By Ann St. Martin Stout
Leaves Are Free
Not long ago, we were given a set of dominoes. There were always dominoes around the house, both as we were growing up, and when our children were at home. But no one among us knew how to play the real game. As kids, we’d line them up end to end, add them to the building blocks, and stand them on end in a curving row to see the chain reaction when one end was tipped.
Along with the gift came a brief tutorial for the game “muggins.” We learned each domino tile is called a bone, what’s left after each player has taken their starting pieces is called the boneyard. Each of the dots is called a pip.
Greg and I play two-out-of-three “hands” for the win. We play to 100, and each score must be a multiple of five. Since muggins is the only domino game we’ve learned, there is probably a world of games and scoring options awaiting us.
Dominos is considered a “lay-out” game, as well as being called a “tile-laying” game. Both Quirkle and Scrabble, two other favorite games, fall in the same category. For me, seeing the game played and participating was far better in learning Quirkle, than just reading the instructions.
For all 48 years of our marriage, we have played cribbage. I learned at 14 from my father, and we played on the board made by his father. With a pocket cut in the side of the thick wood board to store the deck of cards, and a hole drill for the pegs, they are both covered by an engraved brass plate that pivots on a single nail. My father is gone, the board is with my sister being used and eventually to be handed on for played by another generation.
When our granddaughter grasped the game and won the first time around age 11, we knew that our assistance was no longer needed.
Backgammon is an old fallback. We usually need to review a few of the rules, like set-up, at the start of the game. While writing this I checked online to see what the round pieces of backgammon are called. Here are the choices: men, checkers, draughts, stones, counters, pawns, discs, pips, chips, or nips. Take your choice.
Our first exposure was in 1978, in the Phantom Ranch Canteen, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We stopped in for a beverage after hiking into the canyon prior to spending the night at a campsite.
At the Canteen, two guys were about to begin a game of backgammon. They could agree on how to set up the stone at the beginning to the game. Of course, one was right, the other wrong, but alas, we could not help them, and Google didn’t exist. When we learned the game several months later, I could see why someone was confused.
Backgammon is one of those games we don’t play as often and know fewer people who play.
I’m usually interested in learning new game (unless they’re too complicated), and the market for games seems to be readily growing. In this gift-giving season, I’m sure I’ll be seeing new games coming into the family.
Ann St. Martin Stout can be contacted at [email protected].
