Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010
Maybe this is how we learned
Jan Huntsinger, Guest Columnist
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One should never underestimate the learning obtained from childhood games. In the 1950s the games kids played were much different then those of today.
In my youth, playing games was more fun when played with friends and it made your competitive senses kick into high gear. We learned much about life from time spent playing a good board game or card game with our fellow cohorts. We unknowingly learned bits and pieces of surviving life’s little tests that lay before us.
We learned that through a series of simple rolls of the dice we could find ourselves striving for the ultimate goal: to own boardwalk or park place.
We all started out even and it was up to us to improve our financial standing. The older kids always got to be the bank. We then had the decision of picking out our token, as it would represent us in our quest for financial security.
With that first fall of the dice our game of high finance would begin. We each took turns working our way around the board buying as many properties as we could each time around, the idea being that we would collect cash when another player landed there.
If you were lucky enough to get all the properties of the same color then you could buy houses or hotels, which meant the cost for landing there was more. That’s how you made your money. We received $200 every time we passed go. We bought carefully and there were times we would have to give up some of our hard earned money to someone else. We quickly learned that jail was not the place to be. If we found ourselves there we could only hope that we had the get out of jail free card. If not, it cost us a lot of cash to get out.
Life, like this game, goes on for hours and hours. If you’re blessed, the game is a joy even with the little set backs, but if you play unwisely it can seem endless. If you managed to capture the prize of boardwalk and park place, it was time well spent.
As for what we learned from the other games, we learned a steady hand from Pic-Up-Sticks, good hand and eye coordination from Tiddly Winks, marbles and Jacks.
Our investigative senses were heightened with trying to solve a murder in a ghostly mansion. The culprit always seemed to be Col. Mustard in the library with the candlestick. We learned to spell outrageous words and at times were forced to prove ourselves by having to use the dictionary by playing Scrabble. We liked the game of Bingo because it gave an okay reason to holler indoors.
The card game of Authors helped us learn who wrote what, which helped in English literature classes plus we decided these were some strange looking’ people.
Missouri’s native son Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain, looked like he had just come out of a hurricane. William Shakespeare looked like the characters he wrote about, dark and mysterious. Robert Louis Stevenson looked rather sinister and Sir Walter Scott looked, well, he just looked weird.
Another popular card game was Old Maid. I always ended up the Old Maid. Her hair was mousie in color and drawn up in a knot. To complete the picture there were a few wayward whiskers sticking out her chin. She was a piece of work.
Maybe if I’d contained my facial expressions or didn’t say, “oh no” I would have been a better player. Those are the reasons I never wanted to gamble. I couldn’t keep a straight face. I was secretly afraid that I might end up looking like her and I’d be broke to boot.
I didn’t end up on the boardwalk or park place. Nobody that I know did. But I am blessed with my own version of those places.
I didn’t end up an old maid. I learned to have a steady hand along with good hand and eye coordination that helped me when I competed in handgun competitions and even won a trophy.
When I look back at the time spent, getting to and having what I have, the time has flown by because I’ve had fun and have overcome the bumps in the road. Bring on tomorrow. I’m ready for it. Hope you are too.
Jan Huntsinger, a Blue Springs resident, is a guest columnist for the Journal. To respond to today’s commentary, call 816-282-7001 or e-mail editor@bluespringsjournal.com.
