The Games People Play

I don't know about you, but I love to play games. I have fond memories from my youth of sitting around the dining room table enjoying family game night with my parents and sister. Even when we traveled, we had some laugh-filled games of Uno.

While at my sisters house a month or so ago, I came across a stack of games from our childhood. Of course I had to snap a picture. I do want to note that the version of Yahtzee is older than the others. I'm not sure if it was one that my dad had growing up or not.

One classic (in my opinion) that is unique to my area and my childhood is not shown in this stack and I don't know if my sister has a copy of it. It is The Farming Game. The box boasts it as "The game invented on the seat of a tractor."

When I was living on the East Coast I like to trot it out once in a while to see if anyone wanted to play. They never did.

The Farming Game turns rural life into a board game. In fact, you start out in debt, owing the bank money so that you can farm. But the money is quickly made as you harvest hay, corn, wheat and fruit and sell cattle.

I don't think that I truly enjoyed or appreciated this game when I was a kid. It wasn't amusing, you don't effect the other players with what you do, and I had to do math. As an adult, I think the game is clever. In fact I have played it on occasion, by myself.

I have enjoyed many different games with friends through the years. It seems that a lot of the new games out there are poorly thought out or poorly executed. Of the new games I've played as an adult, I think my favorite group game is Apples to Apples, it just makes me laugh. But a good game of Uno with my favorite niece trumps anything.

What games did you grow up playing or enjoy playing as an adult?