I was born January 2, 1955, the year that Rock Around the Clock took the music world by storm and rock music first established itself in a major way.
That’s why I figure I was always fascinated with music throughout my life, playing in my teens and twenties, collecting over the next few decades and, in my 50’s and early 60’s, owning a music news site and hosting a podcast with artist interviews. …but that’s not why we are here.
Just below that interest in music was a life long fascination with board games (or, really, any kind of game). I can remember, when I was young, playing all the standards, Uncle Wiggily, Candy Land, Game of the States and, later, Monopoly, Careers, The Game of Life, Clue, etc.
In addition, I always watched game shows on TV and home versions of many of them made their way into my very small collection with titles like Video Village, Seven Keys and Concentration.
A couple of my friends across the street had a number of games that weren’t those found at the local drugstore or Woolworths with titles like Dogfight, Broadside, Afrika Korps and Battle-Cry. We would spend many afternoons reenacting historical battles, introducing me to a whole new world of board gaming.
Then came Stocks & Bonds. I was always interested in the stock market and my parents bought me the game which was the first of my 3M Bookshelf collection. It was followed, over the years, with Quinto, Mr. President and Acquire along with the 3M series of sports games like Thinking Man’s Golf and Win, Place & Show.
Then came college, social life, marriage and kids and while my wife and I would still play games, it wasn’t as frequently and I really didn’t keep up with what was out there.
In the mid-90’s, my tween son started talking about this game called Magic: The Gathering and, once I figured out the rules and acquired a small collection, there was no looking back. We collected and played for about five years and, in hanging at our FLGS (Boldo’s Armory in Rochester) we also got into all of the “new” board games from Germany. Of course, CATAN was first but we soon branched out to the many, many other titles that the store had available to play. Eventually, we pulled both my daughter and wife, Karen, into it, both of whom seemed to have the knack of winning every game the first time they played them.
That brings us up to today. There’s a decent amount of board games in the other room (lets just say the Magic money-sink was replaced by the board game money-sink) and, now that the kids are grown, my wife and I play them regularly. Facebook and Twitter have been mostly replaced by BGG and Board Game Arena on the computer and the world headlines have taken a backseat to Dice Tower News.
One of these days, I’m going to retire and we might have a small chance of catching up on our Shelf of Shame but, for now, we play whenever we can and continue to add to the (now crowded) shelves.
Why should you read yet another board gaming blog? Beats me, but I’m hoping to give another perspective on this fantastic hobby. One from an “older” couple (who still think they are 19) that tends to lean towards games in the 2.0 to 3.0 weight range but isn’t afraid to go higher or lower.
Why should you read yet another board gaming blog? Beats me, but I’m hoping to give another perspective on this fantastic hobby. One from an “older” couple (who still think they are 19) that tends to lean towards games in the 2.0 to 3.0 weight range but isn’t afraid to go higher or lower.
Please join us as we spend our retirement money on one of the best leisure time hobbies in the world.
