Happy New Year!

Every now and then, when the stars align, for I can think of no better explanation, an absolutely unexpected fun event comes about that is neither planned nor anticipated, resulting in belly laughs, a good deal of ribbing, rivalry to be sure, and a memorable evening which will live on in the minds of those who participated for a very long time, to be sure.

Last Monday evening, New Year's Eve, Sis gave me a call asking me to come to my parent's home to join them for a visit.  As Better Half and I had no other celebration plans, I made my way to my parent's home, where I found my parents, Mayor and Sis sitting around the kitchen table.

Donned in my silver jaunty "Happy New Year" headband, with matching silver beads, I was feeling quite festive, and inquired, only semi-seriously, when I might expect the Chinese Checkers game to begin.

You see, in this family of mine, Chinese Checkers is something of both a beloved tradition and a bitterly fought battle, where no one participant is safe from the other.  The event generally takes place during the holidays, interestingly a time of good will. Since the annual games had not yet taken place this year, I figured New Year's Eve was as good a time as any for the contest.  Sis refers to the games as Full Contact Chinese Checkers.  She is not far off the mark.

My suggestion was met with approval, so I was sent to fetch the Chinese Checker board from under the sofa where it resides in relative anonymity for 364 days a year.  The plastic bag of marbles was right there with the board.  Other years have found us searching the house high and low for matching sets of ten marbles for each player.  It was a good sign that the marbles were with the board this year.

And, when I say board, I mean a round, colorful, slightly rusting tin.  On one side are the round indentations for the Chinese Checkers marbles, while the other side is used for regular Checkers.  Compartments are provided for the marbles and checkers, though after 40 or 50 years, the original checkers and marbles have gone missing.  As we pondered the meaning of the chinese symbols that decorate the board, we did discover that the board was made by Ohio Arts in Bryan, Ohio. Ohio Arts is best known as the maker of the Etch A Sketch.  We still haven't figured out what the chinese symbols mean though some interesting ideas were profferred during the course of the evening.

 

But, I digress.  Marble colors were chosen, seats were drawn up to the table.  Better Half had not joined me, and my mother insisted that I call him to ask him to join us.  She promised that we would go easy on him. Yeah, right.  Nobody is immune from prosecution in a Chinese Checkers game.  He sleepily answered the phone, and did not immediately agree to join the screwball game. 

So, we five began a game without him.  Dad kept insisting that he had forgotten how to play and that he could not tell the blue marbles from the green ones.  Dad is 85.  It sounded plausible.  However, as he continued to make his assorted claims, we watched his green marbles surely and steadily make their way to the opposite end of the board. Very interesting.

I have decided it would be impossible for me to ever play poker.  If I had a good move, I could not contain my glee, much to the mock consternation of Sis.  And, if anyone else had a good move, I couldn't contain my glee either.  So we all counted the jumps for each other together.  And we vociferously, and with much spirit, questioned moves that we thought were questionable. 

Midway through the first game, Better Half bravely entered and had a seat, much like the innocent lamb to the slaughter.  He insisted that he had only come to watch but he was soon cajoled into taking part in Game 2. 

Well, the old guy, who early on insisted that he had forgotten how to play, won the game.  He has won almost all the games over the years.  So much for his claims.  They would certainly fall on deaf ears in game two.  We went so far as to give him the white marbles for the second game so he would be able to tell the colors apart, though it apparently wasn't much of a problem in the first game.  He should have stuck with the green.

The second game commenced, much like the first.  Better Half soldiered on, without a lot of grief falling his way.  I felt pretty good about my chances of winning.  Mom was moving acrossing the board steadily.  The old guy, flush with his first victory,  apparently decided to spread the winning around.  And, then it began.  Someone suggested that perhaps I should be stopped from winning.  And so I was.

 

Sis moved one of her marbles into my section to prevent my from winning.  Then, Mayor placed one of his marbles into her section to prevent her from winning.  And, each of us did our very best to keep anyone from getting any advantage, whatsoever.  In the end, the lamb, Better Half, prevailed.   I don't know how we slipped up and let him win the game, but he did.

Actually, we were all winners.  We laughed.  We competed fiercely with each other at the same time that we helped each other.  We loved.  We spent a great couple of hours that will live with us for a long time. 

Long live Full Contact Chinese Checkers.