Favorite Board Game
After a day of traveling or at M/A/R/C, I get home and take off my jacket and tie. Next on the agenda is to play with the kids. Maybe it is watching them outside ride bikes or maybe it is playing baseball (which in our house means I pitch they hit, I chase, they get tired and I clean up). Sometimes it is a game called ZINGO which is kids’ bingo with pictures instead of numbers. Actually it is a fun game for the kids and frankly I enjoy it as well.
When I was young, I used to play board games all the time — after school, Saturday or Sunday it didn’t matter. It was always fun. A good family event. Some of the games we played were:
- Monopoly
- Connect four — which I still love and play
- Battleship
- Sorry
- Twister
- Trouble
My favorite was Battleship. For me it was a combination of strategy, mystery and fun all in one game. I don’t have the game now, but who knows? Maybe I will play it with my kids one day soon.
- What games did you play as a child?
- What was your favorite?
I look forward to your comments.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:25 am
As a kid, I had two favorite board games: Life and Broadside. I think everyone is familiar with Life, Broadside was a Revolutionary War game from Milton Bradley, somewhat similar to Battleship but played on a broader canvas.
My current favorite board game is Trivial Pursuit at which I am rarely beaten. A few years ago, I interviewed with Hasbro Games, the current manufacturer of TP and challenged one of my interviewers to a game. “Why don’t we open one of those boxes and play a game and if I win I get the job.” Unfortunately, she wouldn’t take me up on it.
There are a couple of card games I like: UNO, Milles Bourne, and especially Pit. Pit is an old game from MB that involves trading cards of commodities (corn, wheat, barley, etc.) with other players. It truly is a game that old and young can play together and when you play among people who have had some experience in business, it can be killer! It becomes a whole different experience. I recommend it highly!
October 24th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Growing up I played many board games with my friends, but probably on a weekly basis we played Life, Monopoly, & Clue.
Being an only child, I used to play many games with my parents too. My dad and I used to always play Chess and Checkers. My mom enjoyed playing Scrabble and the dice game Yahtzee. Together we used to play many card games, such as Crazy Eights and Uno.
Also, once a year - ususally around the holidays - a select few of my family members get together and we play a grueling, day long game of Risk.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
The games I remember most were Tiddly Winks and Whoopee! I don’t know if either are still on the market. The Tiddly Winks were our favorite when visiting our grandfather. Whoopee! was based on sayings of the 20s and 30s.
October 25th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Monopoly - Ours was the house where you could usually find all the neighbor kids. We’d set up a game on Saturday, play all day, then leave it out and continue Sunday afternoon. (We didn’t follow all the rules, so it took a long time for the games to wrap up.)
Yahtzee - My grandma’s favorite game. She’d get so excited that her dice would end up half way across the room some times.
Crazy Eights - My grandpa would play that with us for hours.
Trouble - It was fun clicking the POPOMATIC dome to roll the die.
Backgammon - Killed many hours in the dorm playing this one.
I recently got hooked helping my daughter garner points at on online version of Boggle. Much more fun than the paper and pencil version.
Uno, Battleship… you’ve covered most of my favorites.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Laurie. Thanks for your comments. i love crazy eights and still play in every few weeks i also play go fish with my little guys a few times a week. A great game for the kids in terms of improving their attention span and memory
Thanks again
Merrill
October 29th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Moving beyond the generic board games, my absolute favorite game was APBA Baseball. It is now played on the computer, but I used to spend hours with my best friend who was an even greater baseball fan than I was. The game was the precursor to Fantasy Football, and each major league baseball player had a card based upon his actual statistics from the previous year. You could create your own team or you could actually play the 1960 Yankees against the 1927 Yankees to see who would win. My friend has been playing in a league with the same group of guys across the country for 35 years. Next year, we could play the 2007 Red Sox against the 2004 Red Sox.
October 29th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Doesn’t anyone remember Spin the Bottle? Or the advanced edition, Throw Your Keys in the Center?
October 29th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Without a doubt, my favorite board game growing up was Stratego - a terrific variation of Chess, that I could play over and over again. As I got older, of course, I tended to move away from Stratego and closer to the games Bob is referring to, but if you have a child who is a real strategic thinker, and enjoy games like that as well, I strongly suggest it.
October 29th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
My family played a game called “Stephenie, go outside and play with your neighborhood friends until we ring the bell for dinner”… we had to come up with ways to pass the time. We usually played Hide and Seek and a game we invented based on G.I.Joe (i got to be Scarlett) where their were two teams and we tried to invade the other sides camp.
If was raining, My dad and I would play Gin, and we would play for hours and hours!!!! He still beats me every time. I am not sure why i keep going back for more…
October 29th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Old Maid - Remember that one? I still play it with my 4-year old, except his version has kids (boys and girls) as the characters instead of glamorous women, but the old maid card still looks the same.
Life - We all wanted to land on “Doctor” with the $25,000 salary then have at least four kids!
Monopoly - We always played with the “pot” in the center of the board (not in the written rules). You made all Community Chest payments to the pot. If you rolled doubles or something, you won the pot.
Ahh…what a nice wave of nostalgia.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Will,
Thanks for your response. Don’t laugh - I am actually thinking about writing a future blog about which Red Sox team is better 2004 or 2007.
Stay tuned.
Merrill
October 30th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Was spin the bottle a board game?
Growing up in a family with four kids we played them all. Interestingly, no one has mentioned any of my favorites…
Facts in Five – Five categories, Five Letters, Five Minutes to win – Lots of Fun!
Masterpiece – Buy and sell artwork
Landslide – Political game where you had to win electoral votes
Careers – Object of the game was to find your career path. If I remember correctly you had to achieve fame, happiness and success
Mystery Date – remember the game with the door in the middle? Behind the door was every kind of guy you could think of – My favorite was the scruffy looking one
Chutzpah (Jewish Monopoly – my sisters never let me be the banker)
My absolute favorite…PERFECTION. Probably my favorite because I was the youngest and no one ever wanted to play with me. It was the only game I could play alone and still win or lose.
PS…Battleship was good but my brother always cheated!
October 31st, 2007 at 10:37 am
We played almost all the games you’ve mentioned, but as we got older the games we played most were card games, specifically Hearts and Spades. Our father was very competitive and trained us well. He had all these “unwritten rules”. For example, in Hearts, if you were to pass him the Queen of Spades with no “backers”, i.e. low spades, and he ended up eating the Queen, he might just throw his cards down and leave the game. Ah, those were the good ole days. He’s mellowed a lot since then, but we still play whenever we get the chance.
My mother, in addition to card games, liked to play word games like Scrabble, Boggle, etc. But we would play a game with her side of the family that they just called “Word Game”. I have no idea what the origin of this game is or if they just made it up, but you draw a 7X7 grid on a piece of paper and take turns calling out letters. Everyone has to write the letter on their grid and try to spell words either vertically or horizontally. When only one square is left, you can fill it in with whatever letter you like. Once the grid is full, you get points based on how many letters are in the words you made, e.g. you get 15 points for every seven letter word, etc. She is still the Master of this game, no one can come close to beating her.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:03 am
Ooooh, I just remembered there were two card games we used to play with my grandmother. One was called Spit and one was called Spite and Malice. I’m drawing a blank on the specifics. We also played Slap Jack, but not with Mamaw…only if our cousins were there.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:11 am
Jennifer,
Dont laugh my 6 year old wants to teach me how to play spit. Probably will do it this weekend
Merrill