Board Games: A Trip Down Memory Lane

A post by blogger George Schalter:

As a father and an admirer of technology, I love the time I spend with my kids – putting a gadget together, racing cars (toys, of course), and playing online games (educational, of course). But these times, splendid though they are, take me back to my own boyhood and how our family bonded when we were younger. Rest assured, you wouldn’t have seen my father bellowing while swiping his finger madly around a rectangular piece of screen. No, sir. Those were the days when we sat at the kitchen table with steaming hot cocoa mulling over a game of Monopoly or Clue. Whoa! That makes me a living testament of changing times.

Of course, I was delighted when I discovered that they had digitized some of those old classic board games. While it is a rather addictive experience, it is not the same. It does not come as a surprise that some of these board games have acquired the status of a collector’s item.

This got my wife and me reminiscing about the board games we enjoyed as kids, and look what we pulled up! Many of these games have their roots in earlier centuries, though we’ve known them only from the 50’s. To play them we relied on brains, chance and strategy.

Candy Land – Candy Land gave us sweet treats such as Gramma Nutt and Peppermint Forest as we raced down the board till we reached the Candy Castle where King Kandy waited for us.

Monopoly – One of the most popular board games ever that still has many takers like Chess. The game was recently in the news. Guess what? Hasbro France is releasing the game and this time they have included some real money! A dream come true, wouldn’t you say?

Chinese Checkers – I think I still have a board somewhere, though not so sure about the marbles. This was the perfect game for those long winter nights and when we had cousins over.

 

The Game of Life – We loved playing grown-ups, more so when we were young than we do now, and The Game of Life offered us just that as we studiously picked our career and what not.

Trivial Pursuit – Another household name, the trivia game Trivial Pursuit recently celebrated its 35th birthday, though I’ve heard the versions that were released later were not as challenging.

Clue – Clue wins hands-down as one of my favorites. Playing this murder-mystery game was as good as reading one of those whodunit page-turners. It was funny the kind of familiarity that one developed with the characters!

Scrabble – If any game made vocabulary interesting, it has to be Scrabble. We still have a board at home; the tiles are intact after all these years, not a single letter is missing. Despite an online version available, it warms the heart to see that the kids prefer the board.

Chutes & Ladders – This was always one of those games for the rainy day. I came across an article where a library or classroom got kids to play a life-size version of the game.

Sorry! – I had a strange fascination for the pawns we used in Sorry! Like many other games, this game grew from another game that was originally known as Parcheesi.

I must say that the 20th century gave us some of the best board games ever that are still being adapted to suit contemporary tastes, and while many were evolved versions of ancient games, let’s hope we are left with tangible proof of good times in this age of digitization.

George Schalter loves being a dad. He and his wife share the joys and responsibilities of bringing up their two children. As believers of good all- round education, they spend a lot of time playing with their children and spending time outdoors. George is the writer in the family, and he blogs at Educational Kids Games.

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