Playing Games

Many of my most pleasant memories go back to my youth when school, home chores, and playing games were at the center of my world. Outside games of hide n’ seek, kick the can, dodge ball, red Rover, football, and even skinny dipping after a long game of summer softball to cool off were my pastimes. I enjoyed snow ball fights and sledding in the winter, games of war by throwing green apples, or playing king of the mountain as the weather warmed. Swinging on ropes and falling into of hay in the barn or grabbing onto grapevines and arcing over the stream before letting go and dropping into the water.

Many games were played indoors, but some were designed by grandmothers to keep us busy when it was raining, like button, button, who’s got the button or the card games of solitaire or war. The games that made the most impression were the games we played by the light of an oil lamp, gathered around my grandmother Rebecca Miner’s large oak dining table. These game nights occurred when our electricity went out for extended periods.

My parent’s house needed electricity to keep the heat from the coal furnace pumped through the house. The furnace was warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing, but Grandma had a wood-fired cooking stove and a coal furnace that kept her house toasty. Our family stayed with her because she had an electric water pump that was useless and needed people to carry water from the springhouse. It was mutually beneficial arrangement for both.

Old board games were pulled out to fill the day between hauling water or fetching wood for the stove. Pollyanna, Parcheesi, but my Grandma’s favorite game to play was dominoes. Muggins dominoes was most often her choice. Looking back, I believe it was a way for her to underhandedly keep our math skills sharp. Of course it was Grandma who kept score using a pencil stub and writing on the back of a used envelope, there would be no wasting a sheet of tablet paper.

I remember that she would start to cook one of her delicious meals. I believe she would use the aroma to draw our attention away from the games. I won’t say she cheated, but she used every advantage she could think of to win. Although she only had schooling through the 4th grade, she was a talented and intelligent woman. I’ve shared many stories of her creativeness many times.