Fun and Games

In general I am not much of a game player. I don't play cards, so when friends or family sit down to poker or sheepshead at the holidays I am out of it. I don't even know who to play solitare. As a child I liked Chutes and Ladders and Candyland, and later Monopoly and Life, and sometimes Clue. But really I haven't played those since college, since I don't have children and there isn't much call in day to day life to sit down to board games. I remember for a while in the 1980's we played Trivial Pursuit with the brothers and sisters-in-law, but at heart they are sheepshead players, and were just trying to be nice to cards-impaired me.


One one game that my husband, who is also a former English major, and I play is Scrabble. Sometimes we play at home, but often it is something we do away. We've played in motel and hotel rooms, in cabins, on the beach, cruises. Because Scrabble has become part of our vacation mindset, play aften becomes tied up with liquid refreshment, margaritas, say, or rum punch. There is strategy here, whoever loses a game (usually we play three games) buys or makes the next round. Occasionally there are other penalties for losing which I shouldn't go into here. We are fairly evenly matched, though he earns winning scores slightly more often than I do. My secret plan is to start playing online and sharpen my skills, but playing online doesn't have the appeal of a face-to-face challenge, and some serious psyching-out. We typically score in the 300's, which I know is nothing special compared to Scrabble experts, but we're happy. When you're playing Scrabble for a few hours with your sweetie, everyone wins. The photo is of my last winning game board.