The game closet in Cleveland was my favorite room in the house. It's door was about three feet high and it was situated under the staircase off the front hall. It was a cosy little room filled with our family games. It housed Funny Bones, Uncle Wiggly, Flinch and Rook, Chinese checkers, Shoot the Moon and Labyrinth. There was Old Maid, Concentration, Checkers and Go Fish. There were countless puzzles, many with 1,000 or more pieces.
I have always loved playing games with my family. With ten people in the Thompson house there was always someone to play with. On New Year's Eve I recall games of Risk and Monopoly that seemed to go on all night long. I could never last. Around the holidays there was always a puzzle out on the game table. I would sit and work at it for a while, usually aside Dad, and then come back to it in bits all week long.
I received my very own game of Sorry when I was about ten years old which my boys now play with. Although I never learned to play chess as a child, my boys taught me the rules as they learned the game during our travels in Europe.
In most recent years we have enjoyed going over to Mom and Dads to play Uno, Chickenfoot and Quiddler, although anytime we get together as family, any game will do. No visit from the cousins is complete without a night capped with the playing of games.
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I remember the intense games of Stratego and Risk between the boys, as if the future of the world depended on their outcome. When they tired of each other, or found themselves without a playmate they would sometimes try to get me or one of the other girls to engage in a game. After getting trapped into a few games--which either ended in my total annihilation or (in the case of Monopoly) a situation where the game would likely extend into the next century, I found excuses to avoid battle at all costs. I preferred Clue and Mastermind, with the focus on deduction and a clear end in sight. I also loved the 500-1000 piece puzzles that Margaret mentioned, which could be worked on anywhere from a few odd minutes before bed up to hours on end during the holidays.
ReplyDeleteI remember another use that Mom had for the game closet for at least awhile.. She understandably got tired of picking up around the house after eight children. So, after warning us at family council to make sure we didn't leave our things lying around the house, she swept through the common areas of the house and picked up our shoes, toys, homework, and other personal items, then put them in a garbage bag, which she put in the game closet. In order to retrieve our belongings we had to pay her five cents per item. That may not sound like a lot, but at that time our weekly allowance was five cents for each year old we were. To have to give up one nickel only slightly stressed our financial plans, but when you had have a dozen items in the bag, that was a problem. Some of the kids caught on pretty quick to the concept of picking up after themselves and keeping their things in their bedroom, but some seemed to struggle with the idea, and had to hand over half or more of their allowance on a regular basis. I thought it was one of Mom's more ingenious ideas to help us understand natural consequences.