How Great is That?
By
Gerry Niskern
I sensed someone was watching me as I slept. I opened my eyes to see an excited little face peering down at me. “Hey Grandma Gerry, do you remember that game?” It was 5 A.M! My three-year-old grandson was referring to the game I had introduced him to the night before. Hi Ho Cherries. I think it’s safe to say that was the beginning of the long tradition of playing board games in our family.
I watched the adults play lots of card games when I was a kid, but I was introduced to my first board game, Monopoly, when I was around eight. It belonged to a friend. I loved it. My sister and I asked for that game for Christmas many times. It is still the most popular board game “world wide”. Years later, my youngest grandson loved it too, but I’m sorry to say that if he didn’t get to buy Boardwalk, the board, dice, markers and properties were launched into space!
As time went by we added many other games like Taboo, Scrabble, Gestures, etc. If our kids, grandkids or eventually great-grandkids brought a friend on a holiday and they liked to play games, that was good. We had a lively game called “spoons” and if a new girlfriend lost a fingernail and continued to play, well, she was a “keeper.”
Games were always a wonderful way for family members of all ages to connect. Ages eight to eighty sharpened their social skills and learned to get along together. Games lost favor for a long time, although not with our family. Everyone played on birthday celebrations, and every holiday. Then in the l990’s board games were discovered and became popular with the public again.
Of course, as our family grew and changed, new games were added, but games became less frequent. Covid was a major roadblock for get togethers but I still looked forward to a game or two on the big holidays.
A few weeks ago my great-granddaughter called. “Hey Grandma, we’d like to come over some Sunday and have a game day with you.” She and her older brother, (the off spring of the munchkin who woke me up to play Cherry-O’s all those years ago) and their significant others came over and we played game after game after game.
Those twenty-somethings included a part time Plastic Surgeon Tech, part time ambulance driver currently sending out applications to Med school, a Landscaper, an office administrator and a Physical Therapy student. They want to do it again soon.
How great is that?