Oh the games people play...

When Bill and I were first married we used to play games in bed. I'm talking about board games, like Backgammon, Battleship, Mastermind, Yahtzee and when we were particularly motivated we'd get out the Risk board. We'd play on lazy Sunday mornings when Bill relented and decided not to go into the office. When he was younger, he used to go into the office every evening and most Saturdays. He usually stayed home on Sundays.

As the years went on and kids were born, the games were put away- the cards and wee pieces were lost and the boxes thrown away. I saw my old backgammon board the other day in the attic and I noticed that  some of the stones were chipped. It made me somewhat nostalgic for that stretch of time that we took for granted on Sunday mornings.

Recently, when we went to Jamaica and had ample time to relax, we bought a deck of cards and I taught Bill how to play "31" or "Scat" as it's more popularly known. (I mistakenly call the game "Spit" all the time.) The ladies at work taught me the game; we play sometimes at lunch as we kid each other and pretend we care about who wins.

Bill had a little trouble with the strategy and then tried his own which was to "knock" almost immediately thereby ending the game. He won quite a bit that way. He was positively giddy when he outsmarted me with this tactic.

The only game we have played with regularity is what we have dubbed "The Birthday game". On Saturday mornings the Buffalo News lists the ages of famous people. Bill reads out the names and I guess the ages - 2 points for getting the age exactly right and 1 point for plus or minus a year. He is always the moderator, and I am always the guesser. I don't know why we like this game - but it's the one that has stood the test of time.

It occurred to me last week that the reason this game has lasted is because it's the only game where we don't compete. There may be some wisdom in that.