What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?
Boy do I have a good answer for this one! My favorite game EVER is Monopoly. First, let me back up. My family and I played a lot of board games when I was a kid. We had family game nights frequently and I got games as gifts for Christmas and birthdays. We played games like Trouble, Sorry, Life, Yahtzee, KerPlunk, Connect 4…I’m sure there were others. I really wish I had kept those games. I had them all the way up through college. My mom kept them. But when she moved out of her house she asked me about them and I told her it was o.k.. to either throw them away or give them away. The games are still made now, but they’re made from cheap plastic and just don’t look or feel the same.
But now let me tell you about Monopoly. I’m sure I played it with my family, but my OG best friend is the one I played it with the most. This is the girl I was friends with as far back as the third grade. She says we met before that but I don’t remember. We played all the time! That is, right up until my family and I moved two states away from Georgia to North Carolina.
She and I kept in touch the old school, Lisa Frank way by writing actual letters. We each have a box of the letters from each other that we’ve kept all these years. And actually, one very important journal entry that explains a very traumatic time in my life was the copy of a letter that I sent to her.
Needless to say, we remained friends through the years. Once we graduated high school and could travel on our own to visit each other, we often played the game again when we would visit. Our games became so legendary that we dubbed them “Monopoly Wars”. When she made a scrapbook for me one time, she even created a page dedicated to our game playing and made the pictures into a Monopoly board. I took a picture of it, but I won’t post it here without her permission since she’s in some of the pictures. However, for your enjoyment, here are some pictures of me during these war battles.
My husband and I have never played Monopoly together. The game he and I are big on is Rummy 500. We have a little notebook we’ve kept over the years with our game tallies and scores. Whoever is keeping score usually adds some trash talking written commentary because when he and I play, there is some serious trash talking.
I believe there always was with my friend and me. But that’s what is so fun about playing games. The game itself is fun, but the conversation, trash or otherwise, is as much a part of the fun.
When I was in college, my roommates and I were obsessed with Scrabble. I don’t know why, but good gracious we played a lot! I remember those games always being fun too because of the camaraderie that went along with it.
Did you ever see that movie “Tag” about the group of guys who started an epic game of tag when they were kids and continued it until they were adults? And every year, I think it was always May, for that one month, they would play as adults. They said something in the movie like, you don’t stop playing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop playing. I think that’s true. We’ve got to keep playing games, no matter our age. With that said, my dear Monopoly Wars friend, if you’re reading, what do you say we reunite on your 80th birthday to add another battle to the war? I’ll bring the game. You bring the aloe gel to soothe the pain you’re gonna get from the sick burn I deliver on my winning hot streak.
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