Recently I have found myself wanting to play board games…is this a summer thing…no, I think a year round thing! While visiting friends at their county cottage a few weeks ago, I found they love to spend weekend evenings entertaining friends, after a divine home cooked supper, playing board games. Imagine actually sitting with “real” people at a table and moving game pieces, tossing dice, stretching your brain and enjoying a giggle or two or three!! We have gotten so use to playing games on our gaming systems or on our tech devices…think PacMan, Candy Crush, Words With Friends, Jeopardy, the list goes on and on and grows daily…let alone the zillion versions of solitaire (I’ll address card games and collecting decks of cards in another post!) we are losing the camaraderie of being with people. Well, that is true of so much of today’s culture isn’t it!! How modern to enjoy the challenges the many versions of board games give us.

Let’s look at their history and then talk about what you might find at the monthly Randolph Street Market….who knows! Board games have been found in Egyptian tombs and, as shown at the top of this post, painted on the walls of the tombs. They can be traced back 6000 years. Senet, as shown in this fresco and in the painting below, dates to around 3500 BC.

Backgammon originated in Persia 5000 years ago. Chess, Pachisi from India. And The Royal Game of Ur, the oldest game known with surviving original rules, is over 2000 years old.

The Royal Game of Ur

Hounds and Jackals from 13th Dynasty Egypt.

Snakes and Ladders began as an ancient Indian game still widely played today.

A modern Snakes and Ladders…

As a child I loved all games, most especially Monopoly….we certainly did not want to land in “Jail” but rather acquire the most prestigious real estate….what could be more fun. There are dozens of versions of this one of the all time best selling board games. Conceived and patented as The Landlords Game in 1903 by a feminist, Lizzie Magie (she wasn’t credited with creating Monopoly). Here is the original patented design….

And the original design for Monopoly….1935.

Books….

And other games….

Photos, taken by me, of a few of the games I have found from vendors at Randolph Street Market…

Some decorating ideas…..

Another book suggestion, two editions…..

And a board game Café….they seem to be everywhere…who knew!!!!!!

Dig out your games or find vintage ones at RSM what could be more fun for a lazy day by a body of water, to past the time at a picnic or barbecue or to play inside on a rainy day…a perfect way to conjure lots of nostalgia and giggles along the way….enjoy!!!!!

REPRINTED FROM RANDOLPH STREET MARKET BLOG WITH PERMISSION FROM FOUNDER SALLY SCHWARTZ

All photos, unless otherwise credited, from Pinterest credits unknown.