Flashback Friday: Games & Puzzles

Linda at Mocha with Linda has posted another great set of questions! Are we soul sisters? :o)

Did you play many games when you were growing up? What were they? (Include outside games as well as board & card games.) Who did you generally play with? Did your entire family play games or just the kids? Were there any traditional games your family always played? What were your favorites? Are they still around today? What about puzzles? Was that a popular pastime at your house? Were puzzles saved for holidays or did you do them any time? Were they set out for anyone to work or just one person?

Boy, did I ever play games growing up! You name it, I probably had it - except for Mousetrap. :o) - or played it. Candyland, Monopoly, Yahtzee, Scrabble, Pit, Uno, Skip-Bo, Trivial Pursuit, freeze tag, hide & seek, bike races, tug-of-war, hopscotch, jacks, jumprope, softball, volleyball,...

I'm sure I played board games with Mama & Daddy before my sisters came along. As they got older, we all played games together. Even now, we play games when we get together. Oh, and we play Words with Friends with each other on our iPhones all the time now. When a group of church friends would come over, we'd almost always end up playing Uno, and sometimes my parents would join in. I remember playing a lot of outdoor games with my neighborhood friends when I was in elementary school.

I also played softball with a city league for two years. I spent most of that time daydreaming in right field, but I learned a lot about the game anyway. I turned out to be a pretty decent player when I was a young adult. I didn't play - or want to play - on a college team or anything, but I could hold my own with the other church league ladies. I graduated to left field, center field, and eventually to short stop, which I loved! The worst position I ever played was catcher. I hated squatting and I had an irrational fear of getting my head knocked off by the swinging bat. I haven't played softball for probably 11 or 12 years now, and I really miss it. I'd love for our church to get a team up next spring. I'd play, but I don't want to organize it.

When I was in college, Mama and I would go to garage sales almost every weekend. I'd always look for games and jigsaw puzzles. I remember I had a huge stack of puzzles in the top of my closet. Since they took some time to work, I only did them on school breaks when I could spend hours at a time working on one. I've never been able to just put together a few pieces at a time. When I got married, I got rid of all my old puzzles. I just didn't have the space for them. Since then we've gotten some for the boys, and I always end up spending too much time poring over them.

Billy and I had quite a collection of games before we moved to TX, but since we were moving from a house to a much smaller apartment, we had to get rid of some. Since we were planning on being away for only 2 years, the ones I couldn't bear to part with went into storage. Seven years and more space later, we're still in TX. I'm not sure if we've gotten them all out or if some are rotting away. I've gotten new games to replace the old ones, though.

Some of my current favorite games are Apples to Apples, Scrabble, Scattergories, Balderdash, Loaded Questions, Words with Friends (iPhone - my user name is ch4pterfour if you want to play), Nines (cards), Phase 10 (cards), Phase 10 Dice, Farkle (dice), Mexican Train (dominoes), and various types of solitaire. I'm sure I'm leaving something out!

The boys have quite a love for games as well. I'm not sure how many games they have on their shelves in their room, but there's not much space for anymore. We've recently gotten rid of some of their games for younger children like Hi Ho Cherry O and Candyland, but they're always being replaced. Some of my favorite games of theirs are Blokus, Whoonu, and Apples to Apples Junior. I'm so glad they like to play games as much as I do!

What are your favorite games?