Sunday, November 21, 2010

Checkers and Chinese Checkers

Its coming up on the Holidays and I was just remembering sitting over my Grandparents, my Granny and PopPop were the first people I ever new that had a fireplace and I used to sit in front of it and watch the logs pop and hiss all night. We also played Checkers....


Was I the last generation to sit around a checker board and play checkers?? Will the triumphant sound of “King Me” now be replaced by electric beeps and the inhuman click of buttons? I also remember playing Chinese Checkers, Granny had a antique stool that the top came off of to reveal the playing field and there were little drawers that contained the Marbles. I was never a huge fan of Chinese Checkers, but we did play it.


I guess in a way, the Wii’s and Xboxes have become the Checkerboards of the 21st century. I suppose the mundane red and black board can’t hold a candle to electronic battlefields of today.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I generally can never walk past a set-up checkerboard without a strong feeling of wanting to sit down and play - and I never really played all that much as a kid. Now, on the rare occasions that I do play, the red-and-black pieces are replaced by shotglasses, and I always play to lose. Perhaps that is a commentary on the lost innocence of youth, but more likely a sign of my own debaucherous friends.

Wren nests in... said...

My grandparents had a Chinese Checker set in the closet under the stairs (read: "toy closet" for when the grandkids came visiting). The marbles were stored inside the board itself; ah... the sound of them rolling around inside was almost as good as playing the game itself!

Years ago I bought myself wooden versions of all those old board games: checkers, Chinese checkers, Pachisi... Nostalgic? Who, me? Apparently I'm not alone. *lol*

Dave Starks said...

Checkers is a very challenging game against a good opponent; if your opponent is good you may draw a lot before there is a winner...the Russians I have met all seem to play avidly (and they are usually Chess fiends as well, it being the national pasttime) and it is in no way "out of style" to them. Never played Chinese checkers much since I was very young...