FRIDAY SURPRISE: No fun and games

Friday, June 13, 2008 Filed in: Friday Surprise!, Completely irrelevant, History

I suspect, in this Age of Wii, that board games are solidly out of fashion. When I was a kid that was most assuredly not the case!

Growing up on the farm, there was no such thing as cable (or satellite) television; music was on vinyl records, not iPods; and personal computers, let alone the internet, weren't even on the horizon. Board games were therefore a significant portion of our recreational activities, and we looked forward to getting together with friends and playing our favorites.

The king of games, of course, was the all-time best seller: Monopoly - "by Parker Brothers", as the TV commercials reminded us. Kids liked it, adults liked it. Everyone, it seems, enjoyed passing the time by passing "GO" - and collecting $200.

It turns out that for some people, Monopoly wasn't a pastime - it was deadly serious.

-=[ Grant ]=-
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