chances of winning. Jeanette and I have won maybe three times in the three or four years we've been playing together. I'm not concerned with winning though... I mostly sit there and listen to them complain about school (they are, all of them, elementary school teachers) or I hear stories of their childhood. They're still arguing on who started what (but certainly
not who got the blame for whatever happened) or what so-and-so said about whatever... It's actually pretty entertaining. You'd think they had just moved out of their parents' house yesterday.
(from www.giftbee.com)My Wednesday Night girls and I will play a game occasionally. We used to play
Apples to Apples a bit (but I won most of the time... I think they got bored with it... don't mess with ME and the glorious art of WORD PLAY... Muhahahaha!!). I think once we played
CRANIUM with a small group of people. Our latest favorite is a little clear card game called
Gloom. For a Tim Burton fan like me, this is fantastic, dark humor. You have five character cards that make up a family. You draw other cards and develop a story surrounding the events that bring each member of the family to his or her demise. Each event card takes away points (you want to be as far in the negative values as possible) and the way you win is to have as many miserable dead people as possible. Once a whole family has been wiped out, the values for your dead are calculated and the lowest amount of points wins. I think I won last time, but, I can tell you now that Jo and Caro are far better at creating the details to how someone was "mauled by manatees" or "chastised by the clergy."
(from www.fairplaygames.com)I'm not sure why I don't play games more often... and I mean nice, sturdy, board games... not computer chess or Spider Solitaire. I had some great educational table puzzles as a youngster... and I think some of those skills could still use some honing.
Memory,
Pictionary,
Word Up, etc... things that ask us to think quickly, to be tricky, to polish your ability to memorize details in seconds, etc. Now we succumb to glaring at computer screens and Tweeting or Chatting or what have you rather than interacting with friends and family on a personal, real level and challenging one another.
I think we'll have to play our newest board game soon...
WORST CASE SCENARIO... any takers?
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