Flashback Friday - Let's Play!! PART 2 - GAMES & PUZZLES

Did you play many games when you were growing up? What were they? (Include outside games as well as board & card games.) Who did you generally play with? Did your entire family play games or just the kids? Were there any traditional games your family always played? What were your favorites? Are they still around today? What about puzzles? Was that a popular pastime at your house? Were puzzles saved for holidays or did you do them any time? Were they set out for anyone to work or just one person?

I guess I’ve not thought about games from my childhood, but once the memories were tapped, I was surprised at how many there were. Most games were played with my siblings and/or friends that we invited over. I remember Sorry!, Monopoly, Life and Battleship engaging us for many a pleasant hour. My best friend from church loved to play Sorry! And she most always won! Those are pleasant memories!

As I remember my later childhood I remember many, many hours spent next door with a dear neighbor playing cards. We played gin rummy a lot and UNO was a new game that was an immediate hit! Our neighbor had no children, and was widowed by the time I was 10 or eleven, and we sort of adopted each other. She would invite us over and feed us all sorts of yummy junk food that mom never kept in the house, and we would play cards, talk about life, watch t.v. and just enjoy good fellowship by the hour! Most of the time my mom had to call and tell us it was time to go home! Again, very precious memories!

And video games were also making their appearance in early/late teens. I’ll never forget the first Atari! Not much more than blips on a screen and only one or two colors, if there was color at all! We were fascinated! And video arcades were HUGE! I remember getting my mom to take us to the arcade for a while on weekends. We didn’t do it very often, it seems, but oh how thrilled we were when we got to go! Galaga, PacMan and Ms. PacMan were all the rage! There was one game I remember that required your whole hand to maneuver between four pads of buttons while the other one was “shooting” – I loved the challenge of that one but cannot remember the name of it!

Another huge hit at our house was ping-pong! Everyone, young and old, spent a LOT of time playing ping-pong in our basement! Those were pretty hilarious, albeit competitive hours spent playing a game! As far as outdoor games go, I remember cousins and church friends playing kickball and football in our front yard, and the back yard was the site for tetherball, badminton and a huge trampoline! (I guess the trampoline isn’t a game, but it was a source of great outdoor entertainment!)

So games played a HUGE part of my childhood! Much more than I realized until I sat down to contemplate the subject! Thanks for the memory nudge, Linda! I’d invite my readers to visit Linda’s blog for more fun gaming memories!