February 1, 2021 – “The Games We Played When Young!”

My favorite game only needed one person or a best friend.  I could set the rules and play in the confines of my head, if I desired.  A secret game, I called Play-Like.  The name of the game became one word when I said it fast.

We visited my Suderman Grandparents, and they sat around the table in the evening with the six children, my aunts and uncles, playing games.  That was my introduction to games, family style.  When my two younger brothers and I were old enough, Mom taught us to play checkers.  The squares and the two colors of the circular pieces were intriguing.  I wondered what it felt to be crowned King. I didn’t know anyone crowned Queen.  Being crowned King meant more power to move this way and that way on the ‘board’.

When we learned to add and subtract, we graduated into the Game of Dominoes.  The white dots always had to match.  Mother took care of the ‘score’ for the game.  My Dad enjoyed playing the games with us.

Jim, Gene, and I found another game to play during the summer.  We played our version of baseball in our backyard. One pitched, one batted, and the other stayed behind home base.

Another game we played was called Chinese Checkers.  My brother liked that game because of all the marbles. It took a while to set up the board with all the marbles.  My brothers began playing with aggies (marbles) and then I had a set of Jacks. I played Jacks for many years.

On the Elementary School Playground, I learned the game of Red Rover, Red Rover, let Emily come over.  It was difficult to learn to hold my arms so no one could break through.  Then there was Drop the Handkerchief.  I learned Dodge the Ball, and in high school played a girlish view of basketball. The uniform was most important. I dressed in a plaid shirt, jeans and saddle oxfords – our ‘uniform’.

In college, being ‘musical’, I played the bass drum and often rode the city bus to the game on Fridays.  In concerts, I added the cymbals and triangle and counted 1, 2, 3, and 4 over and over.  It was like a game,

One game never appealed to me has to be a card game.  Too many different kinds of cards to keep in mind. Kings, Queens, Bishops, and Pawn.  Really?

After Ed and I married, we had four children – and we taught them the games of checkers and dominoes.  Ed didn’t play with us much, except when he played soccer with the boys. When we visited Grandpa and Grandma Siemens, they played checkers and dominoes.  Grandma Daisy liked it.

Ed’s father played chess, and my three boys learned how.  Dan the oldest one loved to play chess and created a three-level chess game.   Grandpa Combs sang a tuneless ‘dee-dee’ song as he contemplated each next move.  My boys soon lost interest playing with him when Grandpa came to visit.

Then I was introduced to the PAC man game, and quickly realized I would want to keep playing that game too long when I had other more important things to do. I never played another electronic game.  I knew I could be addicted.  My addiction remained reading.

Teaching school didn’t leave much time to spend time playing games. Any spare time, there were always books I wanted to read instead of playing games.  Games didn’t leave me with a story to take with me and wonder about.

      Then along came twelve grandchildren.  When Rebekah and Ben joined our family through adoption, we saw them often. I knew I would teach Ben how to play checkers. Of course, it wasn’t long until he came up with his own rules.

For a time, with money short, Christmas gifts were not easy to come by when when our four were elementary age. Then I began to buy one game at Christmas to play!  We filled the rest of Christmas Day with family fun and laughter and music. No one seemed to miss individual gifts.

When the school rules indicated that we could not give gifts to each other, I brought Sears Catalogs to school, and we each took a name and chose a gift from the Sears catalog to give to the name they had.  Another way to play a game. The anticipation in what we could find in the Sears catalog seemed endless, even if it was a picture in an envelope.

Another way to play a game in the classroom happened when a Classroom Story came to be.  I began the story with 2 sentences and then each student took turns adding a sentence or two and developed a story.

The visit to the Siemens grandparents brought another game. Grandpa took us to a restaurant. The new game came when one of the boys picked up the linen napkin and asked what it would be used for.  Then we played the game of eating a fancy meal with three courses, linen napkins, polite conversation.  Afterward we went to the skating rink.

Our evening meal, we still called supper, became a time of joy and laughter when our four were in high school.  We were the ‘punniest’ family ever!  I remember when I noticed the kids passing around the gallon jug of milk and whispering. Finally, I heard what they were saying, “Don’t drink the milk, it’s spoiled!”  I think they heard this on Spankie’s gang.

Real life is more interesting when we can ‘play like’…