Mensch ärgere dich nicht !

As long as I can recall, there has been a favorite board game in our family, called by its German name, Mensch ärgere dich nicht. Literally translated, the name of this game is "Human, don't get annoyed."  [OR, "Don't get angry, buddy!"]

The goal of the game is to be the first to get all four of your marbles home by throwing a dice and moving around the board. The numbers one or six allow you to begin, and throwing a six also gives you an extra turn.

I had never heard about the origin of this game. When I checked with Wikipedia, I learned that it was developed in Germany by Josef Friedrich Schmidt in 1907. It was launched in 1914 (two years after my Dad was born) and sold about seventy million copies because of its popularity among German troops serving in World War I. American English names for this game are Parcheesi, Aggravation, and Sorry. In England it is called Ludo. There is also an Indian version, called Parques. 

The source of the greatest annoyance in this game is that when someone lands on the space you are occupying, they can throw you out and send you back to start all over again. However, there are also other things about this game that can be aggravating. Sometimes a player's patience is tested because they can't seem to throw the right number and are lagging behind. Another source of annoyance is when a player decides to save someone from having to go back home by moving one of their other marbles. My grandmother was known to spare you if you begged long enough or if you were one of her "favorite" grandchildren! Some of my siblings couldn't stand the pressure and just stopped playing. This could also be annoying. Others made a great show of throwing someone out. Some players wanted to give advice or check if someone had cheated. Sometimes they insisted you cheated when you knew you didn't. One of  my nieces can clearly remember her grandfather, my Dad (who was normally a patient and peace-loving man), hissing at my Mom in his Low German accent, "Mind your own bissnes!"

The board pictured above was made by my great-uncle John Epp, a bachelor all his life. He and his older sister (who was my widowed grandmother) lived in a little house on a farm owned by another brother. One of my favorite childhood memories is playing this game after supper at my grandmother's house. We would sit at the kitchen table by the light of a kerosene lamp. I can still hear the thumps of big white moths, attracted to the light, hitting the window pane. And  I can still hear my sister wailing and my grandmother comforting her and "helping" her start again. I felt bad for my sister, but my urge to win was greater than my compassion.

My sister and I are toasting each other over an aggravation game on New Year's Eve. We play more maturely now (most of the time!). The board we are using is a modern version of our great-uncle's which is still in my possession.

Our grandchildren love to play this game with us. Some of them keep score from one visit to the next. They have "magic" tricks like blowing on the dice, picking a certain dice, having the right colour of marbles, whispering to the dice under the table, etc. Sometimes they whine and say, "I'll never win this game!" I always tell them to think positively because it will help them to win. They look at me with big eyes and say, "Really, Oma?" "Yes," I tell them, "you will always win by thinking positively and lose when you think negatively." They think I'm talking about the game but it's a life lesson I'm teaching them. And isn't that also the point of playing games like this together?

What games have you enjoyed during your growing-up years? Do you still play them? Have you kept the originals?

Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

                                                                                                               -- Brian Thomas Littrell