There are so many board game choices today, but not so much when I was growing up. In our house we had Monopoly and Scrabble. My mother and step-father would have friends over for dinner and after would play cards or dominoes into the evening. I never really understood or learned the rules of dominoes but they seemed to have fun playing.

I played Scrabble maybe once. I was not so good but I was only about 8. I do, however, remember my brother and mother playing often. It was a game that required a lot of skill and word knowledge building a crossword puzzle from existing words in the board. My mother loved crossword puzzles so Scrabble fit right in and it continued up into her final years. Even though dementia had overtaken her memories, I would visit her and she would have the crossword book out studying the puzzle. I think there was not so much filling in the blanks as reading the clues, but it was a part of her routine in life and I think it brought her some normalcy.

I did participate in Monopoly games but was usually trounced by my rowdy older brothers. When I married for the first time, my husband was a chess enthusiast. He taught me how to play and we played often. It was a game of strategy, abstract reasoning and creative thinking. Before each move you also have to calculate or anticipate the consequences of that move and what possible moves or actions your opponent might take. I did not win many times at this game either, but I learned some processing skills that perhaps helped me later in life.

As my sons became older we had several games in our home, Monopoly of course, Sorry and Jenga. I can remember many nights we’d gather around the coffee table and play. In my late twenties, just before I met Chris I was introduced to the game Mastermind. I loved that game and at last I found a game in which I exhibited some skill.

Mastermind was a code breaking game that also used critical thinking, abstract reasoning and creative thinking much like chess. In short, the goal was to figure out the colors and placement of hidden pegs with clues as to the accuracy of your guess. The opposing player scores your guesses by placing a black pin for every peg that has a correct color in the correct spot. However, they do not indicate which spot is correct. They place a white pin for every color you have correct. The winner is the player that solves the code in as few guesses as possible.

Chris was not a big fan of Mastermind. Perhaps because I won more times than he did. Over the years it was stored away as with all the other board games we played when the boys were little. When Josh came along we played checkers, Chinese checkers and Battleship which was also a strategy type game. Chris likes to relay a story about when the Chinese checkers game was permanently put away. The game had a metal playing board that shut like a cracker can that held the marbles inside. Josh accidentally kicked the can that was sitting on the floor while running through the house and startled the cat sitting on my lap. The cat’s reaction left me with scratches on my legs… Chris called it a ten pronged inoculation!

The last game I bought was a game called Bananagram. It consisted of 144 plastic letter tiles. The object is to use all your tiles creating a crossword puzzle and before your opponents complete theirs. I bought this game in 2012 when my mom and Paulette traveled to Washington to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. I thought my mother would like it and I was correct. We were no match for her crossword skills as she defeated us soundly every time. I gave my mother that Bananagram game when she left. Years later, I found it in her house just before she passed and brought it home.

Many good memories revolve around games played with family and friends, win or lose