Remember-game-nights
By Sue and Chuck DeFiore
We were watching the news the other night and couldn’t believe it when they did a story on Express Monopoly. Yes, you did read that right, Express Monopoly. Apparently families can’t take the time for a full game night anymore, plus we are told that they get bored and a game will only hold their attention for a limited period of time. Wow, how sad, that we can’t even enjoy ourselves anymore without putting a time limit on that too.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find this a very sad commentary on where we are today. I understand we all have busy lives and we need to use our time wisely. However, if we put time limits on the things we enjoy, and our down time why even bother.

I will keep my memories of Saturday game nights of Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, puzzles, Parcheesi, and card games, thank you. If we ran out of time, the game was set aside and we picked it up the next weekend or game night we had.

For those of you too young to know what I am talking about, game nights were usually on a Friday or Saturday night, most often on Saturdays. We would have an early dinner and then decide what we wanted to play. We all got to give our input and the game that got the most interest was the one we played, but everyone got their say. Plus since we had a large block of time [usually 7- 9, (when we were younger); 7-10 or 11 pm as we got older], everyone got to play a game of their choosing. I must admit, however, when Monopoly or Risk was chosen that was usually an all night deal.

Least you think only families played games or that I am talking of only the 50s and 60s, I am not. When we were in college (both undergraduate and grad school) we had game nights with our major advisors and fellow students, and this was in the 70s and 80s. In the 90s we had some great game nights with friends. In many parts of the country

today, many groups of people, young and old, get together for game nights, and no I am not talking about casinos or Bingo parlors. People usually meet at one another’s homes for game nights, both board and card games.

Now for those of you who at this point are shaking your head and calling me an old fuddy duddy who wouldn’t know a computer game if it hit her in the head, NOPE, wrong. I play a large variety of computer games, as does my husband. However, in my humble opinion they will never ever replace those bonding times with my family on game nights, my husband when we played board games, or my friends over the years who we got together with and had game nights with.

So why not give a game night a try and for more than a half hour. You just might find out what you are missing.

DeFiore Enterprises, 2007

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Sue and Chuck DeFiore
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