I’m familiar with Monopoly, Checkers, Operation and Mr. Potato Head. We played Monopoly for hours on end as children, but pretty much had our own flexible set of rules, which evolved over the length of the game. If you ran out of money, you borrowed from the bank. We’d write I.O.U. on little slips of paper with the amount owed and place in the upturned lid of the box. If the money ran out in the bank, the game was over.

In my innocence, I thought the game of Life would be similar. And in some ways it is, but in other ways it can be deadly.

We all played in Arkansas.

Each player selected a plastic car and placed a person/peg in it. We’d spin, move our cars, land on a square and, according to what was printed on theYou must be logged in to view this content.