Wooden Houses

         Monopoly is still not my favorite game, but it is one of the few that Roland will agree to play with us.  However the rules vary quite drastically depending on whether he or Jenna are banker.  One of the last times we played, each of us had monopolies but Roland was banker hoarding houses and we were not allowed to buy hotels until we slowly built up and then traded in.  When Jenna’s banker, hotels can be purchased without having to first build up a housing empire.  There aren’t enough houses – at least there weren’t.

          Roland found some extra houses at good will and purchased what appears to be vintage pieces.  Not original 1936 pieces but a remake done in 1947. 

We decided to incorporate the extra housing in with our game pieces that were made this century. We played a came the day after Christmas.

The hotel sizes are different and the house colors range in an assortment of greens.

          The color variation for the money is not as obvious between the 20s and 50s as they are today

          And the game pieces were not the cool shapes that they are today,  Wooden pawns and tiny dice.

          The instructions had been creased and torn.  When we taped it back together Roland asked if that wouldn’t ruin its value.  Jenna and I threw puzzled glances at him thinking the creases and tears had probably already disvalued the game.  Also the fact that there was no board included.

          Jenna found a misshaped hotel and thought it funny and purposely used the edge/corner to stand the hotel as she thought it was funny.

          The game came with a booklet to advertise other Parker Brothers games (this one in Salem, Massachusetts – though they also had locations in New York, Chicago and London.  The monopoly game sold for 3.50  A game called Camelot sold for 1.50 and 2. 00 or with a large board and ivoried pieces for 5.00.  Sorry sold for 2.00 and a game called Pollyanna (which suspiciously looks like Parcheesi) sold for 2.00 also.

           Jenna and I laughed as Roland started mortgaging properties in order to buy others – NONE of which gave him a monopoly.  We kept landing on community chest, chance, taxes, and our own properties but rarely our own.  Jenna and I had both purchased hotels for the monopolies we had – but as no one was landing on properties except for the owner, we failed to purchase more because what would be the point.

          We played for two hours and declared Roland the winner just so we could stop.  We played some other games yesterday.  Jenna and I really enjoy playing games.