Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Games We Played

Originally, I was going to post something more somber today. In fact I had even half-attempted a 9/11 post like Clink & KLC pulled off magnificently. I decided after the reflection and remembering we did amidst reading their posts, why not put a little glow back in our hearts and remember back a little further - to our childhoods perhaps? Who's with me?

When we were kids we didn't dwell on tragedy, emotions, and despair like our aged minds do now. Sure we had our bad days and our tantrums, but for the most part life was good. Climbing trees, drawing with sidewalk chalk, jumping rope, riding bikes, playing tag/freeze/hide-&-go seek. Board games, Barbie dolls, doll houses, slip 'n' slides. Man I miss being a kid.



I saw a commercial the other day for an electronic version of Monopoly. Electronic. With Visa debit cards. Monopoly was (and still is I suppose) one of my all-time favorite games. My brother and I would usually fight over who was going to play with the 'dog' playing piece, but I'm older so of course I would always win. I would get so frugal with my money (if only I could do that now) and save for the best investments. My favorite part of the game was the piles of money I would hoard [very inconveniently] under my side of the board. How weird it would be now to have it all stored on one little card.

Another favorite game of mine as a kid was Life. LOVED IT. I would get so mad when I would go a whole game without birthing any children. And of course I would gloat when I had so many that I needed two cars to cart them all around. My maternal instincts kicked on early in life, what can I say?

My best friend and I even invented our own game "The Calendar Game"(how original), which reminds me a lot of Pay Day now that I look back on it. We would take one of our parent's old calendars and use it as the board. Writing BUY GROCERIES $100, PAYDAY $500, HAVE TWINS!, etc on the squares. We had so much fun with this game we would leave it set up for days and go through 2 or 3 calendar years keeping track of the kids we had, money we made, what have you. I know, I know, DORKS.

As I grew older I had Dream Phone, Mall Madness, and Ask Zandar. Typical pre-teen slumber-party games. I remember while playing Ask Zandar, which is a fortune telling game, always giggling with friends asking the wizard questions about boys we liked. Who were we going to kiss... and eventually marry. Oh, the innocence.

So tell me friends, what did you enjoy playing as a kid?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok. electronic monopoly?!! WTF. that's like, destroying the monopoly money tradition!!!! i can't believe it! i love board games...but surprising i don't think i had many. or at many i knew how to play. i liked sorry! trouble...snakes and ladders. boggle! that was fun. even scrabble...i remember how in grade 5 and 6 i had a project to make up a board game based on greek mythology. damn that was fun! i still have it somewhere

Lisa said...

Fun post! I LOOOVED having children and naming them all with the same letter in Life! I really liked the game Mastermind, but mostly I spent a large amount of my pre-teen time on the computer. Mutant Space Bats, Heroes of Might and Magic, Star Goose... ooooh good times!

Anonymous said...

DUDE. I copyedited a print ad for Monopoly with electronic banking a few weeks ago! How cool is that?

I thought it sounded awesome. Mostly because it'll make it harder for my husband to cheat.

Anonymous said...

Aw, I don't remember playing any board games. Wow, I suck haha

Clink said...

I LOVED Life.

Actually, I still love Life. M and I were bored in Target one day and picked it up. I made him name his children.

Unknown said...

i loved monopoly too! and we totally played mall madness. i loved the sound of the "ching ching!" when you bought something. ugh, just setting me up to be a shopaholic :)

ooo that 20 something blog network thing looks so cute, mind if i join? my memberships online are getting a bit ridiculous. when do we stop??

Anonymous said...

Found your blog through Clink :)

I couldn't believe the electronic monopoly either! I just saw that last night and while this invention would have made my math-challenged life a little easier, it wouldn't have been as fun. I mean multi-colored paper money, who doesn't love that?

I was a huge fan of Life and Mall Madness too. I almost forgot about that game! Its how i got my start as a shopaholic....

Anonymous said...

I liked the one with the cherry tree. I have no idea what it's called, though. Oh, and Hungry Hungry Hippo.

I liked the mindless games because I would lose at everything else (Monopoly, Life, etc), haha :).

Unknown said...

My friend Kara had this game "Mystery Date" and it had it's own fake cell phone. You would have to call different boys in order to find who had a crush on you. Haha. I loved it but was too embarrassed to ask my parents for it!!! Good blog topic. Oh, and I LOVE Mase and Puffy. Mo' Money Mo' Problems! You know how it is!

stilettoheights said...

I LOVED playing the game of life, though I was an only child so I played it a lot by myself, which led me to believe that I would always win.

Anonymous said...

Monopoly was a big thing in our family - we probably played once a week, as an entire family. We also used to love playing Trivial Pursuit when we went to the grandparents' house and had a big crowd to play. That instilled such a love of board games in me - we have rubbermaid containers FULL of them in our basement!

Anonymous said...

That Monopoly is CRAZY. Also? I loved Mall Madness and it's bizarre-o announcer lady. "There's a sale at the Kitchen Store. And, at the Fashion Boo-Teek."

Anonymous said...

OMG Dream Phone and Ask Zandar! My FAVORITES. I also like the Baby Sitters Club Game. What?

Anonymous said...

Electronic monopoly. What will they think of next. *Shakes head*

Okay, I'm lying. I want!!!

The hubby and I are still playing Monopoly. Also Risk, Cluedo, Game of Life... I'm disappointed kids today are missing out. (And don't we sound so old saying that.)

DG said...

OMG I LOVED Mall Madness more than anything as a kid. And I also loved Monopoly but every time I set it up and sat down to play it, my sister would be all "I'm bored - I'm going outside" and I would cry because she wouldn't play with me. Haha - good memories.

Anna said...

Okay, ready?

OPERATION!! REmember that game? Oh, and of course, Connect Four—--prety sneaky, sis!

And Life and Sorry and Uno and Mastermind.

Game dork, eh? That's why I made it into Real Simple for Scrabble, I guess! :)

cdp said...

Dude. I think you are my psychic twin. I was just thinking about stuff like this. I LOVED LOVED LOVED Life AND Monopoly. And, when younger, Hungry Hungry Hippos? Yeah. It fucking ruled.

Oh, that we may one day taste again the sweet simplicity that is childhood. Life was indeed good.

sweetanemone said...

i loved life, and hungry hippos, and trouble and headache, and sometimes a bit of scrabble! i also used to loooove dress ups and when i was about 5 i really really really wanted long hair (like really really really really) and used to dress up with a big scarf over my head pretending it was my hair. true story. help! :)

marisa rose said...

I just found your blog and I had to say something because...ASK ZANDAR! Thank you! Whenever GirlTalk and Mall Madness are brought up, my go to board game reminisce is Ask Zandar. Hands down, best childhood Christmas gift ever.

mcgee said...

omg dreamphone! and girltalk and mystery date! we looooved those! my sister and i also (even further back in the day) were big fans of chutes and ladders, hungry hippos and life.