Game of Life

By

Gerry Niskern

.           I played my first board game, Monopoly, when I was about eight. I loved it!  I used to set my little thimble (why I always chose the thimble I don’t know) at the starting point and vowed to end up with all the property and money too. I admit it, I do like to win. I guess that trait runs in the family, because one of my grandsons used to last in a Monopoly game only until someone else landed on Boardwalk and he didn’t have a chance to buy it. The board would soar into the air and the all the hotels and little houses took flight as he stomped from the room.

Of course, we played board games with our kids when they were little and then the weekend sleepovers of the grandkids were two day game marathons.

In the mean time, we were getting together often with other couples and playing  Trivia Pursuit, Taboo, 25 Words of Less, Pictionary, Telestrations, Catch Phrase, and the list goes on and on. We had one friend that bought new games as often as I did, but if her team didn’t win the newest game, she would invariably remark,”I don’t care for that new game.” And we never played it again!

Games at family gatherings three or four times a year were fun, but not often enough. Then sadly, we lost old friends the game players, one by one, but Ken and I still played Scrabble and Quiddler together and then suddenly, he was gone.

My good neighbor and two grandkids played Trivia Crack on my phone with me for a while, but life was pretty dull without a game once in a while.

Then someone told me about the Meetup groups that played board games. I signed up and played games with friendly players and then later played Trivia with another group of great again.

Then along came Covid 19. Since the Pandemic there has been no gatherings of family or friends to play a good board game. I can’t wait for everyone to be vaccinated so I can get back to winning some challenging games!