Games

Games have always been a part of my life.  I adore games.  To me games mean fun, fellowship, happy memories and time together.

I have very early memories of Daddy and Daddy Jess playing straight dominoes at the yellow kitchen table.  I had Daddy play with me over and over.  I never won a game with Daddy.  Within three plays he knew every dominoe in my hand.  

Then Mama would play Gin Rummy with me.  I loved it, adored it.  Won and lost.  

There were the trips over to Uncle Peara and Aunt Elizabeth's when Mama & Daddy would play Wa Hoo all evening and I'd sip Borden's Dutch Chocolate milk.  It was a highlight and a thrill the day Aunt Elizabeth marched me down to the local drugstore to buy me my own Wa Hoo board.  Me, Mama and Daddy played many games.  Always with lots of laughter and mock disgust.  Still have the same board and still play the game.

My Uncle Jud taught me to play Blackjack (Twenty-One) much to my delight and probably to Mama's consernation. 

Then later on in my teens my mother started teaching the grandkids to play wa hoo.  And I found Scrabble!  I loved it. Played with Mama, my Aunt Billie, my sister Edna...anyone who was willing. 

As an older teen I tried my share of video games in the local convenience stores.  Asteroids was my favorite!  But it couldn't compare to the interaction with folks in board games.

Me and friends played concentration.  Heck, I even had a true Concentration board game, after the TV show, when I was younger!  

Time travels and  Mama's gone and I play straight dominoes with my stepfather, Polk, Jr.  Meet Pete and we all play together. 

Pete and I marry and I soon find I have to learn Forty-Two and Moon.  Moon is okay, but forty-two is addictive.  Some of our best times as a couple has been playing forty-two with others.  Gets harder to find folks to play with as the years go by.  Many of our older friends are into Eighty-four now, instead.  I just don't like it.  It takes away the relying on one partner and the head-to-head meatball games.  

There was Pete's Aunt Irene, who loved Yatzee and had us over many times to play with her and have Pete hunt rabbits outside her home.  

I taught both my children to play straight dominoes and rummy before they entered school.  I believe it really gave each of them a leg up in math.  

For a time, we actually tried a family game night, the four of us, when both kids were home.  But it was hard to get Daddy in the house.  And then there was one child that would tear up when they started to loose and another that would start to get angry and it all proved to be too much drama.  

I've also played many a hand of solitaire.  Both on and off of the computer.  On the PC it's so quick and easy to lay out a new game.  But there is something theraputic about shuffling the cards and laying them out manually. 

I've tried other PC games and Atari, but the bottom line always comes back to the fellowship is missing.

Bubba's little wife loves the games too.  And many times her and Bug or me, will play an impromptu game of rummy, wa hoo or skip-bo.  Sometimes Bubba will join in, sometimes even Pete will get in on one. 

There's many, many more I have played at one time or another:  Bible trivia, pictionary, monopoly....the list could go on and on.  

The fun is waiting to be shared.  The memories, waiting to be made.  Find a game and some folks that like to play it and get happy.