Flashback Friday - Puzzles and Games Edition

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?

Growing up, my family always played games, particularly board games.  

We loved playing Scrabble; we still laugh about my youngest sister who didn't recognize "door" when it was played.  She pronounced it "do-er" and contested it; we still laugh about it.

We also enjoyed Boggle, too.  One of my fondest memories of my mom was when she'd say "new perspective" and turn the letter rack 90 degrees; it was amazing how many more words we could find by getting a "new perspective" on the letters.  

Yahtzee was another favorite; I remember my mom & dad laying a blanket on the table and putting a kleenex in the bottom of the cup to muffle the sounds so they could play after we kids went to bed.

We also played a lot of ping pong.  I have lots of memories ... of our dogs trying to retrieve the balls, of taunts of "belly on the table!" when someone was standing too close to the table to connect with a particularly hard-hit shot, of trying to finagle our much-used (read: decrepit) table so it wouldn't fall apart mid-game.

It wasn't until after all three of us girls grew up and moved out that we began to play Rook; we still play it to this day.  I remember that my mom rarely ever bid ... unless she had all the 14's and 10's and about 8-9 of one color that she would name as trump; any time she bid, we'd all know that she had a stellar hand!   

We worked a lot of jigsaw puzzles.  My mom would always tap a piece that she placed and murmur "mmm hmmm" ... naturally we all picked up on that, and I still find myself doing it today.  I remember my youngest sister always taking a piece and slipping it into her pocket so she would have the "honor" of placing the last piece.  Our family's love of puzzles has been passed down to T#3; I've always had wooden puzzles for the T's to play with, and T#3 is the only one who's really been into puzzles.  DH & I enjoy puzzles; we've started a tradition of buying a puzzle as a memento of our trips.  

I'm glad that DD has a cabinet full of various board and card games for the T's.  While the Wii is their game of choice, I'm glad that she has some fun, traditional games for their family; I'd hate to see games (and memories) like these become a thing of the past.

What a fun Flashback Friday this has been!  If you want to play along, just click on the image at the top of the post.