Yahtzee!

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

We played a lot of table-top games when I was a kid. Over the years, we cycled through various board games, card games, dice games and those “other” games like Connect Four, Operation, Perfection and whatever you’d classify Hungry Hungry Hippos as. My Mom usually taught us how to play and she made a point of never letting us win. We had to earn it, and I’m glad she did. Good times…

Eventually, we had kids of our own and we played games with them too (although I will admit to letting them win sometimes) but video games eventually won out (oh, we still all played together, just trading sitting in front of the TV in place of sitting around the dinner table). Again, good times.

We do still occasionally play “regular” games though, with newer stuff like Guesstures or Taboo or Apples to Apples more

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common than, say, Monopoly or Scrabble (and I never could get anyone to play Risk with me). And it’s still fun.

Back at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we got a bunch of the old games out of the attic and played while we were all “sheltering in place” together. Well, we kind of “went through” all of them over the past few years so last weekend, my wife picked up a couple of “new old” games from Walmart, specificlally a set of dominoes and a Yahtzee game, for us to play.

The kids (my 17-year-old daughter and her 18-year-old boyfriend) weren’t sure about either game. The only domino game either had played was the “Mexican Train” variation that was popular a few years ago and has about as much skill and strategy as Candy Land. And both had played “Farkle,” which is like Yahtzee for people who hate fun (yeah, I said it).

But once we explained the rules and went through a few practice runs, they both got into the swing of it. They’re going off to college in a few months and both games are a fun (and more importantly, cheap) way to hang out and have fun with friends without everyone just sitting around “playing phone” like the kids (and adults) do these days.

So, if you’re looking for something fun to do that won’t break the bank, pick up a couple of games and invite some friends over.