CLASSIC BOARD GAMES (PART 3)

Here's some fun for the day…...

TRIVIA:
Who wielded a sword called Excalibur?


BRAIN RIDDLE:
What is greater than God, more evil than the devil?  The poor have it, the rich need it and if you eat it you'll die.

JOKE:
Q:  Where do animals go when their tails fall off?
A:  The retail store.


COMIC FUN:

TRICIA'S TWEET OF THE DAY:
Do we want quick, easy answers…or do we want God's will for our lives?  If we could see the big picture, we'd want the latter

CLASSIC BOARD GAMES (PART 3)

It's time to take another look at some classic board games.  Some of these games are still around and still played today.



1.  CONCENTRATION

I always liked this game.  It is kind of two games in one.    It's a memory game that you pick different cards to get matches.    As  you get more of the cards off the board, more of a rebus puzzle hidden behind the cards is revealed.   A rebus puzzle uses pictures and words to represent a phrase.   This puzzle part was my favorite part of the game.   I would sometimes get the board and just look at the puzzles trying to figure them out and not even play the card part of the game.     This board game became a popular TV game show broadcast off and on from 1958 - 1991.

2.  TWISTER

Twister is played on a large plastic mat that is spread on the floor. The mat has four rows of large colored circles on it with a different color in each row: red, yellow, blue and green. A spinner is attached to a square board and is used to determine where the player has to put their hand or foot. The spinner is divided into four labeled sections: right foot left foot, right hand and left hand. Each of those four sections is divided into the four colors (red, yellow, blue and green). After spinning, the combination is called (for example: "right hand yellow") and players must move their matching hand or foot to a circle of the correct color.   If you fall to the ground or your elbow or knee touch the ground you are out.

I was always good at this game growing up because I was limber and flexible, however, I wasn't a touchy/feely person that liked people invading my body space, so that part of the game was a challenge.

3.  MONOPOLY

Nothing says rainy day fun quite like a game that's about paying taxes, going to jail and mortgaging property.   Gee, maybe I should invent a Health Insurance game for some really rip roaring fun.  Har har.    

My bother and I played this game all the time growing up and I always lost.   Later in life my husband and I would play it…..and I always lost.   I'm too much of a play it safe kind of chick.   To win at this game you've got to take risks  (and not mind a 7 hour game)   I used to get really tore up as a kid when I got the "Go To Jail" card.   A few years ago I started playing Monopoly on my iPhone.  I do better on that one.  This is most likely due to the fact that I'm playing it on the 'easy' version.  

One of my favorite Carole Burnett skits is when the Mama, Ed and Eunice characters play Monopoly.   Eunice finally gets Board Walk and Park Place and then Ed and Mama want to quit the game.   

4.  HANDS DOWN

This may not be as well known a game, but it was one of my favorites growing up.   Here's how the game plays.   You get cards and try to make a pair.   When you get a pair you slam your hand on your color 'hand' and yell "HANDS DOWN".   Then everyone else slams theirs.   The person who hits last loses that round and the person that won takes a card from them.   You can also to fake out HANDS DOWNS.   My brother did this all the time and I always fell for it.   He would fake like he was going to hit it, but not really touch it.  Anyone that hits or touches the hands during a fake HANDS DOWN has to give a card to the faker.

5.   VOICE OF THE MUMMY

I always include a somewhat spooky or macabre game in my list because I really loved those.   I was possibly one of the few people playing them.   One of the very cool things about this game is that it 'talked' to you.   This was a pretty swanky deal back in the early 1970's.  

There was a tiny record player inside the sarcophagus.  It would give random messages throughout the game.   For it's day, it was a pretty hi-tech game and I just thought it was so cool.  The object of the game was to make your way through the passages of the mummy's tomb, collecting precious gems as you go, to reach the sarcophagus and retrieve the Great Jewel and return to your starting point to win. But along with the Great Jewel there was also the cursed Cobra headpiece. You did not want to finish with the Cobra or you would be penalized.    The messages from the 'mummy' would be helpful at first, then halfway through the game you would flip the record inside and they would be messages that impeded your way to the end.  

There's another walk down memory lane.  I don't play board games anymore, but growing up they were a large part of my play time and entertainment.  It seems like apps on phones and iPads have replaced board games.   This is sad, because it was so much fun to sit around with family and friends and play games.   Too many people have their noses stuck in their phones these days…..including me.  

Until next time…...

============

TRIVIA ANSWER:

King Arthur

BRAIN RIDDLE ANSWER:

Nothing

CLASSIC BOARD GAMES (PART 2)

Here's some fun for the day..........

TRIVIA:  (answer below)
When were the first Winter Olympic Games held?

BRAIN TEASER:
What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

COMIC FUN:

TRICIA'S TWEET OF THE DAY:
We are not equipped to handle all of the problems we face, but God is.

CLASSIC BOARD GAMES ( PART 2)

I'm taking another stroll down classic board game lane.   Last time we looked at 'Sorry', 'Easy Money', 'Operation' and 'Green Ghost'.   Let's take a gander at 4 more

BATTLESHIP

My brother and I played this one all the time.   It was so cool to be 3-D and to have the pegs and the boats.   

A little history on this one.  Turns out this was originally a pen and pencil game dating back to WWI and was released as a plastic board game by Milton-Bradley in 1967.

To play, you place your ships on the grid.   There's the aircraft carrier (5 pegs), battleship (4 pegs), submarine (3 pegs) and patrol boat (2 pegs).   That 2-pegger was always a tough one to find and extra special if you got rid of you opponents 2-pegger early in the game.

The box cover above is the one that was on the game my brother and I had.    We always yelled out 'It's A Hit' ( if it was one) just like the Dad on the box.   You have to lean back and do you arm.   We'd also yell out "You Sunk My Battleship" like they did on the commercial.    Here's a look at an old commercial for the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrHs8CWDzmc

It was also extra cool to yell out G-4 like on the picture on the box.    Something just hit me as I'm typing this.   Because it was on the box, I always yelled out G-4 so I could be like the box and do the motions of the kid.   It was never a hit.  Duh.   I'm sure my brother figured out that I always said that and wisely never put a boat near there.   I can be so dense sometimes.   And to think.....I'm almost 50 yrs old and just figured that out.

When I got my first iPod, I put the Battleship app on so I could play.   It was fancy smancy and lots of cool graphics, but I missed the white and red pegs and my little boats.   They just seem like more fun to me.   I guess it's what you grow up with.




MYSTERY DATE

This was a game for girls.   It was developed in 1965 by Milton Bradley.    The object of the the game is to be ready for a date by acquiring 3 color-coded matching cards to assemble an outfit.    The outfit must then match the date at the mystery door.    

The 5 possible dates are:  formal dance, bowling, beach, skiing and the dud.     It was always quite the bummer to get the dud.   I still remember the theme song:  "...Mystery date.....are you ready for your Mystery date...."  

For those of you that have a desire to see the old commercial...here ya' go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfcBl_Eps_c



TROUBLE

This game was launched in the United States in 1965.   The most notable feature is the pop-o-matic die container which I was obsessed with as a kid.   Such a cool way to roll the die.   Trouble is very much like the game 'Sorry' in that you are trying to move your pieces around the board and into home.    

My brother and I played this all the time growing up.    He pretty much beat me at most the games we played and I think this made me a bit competitive.    My daughter and I would play this when she was little and I got too into the competition of the game.    This was the game that was one of our last board games until later years because I got her crying when we played this one.   Poor thing, she was only about 5 years old.   Nice mom.    Thankfully, I got her to eventually play 'Sorry' with me when she was almost out of high school.   I almost warped her for life of board games.


And now.....for the spooky game, which will always be a feature on classic board games posts because I loved them so much.    I may have been the only one playing these, but I loved this.    This time we'll look at...


THE HAUNTED MANSION GAME

The Haunted Mansion attraction at Disney World has always been my favorite Disney ride and so I was super excited as a kid to get this game.     In this game, players move their 'doom buggy' around the board through the Haunted Mansion.   There's rotating discs that change the path of your doom buggy.    I have some trivia about the voice of the "Ghost Host" from the Disney attraction, but I'll save that for a future post about famous cartoon voices (part 2).

Well, there's another look at some classic board games.   There's still many more to look at and we'll do that in future posts.   


TRIVIA ANSWER:
1925


BRAIN TEASER:
A stamp

Until next time...........

CLASSIC BOARD GAMES (Part 1)

Here's some fun for the day.........


TRIVIA:  (answer below)
What area of the Atlantic is said to be responsible for the disappearance of ships and aircraft?

BRAIN TEASER:
What is it that you break every time you say it? 

JOKE:
Q:  what did the leg bone say to the foot?
A:  stick with me and you'll go places. 

QUESTION FOR THE DAY:
Who is the taste tester for 'improved flavor' dog food?

COMIC FUN:

TRICIA'S TWEET OF THE DAY:

Learn to enjoy where you are on the way to where you are going.

RANDOM OBSERVATION:

I thought I'd take a moment to reminisce on some classic board games.   Once I started googling pictures of them I got very excited.   There's so many I'd forgotten about that I grew up with.   I decided this will have to be a multi-part post.  There's too many good games to put them all in one.  I'll look at 4 games each time.   This will be part 1 with the other parts showing up in the future.   I know there are games that may be more 'classic' than the first ones I've chosen, but I started with these because I played them so often and they were special to me.   There are many others I played with a lot too & they'll show up in futures posts. 

 




SORRY (original trademark 1929)

This is one of my favorites.  Easy to learn and to play and not too complicated.   There's nothing like that moment when you get your man out of start & then you draw the 'backwards 4' card & you've managed to miss having to go around the board & your almost home.   There's also the '11' card when you switch places with an opponent which can be a fun one.   Always makes them mad when they are almost home.   

Then there's the 'Sorry' card.   You get a man out & send another one home.   To add a little fun to that you get a bell and ring it & say 'soooorrrryyy'.    This always makes me think of the Carol Burnett skit where Mama, Ed & Eunice play 'Sorry'.   A classic and so funny.   They play with dice in that one, but my board is the card version.  

EASY MONEY (introduced by Milton Bradley in 1935)

I'm not sure many people know this one, but it was a favorite that my brother and I played all the time.   It's kind of like Monopoly but it doesn't take 28 hours to play like Monopoly does.   I made up a song that I would sing to this one when I was little.   I still know the tune, sadly I can't send the tune through the blog.  "Easy Money, jumpin' all around, first your there & then your not...jumpin all around.....".  It really had nothing to do with the game though.  Easy Money had 'Give-or-Take' cards and dice.   The thing with this game ( and Monopoly too) is that I think it's more fun as a kid than an adult.   Mortgages and taxes aren't my idea of festiveness as an adult.

OPERATION. ( introduced by Milton Bradley in 1965)

What a test of nerves & steady hands this game is.   When those tweezers touch the sides....Ahhhhh!   That dang buzzer and the red nose.   There's 2 sets of cards for this game, the 'Specialist & Doctor'.  For those who haven't played for awhile & want a walk down memory lane, here's a list of the 'parts'.   They are:  Adam's Apple, Broken Heart ( that was a tough one),  Wrenched Ankle, Spare ribs, Water on the Knee (pail of water), Funny Bone, Charley Horse ( horse near hip joint), Writer's Cramp (pencil near forearm), Ankle Bone connected to the Knee Bone ( not a plastic piece but a rubber band stretched between 2 pegs.  Kind of easy if I remember correctly), Wish Bone ( left side of chest), Bread Basket ( located near stomach.  'breadbasket' is slang for stomach), Brain Freeze ( ice cream cone located in the brain)    

Great game and lots of fun memories playing it.  My brother would always make some kind of noise or wild motion right as I'd almost get ahold of a part so that I'd jump and touch the metal part with the tweezers & lose my turn.   I was an easy target. 

GREEN GHOST ( originally made in 1965)

I will usually include a spooky game in my game list because those were my favorites for some odd reason and I had a bunch of them.   I'm sure they are not as well known though.  I was just an odd duck.   Green Ghost was my favorite of the spooky games.   You played it in the dark becuase it glowed in the dark & was on 'stilts' so it was about 6 inches off the ground.  How cool is that?  

My friend Betsy and I played this one all the time.   Your spinner was a Green ghost (imagine that) and it made this loud spinning noise.  There were all kinds of spooky trees & such.   There were 3 'pits' covered by trapdoors that you opened with keys.   The pits contained plastic bones, bat feathers & rubber snakes.   I made up a song for this game.   I had a toy guitar and would sing this for Betsy whenever we played.   The cool part of the song was when I would sing green ghost & strum it on the guitar.    I won't do the entire song because it was long, but for Bets I'll do the first part

" I was walking down the street & I saw a green.....ghost....green, green, green ghost.....and I started to run...."   (I'm pretty sure Betsy may still know the next part. )

That's part 1 of the walk down board game memory lane.   More installments to come in the future.   Apps & iPads and all that jazz are fun, but nothing beats a classic board game & the memories they bring.   

TRIVIA ANSWER:
the Bermuda Triangle. 

BRAIN TEASER: 
Silence

Until next time.....