Table Games or Indoor Fun

Out on the front porch, you’ll almost always find a checker board set up next to two rockers. There’s another table, a larger one, big enough for several to play whatever table game they choose. A whole stack is on the bottom shelf of the big bookcase inside the front door, next to Joshua’s desk.

“Want to try your hand?” asks Grandpa, looking up from a game of dominoes he’s playing with Sam, Olivia and Betsy Mullins. “You can take my place. Don’t worry if you’ve never played before. You’ll catch up real fast, and I guarantee you….this is a game you’ll want to play for the rest of your life. When you get it mastered, let me know. Just like cards, there’s really lots of ways to play.”

Actually, you’d have to stay around for about six months to learn all the games Grandpa knows. There’s:

• Jack Straws (also known as Pick-up Sticks)
• Cribbage , invented by a real scoundrel who was a real loser in the end.
• Backgammon, a game that’s over 5000 years old.
• I Spy
• Tic-Tac-Toe
• Contests in yo-yoing or wooden top-spinning
• Union Playing Cards (with Generals in place of Kings and Queens)
• Knucklebones a “jack” game played with the actual knucklebones of sheep.
• Chess
• Parcheesi
• Pencil Blowing (across the floor, that is, while down on your hands and knees)
• Several other games dating back to the 17th century

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