My passion is Primitives or time worn looking items that I may have loved as a child while visiting with my grandmothers. Both of my grandmothers were country people both living through the depression which I'm sure shaped how they perceived life and shared in the simple joys of making a lot of their goods used in their daily lives. They both gardened, sewed, quilted, both seemed to putter around in cotton dresses made by them.
I guess your asking what this has to do with game boards & marble games? Well my grandmother on my mothers side would play cards, board games, had a big jar of old marbles. We're not talking fancy store bought, we're talking about mostly checkers on an old board well that looks like some of my wooden game boards and beautiful marbles, some handmade I'm sure.
Granny T taught me how to play marble games in the dirt. You want find many kids in the dirt today. Back then we had play clothes that stayed stained from being on our knees or backside sitting in a clear dirt area. I remember the ground was hard packed with just a little dust. I guess from all those marble games she coached from her chair. She would sometimes get down there with me. I guess she couldn't resist being involved in a game.
I spent a lot of summers next door with her. I would hit her up to play checkers with me. Of course she had a daily routine that usually included, breakfast, wash dishes, laundry, lunch, more dishes, work in the garden or flower beds, but late in the afternoon around 4 it was time to take her rocker out under a shade tree if it was nice and admire her flower beds. That's when she would take the time to play checkers. This was her wind down, maybe even quality time spent with me watching the checker board and occasionally staring off into the close flower garden to see butterflies move from one flower to the next. She would always challenge me, no this was not one of those Grannies that let you win.
So I guess you could say every time I cut a new game board, sand, paint, or cut holes in a new creation My Granny T is probably on my mind. I see her blue eyes with her bobbed hair thinking strategy to beat me at this lovely game of checkers on this lovely summer afternoon, when times were much simpler and time was made for a game and enjoyed!
Today for me as I head out to my work shop on my mind are the memories of Granny T and how she shaped my love for Board Games, Marbles, & Wooden Game Boards and maybe even sparked my competitive nature. To see my wooden game board creations, checker boards, Parcheesi, Chinese checkers visit
Sunrise Acres Farm Primitives.
Labels: board games, Checker Boards, Chinese Checkers, game, Game Boards, marble games, Parcheesi, Primitives, wooden game boards
