Do not pass Go
Posted on April 25, 2006 - Filed Under Philosophy |
Someone made an observation the other day. I communicate a lot with people from other countries. I call these my "international friends". One topic of curiosity: How other countries view Americans.
The observation was that Americans in general seem to have an entrepreneurial spirit. Moreso than in other countries.
This made me smile.
I tried to think of why this might be true. It certainly wasn’t television that influenced me. The television I watched as a small child consisted of "Scooby Doo" and "Sanford and Son". Not hardly television for those wishing to become the next Bill Gates.
Then this article came across my desk and it hit me. "Of course! Monopoly!"
My education in Monopoly started with my knowledge of snow days. In my little neighborhood, every kid would be sitting in front of their television set and just praying that "Vassar Public Schools" would be read aloud as being closed for the day. Once those three magical words were spoken, the telephones would start ringing. The biggest question on our minds: What can we do with this glorious day?
Build a snowman? Pffft! Snowmen are for wimps. No, we had to build tunnels and go sledding in the ditches. Snowball fights? Maybe. Only if water was included to make them nice and hard. If you didn’t have red welts on your face, you weren’t invited back for hot coco. You had to earn that; battle scar.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, Monopoly.
After dressing down in front of the door, we would all pile up into our giant basement.
In our wake, chunks of snow that landed on that day’s newspaper that my mom put down. The fat man with the hat hit the floor and we all claimed our pieces.
"I get to be the car!"
"You’re always the car! That’s not fair!"
"Here Peewee, you can be the shoe."
"Screw you Jimmy! I hate the shoe!"
Immediately, five future real estate baron’s had their pieces and money assembled. Let the dice roll! Win a beauty contest? Sign me up! Get out of jail free?
Who wants to give me $50 for it?
I tell you, I had the bankruptcy part down! On more than one occasion, I mortgaged the property I had to pay that rent. "Crap! There’s a hotel? I’m dead!!"
Every kid on my block had this board game. I even remember this game coming out at our family Christmas events. Nothing says "I love you" more than a salivating relative, asking you for $2,000 to stay in his 5 star hotel.
To this day, my dad still plays the Sega Genesis version of Monopoly.
Maybe it is a part of our culture? Something that is engrained into our heads since the time when we were little. It’s something that our parents knew. Even our grandparents.
Of course these days, this is more my speed.
If you liked that post, then try these...
Thinking ahead on August 14th, 2007
This last weekend, I found myself chatting with my mentor while reviewing the work that had been done on the house.
Is that like 1%? on December 5th, 2006
I kept score this time.
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3 Responses to “Do not pass Go”
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Isn’t ironic given the game’s origin?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_%28game%29
I still play Monopoly all the time on my Pocket PC. Who knew the game originated from a woman?
We played it in Britain too… with London street names