Simple question today:
What was your favorite childhood game, either inside or outside, in school or away from school, with friends or alone? No rules here . . . just your favorite game you played as a child.
Mine? I have two: Kick the can in the middle of our quiet street usually with about 10-15 of the neighborhood kids.
And the board game, Risk, played with my brother and his friend who lived next door to us. We’d set the game up in the neighbor’s basement during the summer, leave it set up, and played every day almost. And let me tell you, the bro and our neighbor were merciless Risk players…never cut me any slack a ‘tall!
I never won, but boy howdy, it was a fun game. Until a few years ago, I had our original game–at least 50 years old–buried in a closet. Once when my brother was visiting, I presented him with it. It was a good moment for both of us.
Over to you, TKZ peeps! What was your go-to game when you were young? And, what games do your characters play?
I remember:
Mission to Murmansk Rich Uncle Monopoly, of course Parcheesi,
Yat-zee Tripoley Sorry Clue Checkers Eights Rummy Spades
Scrabble, towards the end of my yout’.
When I was in maybe 9th grade, my sister got out Britannica’s ‘C to Chutney,’ or some such, and we learned to play chess. She soon got tired of chess, or, rather, got tired of losing, but I continued to play in HS and with a friend, later. I haven’t played since being Juror #14 in Torrance Courthouse, where I waxed Juror #13, about 2011, during a murder trial.
Forgot Scrabble, J!
My other fave board game growing up, and still. My two daughters and I play a cutthroat version when they visit. Thanks for reminding me…
Happy Weekending to ya!
There were six kids in my family and we played a lot of games. My favorite was the dictionary game, where one of us would pick an obscure word out of our huge Merriam Webster and spell it, and then everyone would write what they thought it meant. We loved having our dad join us, and what I remember most was the laughter. But looking back, I realize how educational it was. Our mother tried her best to teach us Bridge. She was so serious and intent on the game that she didn’t notice when we passed cards with our toes under the table, tapped a chest for hearts, rubbed a finger for diamonds, etc., and then when we couldn’t keep straight faces, she’d look up and we’d lose it. She despaired of any of us ever joining her Bridge club. And then there was Mexican Sweat, played only under mattresses in the hallway during tornado warnings. We used flashlights to see as we each chose from a deck of cards, licked it, and stuck it to our foreheads without looking at it. Then we bet poker chips on whether we thought ours was the highest. I’m sure our parents liked this because we weren’t terrified about being hit with a twister, a real possibility in Tulsa. Good times.
I LOVED the Dictionary Game! I remember my dad laughing, too.
My roomies and I played it in college. It’s how I learned borborygmous, which I use to this day. Who wouldn’t?
We played the dictionary game too! Never got borborygmous, though. I would have defined it as “stiffness brought on by listening to a politician’s speech.”
Just looked up the real def. Now I know.
Kay, I like your definition! Fits perfectly…
Aargh, Jim! You sent me to the dictionary!
🙂
Hey Becky!
What precious memories you shared. The Dictionary game sounds so fun; and the banter with your mom must still bring smiles.
Thanks for dropping in this morning.
I still play the Dictionary game on my Facebook Page. I post the Dictionary.com word of the day, and my followers create their own definitions. It can get crazy some days.
I’ve played that with you! It IS fun!
Heads up: I have another post planned that center around words…stay tuned!
A challenging question cuz I’m hard pressed to remember that far back. LOL!!!!! I was a wheezer throughout childhood so definitely not much on the physically active games side. I remember card games (Slap, Crazy 8’s, Rummy), occasional Monopoly, Sorry.
Mostly I just liked to read. I know. Shocker. 😎
As to characters, unless I’m forgetting an instance, I don’t recall having them play a game. Although for a mystery protag, they are by nature playing “Clue” as they try to figure out who did it.
Monopoly . . . yes, Brenda!
We played with our parents, and we learned never to let my older bro be the banker. 🙂
We also played Crazy 8s and slap, and with my own kiddos, too.
Have a great weekend!
I loved and still do love Monopoly. I have the original family set as well as a newer less fragile one. I liked Sorry and Parchisi as well.
In high school I was on the Chess team. I am sorry my children never wanted to learn chess. I may have been the only member of both the Chess and Football teams in Missouri High School history. Last week I think, it was I wrote about my best friend being murdered. Michael was captain of the chess team. Maybe for this holiday weekend I will go to the Chess Hall of Fame.
Mornin’ Alan!
You mention two more games we had–Sorry and Parcheesi. Good memories there, too.
My Dad taught me how to play chess, but I was never very good at it, on account of I usually can’t think more than two steps ahead of anything. 🙂
And, absolutely you should go the Chess Hall of Fame. Sounds like a great way to honor your friend.
Hope you have a great time!
Playing catch with a tennis ball kept me entertained for numerous hours. (Still does)
Atari: Asteroids / Pac Man
Backgammon
Chess
Hi Warren! We used to get in so much trouble bouncing tennis balls off the house in the back yard. I can see Mom’s broom comin’ at me as we speak.
Never could get the hang of backgammon, but I played my share of PacMan with my kids when they were 3 decades younger than they are now.
Thanks for stopping by!
Monopoly, Clue, poker, mostly b/c my father had an old set of blue, red, and white poker chips in a round Bakelite case. Poker was a grown up game played in Miss Kitty’s saloon on Gunsmoke so that added to the mystique. However no gunfights ever came out of poker games with my brother.
Hi Debbie!
My parents and my aunt and uncle got together almost every weekend to play pinochle. We’d go over to the next block where they lived with my 4 cousins. We’d go to their basement and play a secret (maybe!) game of poker. My cousins were well-versed in the game, but we were not, so, well . . . you get the picture.
Thanks for sharing, and happy weekend!
Good morning, Deb! Great question. As a child and the oldest of four, we played Risk as well, though we played Monopoly and the Game of Life more. When I was fourteen I discovered a copy of Avalon Hill’s game “Midway” at a toy store and that changed everything. It introduced me to “conflict simulations” AKA wargames. Panzer Leader, Gettysburg and France 1940 soon followed and I was hooked.
Two years later, a classmate friend who was a fellow “wargamer” talked me into going with him to my first Dungeons and Dragons session and I was introduced to roleplaying games.
My characters Mathilda Brandt from The Empowered books and Elizabeth Anna Marquez from Agents of Sorcery have no time for games.
Meg Booker, my librarian hero, did play D&D in high school, her older brother Theo running games for her and her friends. She doesn’t have time at the moment, but she’d love to more games.
Actually, this should be in the past tense since the series is set in the 1980s, well before the board gaming renaissance of the early 2000s with games like Ticket to Ride (highly recommended!), Settles of Cataan and Carcassone.
Hi Dale!
Another memory resurrected…the Life game.
And a more recent memory about it. A few years back, I went to Texas to stay with my 4 grandkids so their parents could get away on a cruise. We did 3 things every day during that 2 weeks or so. Watched Zootopia at least twice a day, went swimming in the local pool (it was July in Texas), and played the Game of Life. Every. Day.
The funny part was the youngest grandchild. He was about 5 then, and he won every time. 🙂
Have a great Friday!
Tell the grandkids. Zootopia 2 opens Thanksgiving 2025. My buddy from High School is in the credits, Marlon West. Should be VFX Supervisor.
🙂
Good tip!
In 1980 a friend introduced me to D&D. I still have a bi-weekly game although we play more Magic the Gathering now. We also played Car Wars and Star Fleet Battles.
We also played Car Wars and Star Fleet Battles.
🙂
I played Magic in the late 90s. Used to play Car Wars and Star Fleet Battles back in the early 80s with my girl friend (now my wife of 42 years).
🙂
🙂
My sister and I mostly played games of imagination. We’d turn ourselves into characters, and our playset into a ship or an orphanage or whatever we needed it to be. I also liked jumprope, and playing soccer with my grandfather. I would play boardgames, of course, but they weren’t, aren’t, as fun as playing outside.
Hello, AZAli!
Yes, imagination was more a thing back then, right? Sometimes my 3 siblings and I would spread blankets on the floor and pretend they were flying carpets. 🙂 I tried to teach my kids that game, but it just didn’t take. I suspect it was because they could play the same kind of game on a monitor. 🙁
Soccer with your grandfather. I’m sure you have some sweet recollections there!
Have a good weekend.
Risk is a great game, played a lot in college with my roomies. Our other games were Hearts and, of course, Poker.
Hi Jim…yes, Risk is a classic. I’ve never seen the modern updated version of it. Have you? Somehow, I think the original version must be better–they usually are.
🙂
Thanks for adding to the fun this morning, and have a good long weekend.
I had 4 siblings and my dad taught us to play baseball, basketball, and football in our huge backyard. He was an extremely nervous, protective person to the point of paranoia so we weren’t allowed to go most places or have friends over, but teaching us sports was one of the best gifts he gave us. I dreamed of being a professional baseball player as a kid, but I loved basketball too. Looking back, I see those as some of the best memories I have of him. Some not-so-good ones too, but I see that he had 5 kids by the time he was 25 and this was one thing he knew how to do with them that was good for them and fun–for him too.
Morning, Kelly!
Good memories, hey? Dads who play outside with the kids are the best. My parents belonged to a Jeep club for a few years when I was grade/middle school age. We went to the mountains almost every weekend when he wasn’t working. He’d let us drive sometimes. And my older brother and I were the designated “high-siders” when it was needed.
He also played his share of volleyball games in the back yard. All six of us, plus a few neighbors sometimes.
Good times.
Thanks for stopping by!
Inside games: Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue. My Great Aunt Irene loved canasta, and she would sometimes rope me into playing.
Outside: We played baseball with the other neighborhood kids on the dirt street next to our house.
Hi Kay!
I never played Canasta, and didn’t know anyone who did. Kick the can was the game of choice in our neighborhood.
However, we also collected scraps of 2x4s and made boats out of them. Nail on one end with a piece of twine, and voila! We took them to the ditch and floated them. Whoever got their boat to the grate first was the winner.
Thanks for floating on in this morning!
When we were kids living in Virginia, we did the 2X4 boats, too. Launched them from the bridge by stretching out on our stomachs, then raced along the shore of the creek to see which one reached the old gristmill dam first. There was also a giant of a tree with thick and sturdy limbs, and we’d sometimes have ten or more kids up in there, pretending it was anything from a pirate ship if it was windy and swaying, to a castle being stormed by our enemies, those being the imaginary soldiers on our dad’s horses gathered under the tree for shade. And swinging across a ravine on wild grapevines until our dad found out and put a stop to it. I wish my children’s childhood could have been as wild and free.
I wish my children’s childhood could have been as wild and free.
So agree with that!
We had this game then. Never had a name for it, or maybe we just didn’t know it. Someone would ask for what appeared like a collective noun and everyone must give a name under that list in quick succession. It could be name of towns in the country, countries in a continent, the elements, words beginning with P, name of countries beginning with A, names of girls in our area, names of football players. When it was your turn and you had nothing to say, you were out.
Love it, Stephen! Thanks for sharing that.
I’ve (along with everyone in these hallowed halls) always loved word games, and this one sounds fun & uncomplicated.
Have a great weekend, and thanks for adding to the fun today.
🥳
A card game called Authors with my mom as a young kid. Family games abounded. I remember Tripoly, and then a board game called Pirate and Traveler my cousin and I played.
Backgammon was the biggie, though. When my mom didn’t get out anymore, she taught all her caregivers how to play and that’s how they spent their days. I’d visit, and despite Mom being in her 90s, she still beat all of us.
Terry, I think I remember playing a game called Authors, but I don’t remember details. I’ll have to do some sleuthing. 😉
Thanks for stopping by, my friend!
I’m dropping by a bit late, but this post brings back memories! I used to play Yahtzee with my parents and sometimes my aunt ant uncle would stop by and we would play all night long, or until I went to sleep. This was the old fashioned way with physical score pads. I continued to play throughout the years, and I still play online. Now it’s easier, the score pads are online.
Ahh…there’s some great memories, Rebecca. Yahtzee’s a fun game for sure. Our family played it often, and it was a favorite at my church youth group’s game night.
Tech’s great, but I really like the originals best!
Thanks for checkin’ in with us…better late than never. 🥳