As we pounded up the wooden stairs racing towards the door I could not hide my excitment. This time I won the board game argument, and we were going to play my favorite game.
We plopped down on the carpet securing our place between the brick fireplace and the coffee table. The top was removed and the fun began.
I sat up the board while Allison gathered all the cards. The hills were placed where they needed, and the spinner was secured in the center. The small cardboard cards were stacked in the center in even piles, face down each one holding a new surprise. Money was doled out and piled for each person.
First we had to decide on the cars. Colors were chosen and one pink girl placed in each for me and Allison. The spinner was spun and the sister with the higher number started first.
We always started at college. Of course we would take the 40,000 dollar bank note so we could head to Auburn for college. As our lone cars headed down the track we envisioned ourselves one day making the same trip.
Stop! College graduation; take a surprise card. Stop! Job selection; pick from a pile of facedown cards.
We fantasized with each job. Maybe one day I really will be a doctor, I would think drawing the highest paying card. Maybe I’ll really be a teacher my sister would counter with her card.
Stop! Get married. “Oooh, you’re gonna marry Chris,” Allison would sing at me joking on a crush. “Well, you’re going to marry Jonathon,” I countered with an equally as embarrassing revelation. We giggled and placed little blue guys next to our pink girls in our cars.
We continued along the path specified on the board. Houses were chosen; I always wanted the Victorian yet ended up with the Split-level. Paydays happened, and then taxes paid later. Job changes, lay offs, fires and floods, doctor visits and even vacations were all a possibility as our plastic cars traveled along the path up and down the plastic hills.
Kids were added, each one agonizing over if it should a boy or girl, and naming the addition before adding the pink or blue peg into the car.
Allison reached the end first and retired at the mansion. Fine with me, I always wanted to retire in the country.
Finally we could revile our accomplishments. “I wrote a great American novel,” I revealed with a smile. “I was in the Olympics,” Allison replied. Statements about curing cancer and inventing new toys could be heard from the nearby kitchen.
The point of playing the game of LIFE wasn’t winning or losing, but dreaming about life in the years to come.
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This post is brought to you from remembeRED. Board games seem to take a center stage in many of my happy memories; wether it was my sister and I playing connect 4, guess who, LIFE, and more on the carpet in the living room or the entire family yelling over dice in Yahtzee or bringing out the dictionary to check words in Scrabble. Games are one of the reasons I can not wait until my girls get older and we can have a family game night too!
