Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism | Tags: AS, asd, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, Atari, autism, Buccaneer, Calcutta Cup, Cluedo, Cribbage, Ellott Avedon Virtual Museum of Games, Google, information processing, Kan U Go, Lexicon, Ludo, Monopoly, Parker Bros, personal development, personal growth, Pong, relaxation, Scrabble, self empowerment, Spear's Games, Waddingtons, Wikipedia, wordgame-programmers@egroups.com
Every Christmas morning when we opened the pillowcases filled with our presents from Santa Claus among them would be a board game. We built up quite a collection of games, Scrabble, Monopoly, Cluedo, Buccaneer and the like. I also loved word based card games, and owned both Lexicon and Kan U Go. I have to admit that games caused one or two (dozen) arguments in our house, but we enjoyed them. Board games provide a structured interaction with other people as well as opportunities to practice a wide variety of skills, for example in Monopoly where one employs planning, investment, and negotiation skills. Back then board games provided hours of entertainment and an opportunity for the whole family to spend time together. We perhaps didn’t play as often as we should, but I loved it when we did and our games remain among my happiest memories.
We frequently sat down as a family to play board games, particularly at weekends. While we played many games, the family favourite was Ludo. Never was a game played with as much seriousness as was ludo in the Patton family, Calcutta Cup matches are trivial in comparison. My Father and Brother would be one team playing in red and in blue, while my Mother and I were the other in Yellow (I had to play in yellow) and green. My Father and Brother discussed strategy, or more accurately shouted at each other whenever one felt the other had moved the wrong counter, whereas my mother and I quietly just moved our pieces as we chose and generally won.
I loved Ludo as it was a game I could play with my Father. My brother who is very much more like my father than I, could play the card game Cribbage with my Father, but I did not have the arithmetic skills to play at my Father’s level. Only two people could play “Crib” whereas we could all play a board game. I dare say some people could point to dysfunctionalities in our family, but I suspect back in the days when board games were the norm and not even Pong had been invented we were more of a functional family than most are today.
Special acknowledgement to Wikipedia, Ellott Avedon
Virtual Museum of Games, wordgame-programmers@egroups.com and Google for links and information, Waddingtons, Parker Bros, Spear’s Games and Atari for many happy hours of entertainment.
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