Games People Play

There were 17 of us gathered at my sister’s house for Thanksgiving on Thursday, and that makes me very happy. But I missed out on some game playing and that makes me a little sad.    At the time I was being solicited to learn a game called Hues and Cues, I was busy keeping my eye on two casseroles that were in the oven, looking for the beaters to mash the potatoes, and deciding when I should put the rolls in the oven.  I’m not trying to play the ‘poor me’ card – I’ve been on the entertainment committee side of family gatherings far more frequently than I’ve been on the kitchen help side. I’m just pointing out that playing the role of an adult sucks.  I did, however, have hope that I could get in on the game action after dinner.

Our family has always been a game playing family. We played outdoor games with friends, memory and visual games on long car trips, and board games with siblings and friends when our parents got together to play cards. The adults would play rummy, canasta, or euchre and the kids would play Life, Monopoly, and Uno. It was exciting to visit friends who had less common games. I was particularly enthralled that one friend had Trouble with a pop-o-matic bubble, while we were playing plain old Aggravation at our house with a die you had to throw.

Like many kids, my first board games were the classic Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, but I was anxious to graduate and be a part of the board games my older siblings were playing.  Sometimes I was allowed to play, or more often I ‘helped’ one of the players during games of Careers, Monopoly, or Life.  Helping duties included getting to roll the die or dice for my mentor, and collecting rent. I thrilled at being consulted on whether my partner and I had enough funds to purchase Marvin Gardens or Pennsylvania Avenue.

Being as I was six years younger than my closest sibling, and almost fourteen years younger than my oldest, I was often at a disadvantage. When I was the only one standing on a green Twister circle I couldn’t even reach the red circles. Add three or four other competitors and I was usually OUT by the second spin. I also felt left out of the fun when my brother got a game of Tip-It for Christmas. I hadn’t developed enough coordination to keep from tipping it, which was really the point of the game. When I was a little older, I enjoyed played Operation at my friend MJ’s house, but honestly, I don’t think my dexterity had improved much. I was always getting the buzzer.

When friends weren’t available and my siblings began to move away to college, I would often play by myself, setting out four playing pieces and physically moving from seat to seat to take each turn, working my way around the board. I took the task seriously and tried to make good decisions for whichever participant I was at the time. Somehow though, whenever I played Monopoly, the persona playing with the little silver dog would win everytime. What a coincidence as that was my favorite piece.

In the evenings, Mom and Dad were often involved in some type of ongoing tournament.  Games that make me think of them include Cribbage, Backgammon, and Gin Rummy.  I don’t remember seeing them play chess, but I treasure a picture taken of them before I was born, playing a game of chess with the board balanced on their knees.  After Mom was widowed, she always had Skip-bo, Rummikub, or Dominoes at the ready for when friends or grandkids visited.

One family favorite is a game of our own devising. It’s a variation of Oh Hell! in which you don’t look at your own cards, but you get to see everyone else’s hand. After studying your opponent’s cards, you must then bid on how many tricks you think you will take. We find this uproariously funny and have improvised different headgear over the years in order to hold our cards.

As it turns out, we didn’t do any game playing after dinner.  There was talking and napping and football watching and looking at photo albums and talking and pie eating and taking photos and talking.  I never get to spend enough time with my family, so I don’t really care what we do, but I do like when we play games.