Game Memories: Gruen

When writing about my first game memory, I mentioned that we didn't call the game by it's actual name in my family. This is one of those family stories, that is so old (and/or I was so young), I don't actually remember it happening, I just remember the story. One of those stories that is told every time the event happens, usually embarrassing the person in the story when they are of a certain age, but fondly remembered at a later age.
As the story goes, my parents, brother, and I were visiting Dad's parents for the weekend (in such a small town, our weekend visit would warrant a sentence or two in the town paper). And I kept asking Grandma to play a game with me, the game I wanted to play was Gruen. Grandma had no idea what I was talking about, and I thought I was mispronouncing it, so I kept trying to make her or my parents understand what I was saying, to no avail. I'm sure they all thought me daft. Finally, someone suggested that I go find the game in question and we'd see what I was talking about. The card game was one of my favorites, and was in a nice copper colored box with the name Gruen on it, I knew right where it was on the basement shelves, so I went to get it.
Turns out, Gruen was a watch company, and my Grandma's copy of the card game Authors was so old, it either had worn out it's original box, or didn't ever have one, and so Grandma had kept the cards in the old watch box. Laughter was all around when the grown-ups finally figured out what little shelly was trying to say. Hey, that's the name on the box, how was I to know?
Every time the game was played after that, we called it Gruen, and had a laugh, and a nice memory. After Grandma passed a few years ago, my Mom was going through some of Grandma's things with some other family members, and since all the grandkids loved playing this game, the deck was split up between branches of the family. But my Mom asked if she could also have the box, so she could make me something special. And the next Christmas after that, this wallhanging was one of my gifts. It will always hang in my gaming room, and hopefully will be passed down to future gamers.

Game Memories: Authors

Possibly the first game I ever played, and certainly the first game I ever remember playing was the card game Authors (although that’s not what we called it in our family-and that’s another story) Going from memory, the rules were similar to Go Fish, but a bit more advanced, instead of just asking for ‘threes’ or in a themed deck ‘catfish’ or whatever, you had to ask for a specific card which was a specific book. For example, the Mark Twain cards were, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Mysterious Stranger, the book’s title was at the top and the other three books were listed at the bottom of the card. So instead of asking “do you have any Mark Twains?” you would have to ask “do you have Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain?” I never really enjoyed playing Go Fish, probably because I was spoiled by Authors.
In addition to learning more complicated rules (and thus sparking the life-long desire for interesting games), I learned who wrote what, and even thou I’ll admit I haven’t read some of them, I’ll never forget who wrote The Call of the Light Brigade, or Little Women, or Oliver Twist. It might be fun to make a reading list from this game, they are all classics, after all. I also learned the value of gaming as a family activity, learned how to play games with young children, and learned a nifty trick to help kids keep track of a big handful of cards.
My teacher was my dear Grandmother, my dad’s mom, and this was the first of many games that I played with her or at her house over the years. When I was very young, my parents would sometimes have to go out-of-town for conferences or classes, and often I and my little brother would stay with our Grandparents for the weekend or week while our parents were gone. Time at Grandma's house was more precious on these times when our parents weren't with us, because Grandma would have more time to spend with us personally. My brother played outside a lot, and was (still is) four years younger, so he wasn't old enough to play at first, so I remember most the games just between Grandma and I.
I don't remember learning the rules, but I remember Grandma teaching me a nifty trick. She got out a section or page from the newspaper, and taught me how to put the fold at the top, and lay my cards out on the bottom, having the top to easily come down as a cover. And Grandma used a newspaper, too, and didn't ever 'let' me win, and never considered the game a kid's game. I tried to play my kids' games with them when they were little similar to how Grandma played with me, as if the game they were interested in at the time was the best game in the world.
I've played a lot of games in my life, and will play many, many more. But you always hold a special place in your heart for the first one.