Monopoly

Mr. Fixit and I have been Christmas shopping for the grandchildren. I was absolutely astounded by the variety of Monopoly games available. The versions include Spiderman,
Spongebob, electronic banking (no money involved), pink (perhaps Barbie?), Pixar cartoons, superduper (I made that up; I can’t remember the exact name but it meant superduper), today’s real estate prices, and the list goes on. There must be at least twenty different versions.

We saw the electronic banking version this past Wednesday in our local Wal-Mart. When we went yesterday to pick up one for the children to take on camping trips, there were no EB versions at the store. We checked two different “Toys R Us” stores, plus every Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target within a 50 mile radius. When we arrived at home last night about 10:00 pm, I checked on line. There were simply none available. I didn’t check Ebay though; I’m sure there must be some there. It must be the “in” game this year.

When I was a kid, our monopoly set cost about $4.00. It had wooden tokens. My older brother always chose the tall red skinny one; I was always the short fat purple one. When we played, he always won. He cheated! He changed the rules as he went along. He always had hotels on Park Place and Boardwalk. He was 4 years older than I so it took me years to figure out that he was cheating. He didn’t admit it to me until we were both adults.

Even though he cheated, I still enjoyed playing with him. We were as different was day and night. He was the extrovert, the captain of the football team, and BMOC. He had to beat the girls off with a stick. He made better than average grades without trying.

I was the shy introvert. I wasn’t in the “popular” crowd. I was happy being at home with a book or watching television. I made better grades than he did, but I had to study my tush off.
The last game I remember playing with him was when I was a sophomore in high school and he came from college on a break. Even though I knew he cheated and I would lose, I agreed to play because it made me feel wonderful that he would take the time to play a game with me even though he must have had better things to do.