Games Part 2 by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Last week, when Konnie mentioned game night with her kids, it made me wish I lived closer to her. Especially when she mentioned the old board games she has, which her kids don’t want to play.

Considering that one of those board games is one I wish I owned, I WANT TO PLAY!

I think I have duplicates of some of her old games, but I know I don’t have Careers, and I sorely wish I did. It’s so old, it’s really hard to come by nowadays. And I pray Konnie still has that game the next time I manage to get down there for a visit.

And I can think of a few games I have that she probably doesn’t have, but it does little good when I live so far away.

I honestly wish I had someone nearby I could play games with.

Anyone willing to come by? I’ve got a whole trunk full of games. Loads of games. The oldest ones I can think of would be Monopoly, Life, and Mouse Trap, but I have quite a few others. I even have one based on Star Trek TNG, and several different trivia games.

And that barely scratches the surface. I have so many games I’ve had to take them out of their boxes and put them in zip lock bags so I could get all of them in the tote I store them in. And it is still overflowing.

I’d get a larger tote, but where would I put it?

You must remember I have several other collections as well, and this isn’t exactly a mansion I live in.

Okay, it is a two-bedroom, but I could easily fill one room with just my books, or my Nativities, or my Barbies. Note I said, “Or,” not, “And.” At present, my Barbies are tucked away in four totes of graduated sizes.

I can say that my Barbie inventory is up to date, which is something I cannot say about my games, books, or Nativities.

At least I have started an inventory on the books, give me a break!

Nativities are going to be hardest to inventory. I honestly think I’m going to have to go through my house and take close-up pictures of each individual one to have an accurate inventory.

Books and games are easy; I just need to list the names.

Barbies are a little harder since I need their names, age group, and family group. But, like I said, that inventory is up to date; my aide helped me do that last week.

And inventorying my games would be a whole lot easier than an inventory of my books, because all my games are in one place, not just about every room, and well, I have started the inventory of my books, so I have to keep going back to figure out which ones I already have so I don’t write them in twice.

The only page that is current in my book inventory is the page listing my Boxcar Children books. When I started the inventory, I only had the first fifteen books; now I have all nineteen, which were actually written by Gertrude Chandler Warner. And that is all the ones I want from that list. The rest of the books drive me nuts because they don’t adhere to the timeline established in the first nineteen books, most particularly the fact that the kids get older with each book.

Okay, yeah, I am a stickler for details, explaining why I hate most of the Harry Potter movies because of how far they deviate from the books. I particularly hate those stupid shrunken heads! They are not in the books!

Enough said on that subject.

Those books are great, I love the detail, I love the storylines. Well, written. I have read and reread them several times apiece. I’d rather reread the whole series than watch any of the movies past the second or third one. And I do have all the movies.

Which reminds me of something else I need an inventory of. At least they are all in one corner of the living room.

It wouldn’t hurt to get an inventory of my CDs and records as well.

Yes, someone with a lot of collections needs lots of inventories. I really should get all those done.

On the writing front, I am still buried in reading. I keep thinking about yet another story I know I have, but haven’t read in a while, and well, so far, I have managed to find the stories I’m thinking about.

Maybe when I finish this most recent one, I’ll start writing again.

Anyway, happy writing, everyone!

Of Family Togetherness and Making Choices by Konnie Enos

I live with my husband and two of our five children. Being all adults, we have drifted into being more like roommates. We live in the same place, but don’t spend much time together, not even for family meals.

Part of the issue is we all eat at different times. For dinner it is usually just me, him, and our daughter. Our son usually wakes up for the day an hour or two later. If he is awake, it isn’t unusual for him to dish up and go back to his room to continue whatever he is doing.

Recently, to counteract this separation, we’ve been attempting to have both family game night and family movie night.

Movie night is sort of easy. Me, my son and daughter discuss our options and choose what the three of us would like to watch. Then we decide on a time when we are all home and awake.

All home is the easy part since we are most often here. We do leave the house, but our schedule is rather routine, just work (husband), doctor’s appointments, shopping, and church. All awake is the big issue because our son is often awake while the rest of us are sleeping. He has to plan several days in advance to switch it up so that he is awake at an appropriate time for everyone else.

For movie night we’ve chosen after church on Sunday but before dinner. Which is early for my son but fits in everyone’s schedule. Picking what to watch is harder. Personally, I’d go older movies, the ones I watched growing up, but I also like some newer things too. And there is always the fact that I love Star Trek and Star Wars. My kids all have different tastes, and my son (the one still living here) does not like Star Wars. My daughter ( also the one still living here) does like Harry Potter but is not the huge fan her big sister is. That and my son and I aren’t really fans, though I will watch them.

All this is to say that there was some discussion before we manage to agree on anything. So far we’ve watched two of the newer versions of Star Trek.

My kids weren’t sure I’d watch them because they are remakes, and I generally hate remakes. They are never as good. But the newer movies are not technically remakes. They are a remake of an old story. The new Star Trek movies are set in an alternate timeline, much like the original series episode Mirror, Mirror. I rather enjoy watching the interactions of the “original” characters in this new timeline.

My kids have now chosen the original Star Trek moving and I think we well be working our way through them in order. I’m not exactly sure what we will move onto when we have finished them all but there are a lot of them, so it’ll take a while.

Though one drawback is that while my husband does watch, he simply cannot follow the story. So far he’s ended up disturbing out enjoyment by asking questions about what is happening in the movie. Last time we ended up pausing the movie and I chewed him out because I could not hear the movie if he was talking.

My children, being neurodiverse, are sound sensitive therefore the volume is keep barely audible for a normal person like me. My husband, who can’t follow it anyway, can barely hear it with his hearing aids on.

One would think game night would be easier, but it isn’t. The biggest issue is that my husband will not generally play games, which presents the issue of what board games are fun with just three people playing. (We do have several two people games, but that leaves out one person.) And that’s not getting into the issue of what we each like to play. That has been a bigger discussion than what to watch.

I want board games, but my kids are opposed the ones I have, as in the type of games I grew up with. Though my daughter’s biggest objection to Monopoly is that it’s time consuming.

Our first attempt was playing a couple of rounds of Clue. My son likes to keep his score card on tech and talked my daughter and I into it. I gave up halfway through the first round and went and found a pencil. Three is barely enough to make Clue fun.

This last time, we settled on Uno, partly because my husband has played that. Wouldn’t you know it, he ghosted us soon as we mentioned playing. (He hid in our bedroom.)

I’m not sure what we’ll do next time, but I’m holding out for Apples to Apples. My husband might be clueless, but he’ll play it.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Of Games and Memories by Konnie Enos

I recently read an article about remembering games we’d played as children.

It only listed 9 but they were not all of the ones I can remember. The most glaring omissions were Hide and Seek, and Tag (not even Freeze Tag). And while it did list Red Rover, Simon Says, and Mother May I, there was no mention of Red Light, Green Light.

Then there were the games I never played as a kid. Namely Four Square and Marbles. Jacks was also omitted. It mentioned Hopscotch but not jumping rope. I don’t remember playing Hopscotch or Cat’s Cradle (both mentioned) but I’m sure I did a few times.

Another one mentioned was Kick the Can, which I had heard of, but only the sense of our parents used to play it. I wasn’t even sure how to play it until I read the article. But reading that I realized it was similar to a game our uncle taught us, Beckon. Similar as there was hiding, but you didn’t have to kick a can, you just had to give a hand signal.

Reading that description I immediately went back to playing it with our uncle. That particular summer day he’d told us not to get into any of the cars parked in the driveway and in full view of the “base”. I did not get into any of the cars. But my uncle could not find me and realized I had to be in view of the base because my siblings kept re-hiding.

He looked all the way around the cars, even under them, and peering inside. I can still remember watching him doing it while I was crouched in my hiding place, very sure he’d spot me. He did not.

Because I was not in or under the cars. And unless you looked between the cars from the front, you couldn’t see me. I’m not sure what to call these models of cars, but they were common in the 60s. There were at least two parked at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and so close together that their runners (the step at the bottom of the doors) were touching. After these models that step got skinnier until it was nonexistent. These were almost wide enough to sit on, but two together? Tiny little me had plenty of room.

My uncle finally had to call Ollie, Ollie, Oxen-free. He told me later he had assumed we were too big to fit in that tiny space between the cars. I know this was in the early 70s, and I could have easily been my full-grown height already, but I was still at or under a 100 pounds. So not big. I not only fit, but it was very comfortable.

The final game mentioned?

Capture the Flag.

Yeah, that brought back a very specific memory.

I can still see the summer day. The huge front yard perfectly cut in half by the sidewalk from the front gate to the front porch, and wide open between the house and fence line with no real place to hide. I even remember we had a couple of baby blankets for flags, I’m just not sure where we got them from. perhaps my sister and I had them for doll blankets.

The event was our birthday party which had somehow become a block party. I have never had so many guests before or after. It was a blast, especially when it was mentioned we could play some games. The large yard lent itself to a game of Capture the Flag.

I’m sure, our babysitter’s husband, a large bear of a man who loved kids, and games, was the one who suggested it and said my sister and I should be the captains. We picked teams and soon I was standing at the back of my side guarding our flag and watching most everybody else at the sidewalk over near the house attempting skirmishes without getting captured.

My side was losing big time. I watched them for a few then realized with Bonnie and I dressed exactly the same, which was rare, they wouldn’t be able to tell us apart. With her in the middle of the skirmishes, I calmly walked over to where her flag was keeping well away from the skirmishes. I then calmly talked to her teammates for a few after I’d already stuffed her flag into my pocket. Then I calmly walked back to where my flag was.

By that time, they’d captured my entire team other than the two guarding my flag.

Then they noticed their flag was gone. As yells went up, asking where it was, I held it up, waving it in the air. “It’s okay. I have it right here.”

Best win ever.

What’s your favorite “game memory”?

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.