~ Marion Patterson – daughter. (Revised from an article published 8-92. Some contemporary terms are used. All rights reserved)
“By August of that rainy summer of 1961 we were bored, with “nothing to do.” And, we were stuck at Grammy Gibbs’ cabin for the month. Today, by late summer pools, museums, and Game Boys have lost their charm, just as touring Cape Cod villages, dodging raindrops, and making jigsaw puzzles did then. Friends are vacationing with their families, leaving summer chums behind. Same as then.
“A great aunt saved us. She introduced us to Monopoly! Teacher by trade and kid at heart, she knew this board game would banish our boredom. And, it did.
“She coached us in the basics and included all of us no matter our age. Hour after hour our passion for Monopoly grew, literally monopolizing our time. The long periods of relative quiet, and our improved appetites and cooperation with chores naturally made the adults suspicious at first.
“Our aunt had taught us this game with one string attached – that we not let Monopoly interfere with normal schedules or responsibilities. If it did, The Game was gone. She meant it. We broke the contract once. But, after paying sufficient penance we were given a second chance.
“As rain pattered drearily on the roof of the summer house, we gathered to “go another round.” At first, we were all into the game for ourselves. Some won spectacular pots of “money.” Most of us lost soundly. When cousins arrived, adding to the ranks of players, we concocted a scheme – Marathon Monopoly.
“Our goal was simple – to keep the game going for as long as we could. We divided into teams and spelled each other, filled in for each others’ chores, and plotted against the other teams. We collaborated, schemed, and offered bribes. “I’ll clear the table tonight, if you’ll sell me Illinois Avenue.” But we never cheated, for our honor was at stake.
“Peer pressure diffused the occasional flare-ups. And, by our unspoken code, we took breaks and didn’t monopolize dinner conversation with the topic.
“Because we were behaving, the clueless adults were content to let us go our way, which we did gleefully with a 17-day run before other worldly plans interfered – School.
“Our enthusiasm for Monopoly did not go entirely unnoticed. Under the Christmas tree that year was a Monopoly game that I have since inherited. So, a few summers back, I dusted off the quarter-century old board, taught the kids the basics and we established a few rules. Now, each August as the dog-days descend, Dan, Nancy and a bunch of neighborhood pals go to it in the relative coolness of our house. How quickly children learn!
“Monopoly demands cooperation, trust, foresight, reading abilities, money handling, mental mathematical skills, stamina, manual dexterity to weave small tokens around competitors’, and a dash of luck. Similar skills are needed by school children today, and August seems to be just the right time to brush up on these. **
“The best part is that kids have a ball as they eagerly and knowingly engage in these skills. As a time honored tradition continues with a new generation, we are no longer “bored with nothing to do.”
**(Certainly, similar skills are needed by today’s “Twenty-First Century” learners. We refer to these as employability skills, and civic, financial and health literacy all based on competency of the core curricular areas of language arts, science, mathemetics and social studies.)
