Playing Monopoly

I played Monopoly quite often with my girlfriend Elissa when we were young. We sat crosslegged on the floor of the bedroom she shared with her sister Nina and set up the game. Sometimes Judy Walsh played with us as did Linda Fuller.

But we made up our own rules because playing the game as it was intended just took too long. And so we dealt the deeds out like a deck of cards and then we traded properties until the colors were complete for purchasing hotels and houses.

The value of our real estate was equal even though the number of owned properties varied among us---but that was okay—it was fair.

And sometimes the winner was not the owner of Park Place and Boardwalk. Sometimes the winner owned all the low income properties like Baltic Avenue but found themselves fortunate enough to have all the players land on them with great frequency.

And sometimes even with the amended rules the game still took too long and so we abandoned play.

We had better things to do—although I cannot remember what they were.

And today I heard that the owners of Monopoly are switching out the “iron” for a “cat” piece. The “shoe” barely escaped execution.

But much of that would not have bothered us at all. Because (to the best of my tenous  recollection) Elissa always chose the dog, I always chose the top hat, Judy always chose the racecar and Linda always chose the thimble.

No one wanted to be the iron.

And I don’t think anyone would have wanted to have been the cat either.

But the shoe? That’s a different story. Shoes are loved by all girls—universally--including the ones who sat on Elissa’s floor oh so long ago.

Girls who grew up--- yet still remember.