The Name of the Game is Connecting with People

Blanding's Last Quilting Bee?

Recently while quilting with eight other ladies at what may possibly have been the last quilting bee in Blanding, we began reminiscing about the “good old days.”  Eventually the topic turned to games we used to play when we were young, with families and friends before computer based technology started fragmenting lives and reducing interaction with real people. With TV, movies, and songs becoming even more violent, vulgar, and intentionally immoral, it seems like now would be a good time to push rewind in the evolution of parenthood and pull our families back to some of the tried and true rituals of friendly interaction. 

Paradoxically, while the quality of TV programming has spiraled downward, the amount of time spent hooked to electrical entertainment has skyrocketed.  Recently I witnessed a young man playing a game on his cell phone while at a church meeting.  It seems startling ironic that such an activity would take place in a worship service, but it does illustrates the addictive nature of technology that so readily attaches to the "natural" man and woman.

According to Chicago child psychiatrist Dr. Eitan Schwarz, “When parents give children unsupervised access to media, they’re basically turning that job over to strangers.”  Emerging research regarding “media-soaked kids” reveals that technology can short-circuit healthy development.  Studies show that the more time kids spend watching TV, the less time they spend socializing and learning. Adolescents who play solitary video games become isolated in other ways, too.

The Media Violence Resource Center reported that the video game industry made $20 billion in 2010 thanks to the 300 million video games that were sold.  Unfortunately, most of these games are saturated with violence which desensitizes participants.

Sarah Coyne, an assistant professor of family life at BYU, targets portrayal of violence as a red flag for families.  “Violence is everywhere—it’s in fictional TV shows, in our news programs, and even in our kids’ cartoons. There’s a general desensitization going on.”

And she’s not kidding. “According to the Media Violence Resource Center, by the time the average U.S. child starts elementary school, he or she will have seen 8,000 murders on television. For every 10 minutes of playing video or computer games, boys between the ages of 8 and 18 will see between two and 124 acts of violence. In video games rated as Teen or Mature, players will see more than 180 violent acts every 40 minutes, or 5,400 violent acts per month (The Delights and Dangers of Media, Brianna Stewart).

Personally I miss those good ole days, without technology’s siren call, when the most violent thing we saw or did was throwing snow balls at each other, or crashing dominoes. Our family played lots of games, especially during those long Idaho winters.  Pit, Dominoes, Canasta, Pinochle, Pool, Ping Pong and Scrabble were some of the favorites.  I love the memories they conjure up of having fun with my parents and siblings.  There are many in our community who also miss the family games of earlier days.  Maybe as they reminisce about their favorites, you’ll find something fun to do with your children and grandchildren, and build memories around the table instead of watching TV.

Eve Lyn Perkins recalls a game which, “may sound silly but we used to have the most fun playing it.  My mother, Lelia Kartchner, was the best and she loved this game.  We’d sit in a circle and chant the following: “There was an old lady with a stick and a staff and you must neither smile nor laugh but say right now, I will.”  All the time the circle chants, the "Old Lady" walks around the circle trying to make someone smile or laugh.  Then the old lady stops in front of someone and asks them to do something like sing a song or stand on their head or something crazy that will make them laugh. They must do it without smiling or laughing; if they can’t, then they become the old lady. It was really hard to keep a straight face. My mother was good at that too, all the while she had us laughing our heads off.”

Joe Lyman: For some reason I was just thinking last night about the many pleasant. though competitive hours we spent playing Carrom.  I began wondering if there were such things as carrom boards any more so I went on the internet and sure enough they are alive and well for only 40 bucks.  I almost ordered one.  I wonder if my grandkids could adapt to something “real.”  Carrom was a poor man’s pool table.  We didn't have the Q sticks.  We just flipped the white carrom with our finger and became very skilled at pocketing the red and black or green ones.  I don't know if there were rules or we just made up our own. For some reason I think my grandkids might enjoy the experience -- maybe even marbles.

What are these boards, and how are they used?

Kay Jones: I remember playing Pollyanna with my dad.  We didn’t have Home Evenings, as such, way back then, but I loved to play board games with him.  My mother had poor hearing, so she didn’t play with us, but those memories are special.  When I moved to Blanding, My in-laws, Alma and Marion Jones, introduced me to Rook.  We spent many evenings playing that. 

My kids played ‘Kick the Can’, Red Rover, Red Rover, and Annie-I-Over at our home in Blanding. 

Sylvia Shumway also played the same game, calling it  "Andy-I-Over.”  We’d throw the baseball over the house and yell "Andy-I-Over" and people on the other side of the house had to guess where it would roll down the roof.  If they caught it, they would run around the house and tag the other person with the ball, or toss it at them.  If they were tagged, they went to the other team. I also remember:

Fox and Geese. Tramp a very large circle in the snow and divide it into pie shaped sections with a safe zone in the middle. Only one person could be in the safe zone at a time. One person was the fox and the others were geese. They all had to follow the paths made in the snow, while the fox would chase the geese to tag them, then that person became the fox.

Mumbly peg. Two people would stand opposite each other about 4-5 feet apart, with their feet together on the lawn and one would toss a pocket knife near their feet. The knife had to rotate with a specific toss so it would peg into the lawn. The opposite person would have to step where the knife landed. Then would peg it back to the other person who had to step where the knife landed. The stance would get wider and wider until someone would lose balance and fall over. The other would be the winner.  

Of course we had games like Marbles, Hop Scotch, Jacks, Hula Hoop, (all of which I was the champion). Kick the Can, Red Rover, Musical Chairs, Jump rope and Double Dutch.

There were the board and card games too: Clue, Monopoly, Tiddily winks, Cootie, Chinese checkers, Sorry, Parcheesi, Go Fish, Rook, Old Maid.

One of my favorite activities was to spend the summers playing at West Water. I used to play cowboys with my sister. I remember all the plants and animals that we don't see any more. Horny toads, lizards, salamanders, bats, toads, rattle snakes, pollywogs, tad poles, water horse hairs, water spiders, pop ‘em reeds, wild water cress. Playing at White Rocks was so fun. It was a huge sand stone rock where everyone carved their initials. It has since eroded away. Only a bit of sand is left.   

Carol Richmond: My favorite was playing kick-the-can with the whole neighborhood most summer nights. My dad and I would play Monopoly every Sunday afternoon. 

Kay Shumway: My friends and I played Monopoly and Rook mainly.  About once a year we would play Monopoly until the sun came up.  I remember adults getting together to play Rook.  However, it is important to add that my friends and I spent a lot of our time hiking in the canyons close to town.  We also had chores to do, such as milking a cow twice a day, and feeding the pigs and chickens.  I am usually surprised, when I am out in the mountains and canyons of our area, at how few people I see there.  This is especially true of young people.
I remember playing marbles at recess during my years in elementary school. We had a special marble or steel ball bearing (a steelie) for a taw. We also played Stink Base in elementary school.

Debbie Christiansen:

As kids we played Fox and Geese, making snow paths in the winter and chalk paths in the road in the summer.  We also had some mean hop scotch matches in our neighborhood.  We played Sardines in a Can - sort of a reverse type hide and seek.  We played Devil on the Whitehorse.  Red Rover was always a big neighborhood draw - we would have 10 to 12 kids on a team.  Charades was always lots of fun.  We had some neighbors who had a dice game named after them, it was "Noble" - each table had a set of dice with the letters N-O-B-L-E and a Wild card side. You played in teams and it was a fast paced game where every 5 minutes the team on the table that won rotated up a table - the goal was to maintain being the "winning team" on the #1 table - loser on the #1 table went to the last table.  I remember thinking it was so cool that the family had their very own game.

Pete Black Some of the games I remember involved traveling long distances in a car—(Times haven’t changed in this way, if you live in Blanding.)
1.  Choosing a color of vehicle and see who could get to 25 first with their color.
2.  Completing the alphabet from road signs
3.  Seeing how many states we can come up with from license plates.
4.  Paper, Rock, Scissors
5.  We would roll down the windows and yell as we went through the tunnel in Price Canyon.  This was not a game but always a highlight.
6.  Asking Mother and Dad "are we almost there" was always fun.  I think when we went to Salt Lake, we used that from about Monticello on.

What can I say….There are some games that never change!

Readers: If you have other games you’d like to add, or instructions, please go to  providentponderings.blogspot.com and add your comments.