On Dr. Phil this Afternoon, He was concentrating on what you could do to make New Year’s resolutions for your family. It Would work to improve the quality of life that you have with your family. One Lady was an absolute SLOB, dis-organized, messy etc. She resolved to get organized and stay that way all year. And with Dr Phil’s’ and Lowe’s help she did, a true make over! How Nice. He threatened her wit h taking away EVERYTHING they had given her if he and his cameras walked in and caught her being messy again. (Whoa!) There were others on the show but the one that I really identified with was the teenager who WANTED to spend more time with her Dad. She and her Mom had been trying to get him to leave the TV and the Computer and go out with them once a week but to no avail. He did not even go to DR Phil with them. The young teenager was really at a lost what to do, and she really loved her Dad. At this time Dr Phil brought Dad out. (He actually HAD come) and surprised the teenager. He resolved to spend at least 2 days a week with his daughter and his wife.
Dr. Phil and Parker Bros gave them a basket full of board games. Risk, Monopoly, Sorry, etc and told them that playing board games with your family brings them closer than anything he could think of.
He is right. I remember the days before TV. (Yes I was alive then.) We played games. Dad would build a fire in the fireplace in the house at Penn Cove, and we would get out the games. We played Cootie, hours and hours of cootie. We played books, a card game like Gin, where you put all the same number together in a book. We played old maid, we played Fish, We played Sorry, and Parcheesi and we played Marbles.
Marbles was the name of the game that I grew up with. I have no idea where the actual game came from, but everyone said an uncle invented it, and all of the members of the family had a marble board. It was a 15 X 15 “ board with holes drilled into it that held the marbles. It was played like Parcheesi in a way, and had the board holes shaped like a Celtic cross. The object of the game was to get all four of your marbles out onto the board, and Home before your opponent did.
It was a rare night when I was really little that I did not hear my Mom and Dad arguing over Dad cheating on the Marble board. It was good-natured Arguing, but Dad was a sneaky fart. When friends would come over, out would come the marble board and the beer, and the dice would roll. Way into the night the dice cups would slam, and the marbles would tap tap tap into the proper space. The yells when Dad would send someone home (kill) were loud and boisterous.
Later on as the years went by and duty station, after duty station was moved to, the Marble board was one of the things that was always in the Express Luggage. Baby bottles, Diapers, pots and pans and the marble board. The hand made, wooden Marble board rubbed and polished by years and years of many different hands moving marbles along the runs and into their home stretch. I know that there are many different names for this game now, Trouble is one of them and it is marketed and people have gotten rich off it, but it is a nice feeling knowing that someone way back in my family invented the game and brought family and friends together over a piece of wood and 2 dice and 16 marbles. (Different colors)
Up until the time Dad died, the Marble board was always handy, and as sick as he was and as weak as he was before he died, he would get a twinkle in his eye, and it would shoot fire when either Phyllis or I would say, Hey Dad, Wanna play a game of Marbles?
I don’t know where it is now…I miss it! There were a lot of memories in that old piece of wood.
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