I remember games of Monopoly that lasted for days in the hot summers of childhood. When my brother and I exhausted all of our other ideas and were bored, we’d pull out the good old Parker Brothers Monopoly board. Now, my son and daughter do the same.
I came down to the basement last week to check on the kids and found all three of our Monopoly boards – the original Parker Brothers, a Nintendo version, and the kids’ homemade Monstopoly version from last summer – lined up side by side for an epic summer game of Triple Monopoly.
I asked our kids how it worked and they explained that they threw all the money and properties up in the air, grabbed wildly, and started the game with everything they secured in the chaos. To move around the the boards they travel all the way around one, then move to the next one and travel all the way round it, and so on.
They bored quickly of the lack of challenge – unlimited money, unlimited properties – and they abandoned their game after a couple of hours. Fortunately for me as I worked upstairs, sorting the monies and deeds and game pieces for cleanup kept the kids occupied for almost as long as the game did.
Butterfly Mind 
Andrea, kudos to the kids for coming up with a wildly imaginative variation on an oldie, but goodie, game. The best Monopoly games of my childhood were played here at the cottage with my cousins, usually before 7 in the morning, while the grandmothers slept and we didn’t need a bowl of Sugar Pops or Trix just yet. The board was on the floor and we were spilled around it, oblivious to the fact that the adults would have to step over us on the way to the kitchen. The games were played with a cousin-ly intensity, the older ones bonding in an unspoken way to avoid losing to younger siblings. Rarely, however, would games be played to conclusion as adults stirred, made their ways downstairs and attention shifted, often quickly, to the kitchen table and the beginnings of a new day at the lake.
But Monopoly was our bond during these annual visits back in the 60s. It was common ground, where we became family beyond the formal titles of grandmother and aunt and first, or is it second?, cousin. Thanks for this posting and the memories it pulled up this far-removed morning.
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I love that they’re making up their own rules! Creative thinking at its best. I also remember board game summers…my 14 year old son and I have played a lot of chess this year, and I love it!
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