You may be getting ready for Christmas next week, but I already had mine the other day when I discovered that there can still be joys in life after growing old. I found and opened a large old cardboard box to verify that I still had the equipment and rules of an ancient game I learned in Japan called “Go,” which is the Japanese word for “five” and is important part of the rules of the game. Maybe I could find someone in the area to play a game or two?
Go is the national game of Japan, according to the book of rules that I also found down at the bottom of the box. Years ago, I’d built two game boards and bought a set of the small black and white stones which is all one needs to play the game.
I haven’t played it for a half-century or more, but for me it has some wonderful memories of strolling the ocean beach with my family near Cape Shoalwater looking for more small black and white stones of just the right size and shape to use on the second game board. I still have the set of store-bought stones and son Matthew has the ones we collected on the beach along with the other game board.
In addition, that big cardboard box still holds two sets of chess — one with small wooden chessmen, possibly made for a travel game. The box is about the same size as a box of wooden matches, which gives you an idea about the size of the pieces themselves. A correspondingly sized chessboard is missing, though. Bummer. The set was probably my dad’s because the date of January 5, 1923 is rubber-stamped on the box’s label, which coincides with his college years. The larger set is carved out of a clear stone-like material that I don’t recognize.
Two sets of dominoes are also included, as is an old “Bradshaw’s Honey” can with a date — in tiny printing — of 1939, and just barely holds a complete set of checkers. A large wooden box with a carved lid, made for me by Matthew when he was a kid, holds items that I’ve wondered about for years what happened to: three pipes that I used to puff on in my early 40s, thinking that I had licked the nicotine habit because I didn’t inhale.
The sight of those pipes caused me to pause and think, “What earthly damage could it possibly do if I filled one of those pipes and started puffing on it again?”
The fear that smoking might shorten my life doesn’t hold much water after one has passed into his nineties. The curling smoke of the better brands of tobacco has a fragrance that many do not consider unpleasant. Santa Claus smoked a pipe in that famous poem, remember.
Also tucked away in that large box is the card game “Authors,” complete with a picture of Mark Twain on its cover and a card explaining the rules. And, finally, two sets of poker chips and a folding checker/chess board lie at the very bottom of that large box.
Why is that box of memories no longer being used? Would it have something to do with the fact that we don’t want to go to the bother of calling friends over for games when it’s so much easier to just sit and watch TV by ourselves? Or, if we want to contact friends we can do it so much easier with that electronic communication device in our hand rather than with face to face contact?
Never mind. I’m hoping that you’ll enjoy a pleasant Christmas with family and friends.
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Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.
