Board Game Revival

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Tough Times, Tough People

BY: Christina Dymock

Games lubricate the body and the mind.
~Benjamin Franklin

I'm pretty sure I haven't played Clue since I was nine years old. I don't think I ever had as much fun playing it as I did last night. There's a group of us that used to go out to dinner on the weekends, but since most of us are out of work, we stay in and have game night on the weekends. When my neighbor showed up with Clue under her arm, I thought it was for the kids. She informed me that Clue was her game of choice for the night.

I was a little skeptical that it would keep us entertained, but I was so wrong. We had a great time as we all reverted to our nine-year-old selves. Adam was holding back information and Erica was throwing a fit about it. I was sneaking peeks at others' game cards and my husband was trash-talking all of us. I wasn't aware that you could trash-talk during a game of Clue, but he was a master!

We laughed our way through four games, a bag of chips and a bowl of dip before the kids got ornery. Then I remembered an old Clue movie we had in the basement and while I popped the popcorn, Erica got the kids settled in the living room, Craig searched for the movie, and Adam hooked up a VCR. We laughed right out loud through the movie. It was funny without being over the top like so many movies are today.

After we'd said good night to everyone, Craig commented on how much fun we had just doing "dumb stuff." I thought about the times we were so grown up and went out to dinner at nice restaurants. Who wants to be a grown up? I want to be a kid again, where my biggest worry is what game to play when my friends come over.

Next week it's our turn to bring the game. I'm sure we have a Sorry game somewhere in the house, and they'd all better watch out because I was Sorry champion in the fourth grade!

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