For a number of years when I grew up, my family played Monopoly almost every Sunday. Dad was always the battleship and Mom was the thimble. I was the iron. I forget what my brother was, but he always wanted to be the battleship. I think Dad relented a time or two.
Dad’s personality didn’t let him play games for relaxation. Not only did he play to win, but he had little tolerance for players who didn’t as well. Our games were spirited and emotions could run high.
My brother’s strategy was always to get the monopoly on Boardwalk and Park Place, and then try to get the neighboring green properties to “own” that whole side of the board. When he succeeded, he usually won. It was up to the rest of us to keep him from buying those properties. When I owned any of them, I refused to trade them. Mom would trade those properties with my brother anyway when she had them, and then he would gain those monopolies and crush us all. “It makes for a more interesting game!” Mom would cry when I protested her ill-advised trades.
These Monopoly games were such a simple thing to do. They took up a couple hours of Sunday morning. But they built family connection like nothing else we did together. Dad didn’t like to travel, so we didn’t take vacations. Evenings were spent quietly at home, with Dad reading the newspaper and Mom cleaning up after dinner while my brother and I did our homework. Once in a while Dad took us fishing or worked on a project with us in his wood shop, and once in a while Mom took us downtown or to the mall for a little shopping and lunch. Otherwise, our lives were quiet and predictable. Sunday Monopoly did a lot of heavy lifting to create shared memories in our family!
When my kids were young I made sure we built other shared memories, especially of the kind I didn’t get as a kid. More than anything else, I made sure we took vacations together. But I didn’t forget the value of a good game of Monopoly together. Fortunately, unlike my dad I could just relax into a game and have fun with it, even when I lost.
Get more of my photography in your inbox or reader! Click here to subscribe.
