The other evening I met with a group on a cold winter’s night, in an even colder ‘billiard’ pub, to reacquaint myself with the card game of ‘euchre’.
In the family home, my father and brothers taught me how to play that particular game, along with ‘cribbage’, and invariably when we gathered for Sunday family dinners, afterward a card game would ensue.
Or perhaps we’d enjoy a game of ‘dart throwing’, the board game of ‘monopoly’, usually on a rainy day, or whatever was age appropriate and popular at the time.
Unless, of course, there was a more important game playing on the television. That being either ‘golf, baseball, hockey or football’.
In the summer months we would play a game of ‘horseshoes’ or ‘lawn darts’ in the backyard.
There were other outdoor games that I played as a child.
‘Hide and seek’ was a wonderful one in my neighbourhood where wide open spaces ruled, with no fencing to restrict us from finding the ideal cover to fool our friends.
‘Tag’ and ‘softball’ were always popular choices.
It wasn’t until later at pre-teen parties that I learned the ‘game’ of ‘spin the bottle’.
Prior to that I found out that boys liked to play ‘doctor’ with girls, and ‘show and tell’ became a very popular game, both at home and at school.
The kind of classroom demonstration greatly differed from the home variety, I might add.
As a teen, I began to realize that both boys and some of the girls played other kinds of games.
‘Flirting’ became the norm for both sexes.
‘Scoring’ with girls was the ‘goal’ for most boys, unlike the majority of girls in that generation who, in fact, wore the ‘virgin pin’ (a circular brooch) as a symbol of purity or badge of honour.
The girls who did play along gained an ‘unsavoury’ reputation, unlike the guys, who were characterized as ‘cool’; a prime example of the double standard for females versus males.
Today, the ‘game of love’ is described as how men and women pursue, catch, and either release or keep a ‘match’.
Depending who the ‘players’ are, ‘love’ might not be the correct word usage in this particular ‘game’.
There are countless other games that people play ‘politically’, ‘economically’ in business, and of course ‘socially’ in the media.
‘Celebrity’ itself could be characterized as a game.
‘One-up-man-ship’ is a very popular ‘psychological game’, similar to ‘keeping up with the Jones’s', only without the materialistic intent.
Outdoing one another in a game of ‘wits’ is the object of this particular behaviour, thereby boosting one’s own self-esteem at the expense of the other’s.
Of course there are numerous games that people play, either alone or in the company of others, in and out of the ‘casino’, the ‘bedroom’, the ‘courtroom’, on or off the ‘court’, the ‘course’, in and out of the ‘pool’ , the ’sea’, and all manner of other venues.
Whether to ‘play’ or not is an individual choice.
A ‘rule of thumb’ to keep in mind; without a ’player’ there is no ‘game’.
