From cards to games...

After reading my blog about cards my dad messaged me that he remembered playing Italian games of "skpos" and "briskla" with his dad. Both of which seem based on trick taking and used visual of what seems to be a similar deck.

It got me to thinking about the board games we enjoyed as a family and how those games evolved over time.  Now we grew up with the traditional games like Snakes & Ladders, Monopoly and Battleship. Then came Trouble, with the Pop-O-Matic die in the center - that was the beginning of our "game technology"....lol  

Generally on our family summer holidays and Christmas vacations we try to plan at least one game night. Different games have made appearances over the years.  Know the go to faithful for many years was Tripoley - a combination of Michigan Rummy, Hearts & Poker.  My sister-in-law Dedra often seemed to be the reigning champ of this game. One summer we took a family trip to Florida only to be in the midst of a tropical storm.  After a few soggy days inside, my mom went to the local back to get rolls of dimes so that we could have "chips" to play Tripoley.  It definitely helped pass the days of our wettest vacation ever !

The beauty of a game like Tripoley is there is no subjectivity.  You either have the Queen of Hearts or you don't. Unlike games like Pictionary, which would require video tape coverage to play back to capture "who said it first".  Did I mention we are a competitive bunch ??  Needless to say Pictionary has since been retired since the "tumbleweed round". 

In it's place, and another step forward in our technology evolution, is Catchphrase.  A combination of password and hot potato - it is played in teams and the device itself is passed from player to play while the timer speeds up to its completion - in the hands of the "unlucky" team member. Now Catchphrase is not without it's subjectivity but we seem to do a better job in describing than drawing in our family.  It also allows us to play with a broader age range.  Some of Heath & Haley's clues on phrases they didn't know were bang on. We usually team males versus females, which has allowed for some long competitive matches. I believe it was one of Brandon's early Christmases with the Frisina's when we played a 7 hour match in attempt for the boys to make a comeback.

Moral of that story:   The girls won and Brandon still kept hanging in there.