OT - Favorite childhood board game/activity | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT - Favorite childhood board game/activity

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Risk was a favorite board game when I was young. However, with my friends, the game was rarely played to completion. It seemed the unhappy party would create an "earthquake" that spelled the end of the game. Slot cars were also popular. Aurora HO scale. Chess as a late teen then Bridge in my 20's.
 
Reno tony --- Chess was also one of my favorite games for some time. An older gentleman by the name of Wong who worked behind the cash register at the store on our block got me started and interested in the game. You could say I learned to play Chess from a Chinese checker.
 
We played "Stretch", which involved throwing a jack knife at the opponent's feet and (s)he'd have to move his foot to that location. Sooner or later the loser would fall over. Also "Hit the Bat" where you would self-hit to an outfield. If someone caught it you would lose your turn. If someone fielded it (s)he'd have to bowl it in the street and try to hit your laid down bat, though if it bounced and you caught it you'd maintain your turn. We were street urchins in an upscale town (West Hartford). For board games I loved Clue because for some reason I usually won. Now with grandchildren it's endless Candyland....sigh.
 
I enjoyed Foosball as a young adult... it wasn't as popular when I was a child
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Aluminny69 said:
I was a Table Hockey fanatic. Played the first game with stationary men who just spun in a circle, and hit a marble. Graduated to sliding men with a wooden puck. I am proud to say I was undefeated at UConn, as most opponents couldn't figure out how I was beating them.

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I also had this exact "Hockey night in Canada set" Loved it as well. Had that shot on goal from the right blue line down pat, followed by the "center jam it in" as needed.
 
DaddyChoc said:
I enjoyed Foosball as a young adult... it wasn't as popular when I was a child
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Started playing this at UConn. I still love it.
 
rvwsleep said:
Did you play stickball with a chalked in strike zone against a wall ? Also played stoop ball.
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Well we painted a permanent box on the wall of the church garage parking lot. Broomhandle and tennis ball!!!!!
 
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choochoo said:
Well we painted a permanent box on the wall of the church garage parking lot. Broomhandle and tennis ball!!!!!
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We used chalk so you could settle disputes to some degree. Pennsylvania pinky was the ball of choice. Spalding hi bounce was the second choice
 
DaddyChoc said:
I enjoyed Foosball as a young adult... it wasn't as popular when I was a child
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we changed the rules... if the Goalie scored it was 3 pts, back line 2pts and other guys 1pt. We had lines of people wanting to play so we had to make the games end faster
 
DaddyChoc said:
we changed the rules... if the Goalie scored it was 3 pts, back line 2pts and other guys 1pt. We had lines of people wanting to play so we had to make the games end faster
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That goalie shot was an awesome weapon! Used the back line to tip it to goalie and set it up.
 
CL82 said:
That goalie shot was an awesome weapon! Used the back line to tip it to goalie and set it up.
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for real... gotta make it roll off the back corner using the back guys and WHAM
 
I could never get into Battleship... Operation was boring but a good challenge til you couldn't grab the funny bone then you quit
 
Mancala was fun... didnt learn about this til I was an adult
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We did something very much like Frodo's racing game, except we drew our track on the back of a leftover roll of wallpaper. We rolled a single die to determing the number of squares to move ahead. We used plastic horses, which we named after the famous horses of the forties and earlier; Citation, Coaltown, Whirlaway, Gallant Fox. In the summer, though, before we were old enough to play baseball, etc., we would mostly play hide and seek, kick the can, prisoner's base. The rules were very flexible, sort of like Calvin's and Hobbes' baseball games. Argumentation was the rule. There was also an extremely dopey game called "Mother may I?". And another called "Truth or Dare."
 
I also played most of these games mentioned, however, playing ARMY with my friends was always fun! We used the entire neighborhood as the battlefield. I was captured once but snuck out the bathroom window and made an escape.
 
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zakalex said:
We played "Stretch", which involved throwing a jack knife at the opponent's feet and (s)he'd have to move his foot to that location. Sooner or later the loser would fall over. Also "Hit the Bat" where you would self-hit to an outfield. If someone caught it you would lose your turn. If someone fielded it (s)he'd have to bowl it in the street and try to hit your laid down bat, though if it bounced and you caught it you'd maintain your turn. We were street urchins in an upscale town (West Hartford). For board games I loved Clue because for some reason I usually won. Now with grandchildren it's endless Candyland....sigh.
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Sounds like we were in the same neighborhood, but in different states. Mine was in North Jersey, not far from Tony Soprano's house. Great to hear mention of those two games. "Stretch" is a one of the variants of "Mumblety-Peg". We played in the sand by the river; in our game the loser had to get the peg out of the sand with his teeth. I loved "hit the bat". And , because of lack of numbers, we played a lot of one-o'cat and two o'cat.
 
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All this talk of childhood games reminds me; our "guardian" here in Guatemala(a "guardian" is a sort of combination gardener, handy man, gopher, security person, etc.) has four charming kids, age 2-13 whom we have become quite fond of. I have been trying, through my kids back in the States, to find for them some creative playthings, such as Legos, Lincoln logs, etc., but with no success. These things just don't seem to show up at yard sales, and the ones I have looked at on ebay all seem to be, not the old-time, multi-purpose stuff that you could use your imagination on, but instead to be dedicated projects tied to movies, tv shows, etc. If any of y'all happen to have any stuff like this pr similar lying around in attics or basements, I would be glad to pay a reasonable amount and of course pay for shipping. If you do have anything like this that you no longer have a use for, please pm me. Thanks in advance.
 
rvwsleep said:
Risk was a favorite board game when I was young. However, with my friends, the game was rarely played to completion. It seemed the unhappy party would create an "earthquake" that spelled the end of the game. Slot cars were also popular. Aurora HO scale. Chess as a late teen then Bridge in my 20's.
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Great avatar pic!!
 
Before there were those fancy backgammon sets, they used to print backgammon layouts on the back of the checker/chess boards. After we got bored with checkers we tried to figure out the game. It took me a while to find out how to play it (after several trips to the library because there was no internet). If the game rules were in the box with the checkers, we lost them, because everyone knew how how to play checkers. I also played most of the other games mentioned, like monopoly, parchesi and chinese checkers. The other game I liked that I didn't notice mentioned here, was "Go to the Head of the Class". Our favorite family game was "Life", because everyone in the family could play, they had those neat little cars with pink and blue peg "people". And everyone loved to bet on the wheel... for some reason 4 & 7 were always the favorite numbers.
 
EasyEd said:
Before there were those fancy backgammon sets, they used to print backgammon layouts on the back of the checker/chess boards. After we got bored with checkers we tried to figure out the game. It took me a while to find out how to play it (after several trips to the library because there was no internet). If the game rules were in the box with the checkers, we lost them, because everyone knew how how to play checkers. I also played most of the other games mentioned, like monopoly, parchesi and chinese checkers. The other game I liked that I didn't notice mentioned here, was "Go to the Head of the Class". Our favorite family game was "Life", because everyone in the family could play, they had those neat little cars with pink and blue peg "people". And everyone loved to bet on the wheel... for some reason 4 & 7 were always the favorite numbers.
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Well 7 is by far the best number.
 
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