Games People Play

I have always loved board games. The attraction stems back to childhood in the 60s and 70s. As a child I had seven siblings. For birthdays and Christmas presents, my parents and relatives often gifted us with board games. Was it because board games were cheap? Or because one game could occupy so many little minds? Keep us out of trouble or out from under foot? Whatever the reasons, we Allen kids had a whole slew of board games.

We lived in an old New England Colonial house (with a lot of barns added on). All the children slept upstairs and mostly we shared rooms: the 'big girls', the 'boys', the 'other girls' and the 'baby'. As we grew up and some left home, many of us moved from room to room...

At the top of the stairs was a half-door that led to the attic. You needed a chair to get up there. If I remember correctly, once in the closet you had to swing your arm around to find the long string hanging down to turn on the single-bulb light. That illuminated two long shelves on the left. They were stuffed with different sized boxes of board games. Whatever didn't fit on those shelves were up above at the entrance to the attic. You needed a flashlight to see those. Some of them weren't merely board games, but bigger, funner stuff.

Games I recall that we had were: chess, checkers, Chinese checkers, Operation, Hands Down, Ants in the Pants, Don't Spill the Beans, Don't Break the Ice, The Dating Game, Kerplunk, Trouble, Scrabble, Monopoly, Clue, Yahtzee, Uno, The Authors (card game), Parcheesi, Light-Brite, Rock-em Sock-em Robots, Rack-O, Pick-Up Sticks, Domino's, Twister, Hang Man, Spirograph, Rummy, Black Jack, Slap Jacks, marbles, Jax, a large metal hockey game with tin players, a mini pool table, a cheap orange plastic race car track for two cars, a more sophisticated electric race car track, bats, gloves, an array of balls, badminton, Frisbees, many dolls, Tonka trucks, and a Lionel train set with transformers that used to be "Uncle Ben's". (Pardon any misspellings.)

One really big toy we had was a pool table upstairs in the barn. We had a large wooden toy box upstairs in the house, and a large metal strapped toy chest in the outside playroom that led to the patio. On the patio, we had a rowboat sandbox, while in the backyard we had several swing sets, a tether ball, and a Twirlie-Bird. We also climbed trees, rode bikes, had forts in stonewalls and snowbanks, played store, house, school, hide and seek, baseball, soccer, hopscotch, four square, jump rope, and football. A few times we put on the 'Olympics' for our neighborhood playmates.

I'm sure I have forgotten some of the games we used to have and play. I hope for my sibling's sakes I have captured and described accurately the game closet and some of the games that were pleasurable in our childhood.

Currently, I'm compiling a collection of the games that I loved playing as a child. My husband, my young niece, and I enjoy playing them when she is over to visit. She has other games, too, like Candy Land, Shoots and Ladders, Pictionary, Wack-A-Mole, and Flippin' Frogs!
(Plus many others, too.)

It seems one of my mother's (and some of my sister's) favorite games to play is Scrabble. When we get together to socialize that is a game they often want to play. Personally, I can take it or leave it. I'm not big on educational games (and I hate Trivial Pursuit). I prefer 'fun' games!

How about you - got any favorite board or other games that you played in childhood, or currently?
Did/do you have a designated place to store them?
Siblings - did I forget some of your favorite games?
Please reply!