We played house, school, Primary, Barbies. We really liked to pretend.
We also loved games. We played Sorry, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Old Maid (that's a story for another day), and Candyland, among numerous others.
But we also wanted to play the Big Kid Games. You, know, the games that parents played. Our Mom and Dad had Backgammon, Thinking Man's Football (yes...that's a real game), chess, and a bunch of others which I'm sure had names but I never really learned.
Like I said, we loved games.
So, when we were sick or home during summer vacation, we loved to watch game shows. And, I'll admit, I still like to watch some game shows that are on TV now.
It goes without saying that somehow we would be able to combine the best of both worlds...playing "Pretend," playing games, and game shows. I guess that's more than "both" and should be "all."
When I was about 8, we figured out the perfect way to play Wheel of Fortune. Keep in mind that this was the pre-Pat-Sajak-and-Vanna-White days. It was back when Chuck Woolery hosted and Susan Stafford was the letter-turner. (Thank you, Wikipedia!).
We went into the "kids'" bathroom that had a wall of cabinets with four or five doors. One of us played the contestant and the other played Susan Stafford. "Susan" stood at one side of the cabinets and thought of a four or five lettered word...we were, afterall pretty young and could only spell a few words longer than that anyway. The contestant called letters to guess the word and Susan would elegantly glide from one side of the cabinets to the other and "turn" the letter over. In reality, she opened the cabinet door as she walked by. Of course, since neither of us dreamed of writing on the cabinet doors (for real...we were really good kids and never even tried to damage the house or furniture) and we were only 6 and 8, the contestant could never really figure out the word Susan as thinking of. Plus, it got boring really fast.
We decided there had to be another game show that would better translate to the real world.
And then we figured out a way to even include one of our parents' "Adult" games in the mix...Card Sharks!
Now, don't be crazy and think my parents had real, live face cards. Nooooo. We only had Rook cards. And not just one set, but two. And I don't think anyone even knew how to play Rook. And I'm pretty sure no one in my family has learned.
But they were perfect for Card Sharks.
Again, one of us played the contestant and the other played the host (Wikipedia isn't as helpful with this one). The host asked the contestant a question like, "We asked 100 teachers, how many of you have caught a student cheating?" The host always made up the questions on the fly and since we were kids that lacked the reasoning skills that most adults possess, the answer would usually be something like 47.
I don't remember any of the questions or answers I came up with, but I certainly remember one that Jennilyn asked me:
We asked 100 married men, How many of you were bachelors before you got married?
I was oh-so-excited since I knew the answer to that one without even thinking...it was definitely 100!
Jennilyn, however, disagreed.
An argument ensued.
I insisted that all men were bachelors before they were married.
Jennilyn emphatically said no.
I told her that even Dad had been a bachelor before he married Mom.
She became rather disgusted and indignant.
We got Mom involved in the disagreement who sided with me.
I think Jennilyn started crying.
Come to find out, she thought a bachelor was a bad thing. I'm guessing sort of like a six-year old's version of a gigolo.
Who knew that 30-something years later a bachelor would, in fact, be a gigolo?
