Letters from a 1960s Scrabble for Juniors game. The player who laid down a tile to complete a word printed on the game board earned a red counter. The player with the most counters won the game.
MY FINGERS SLIDE across the smooth, one-eighth-inch thick, blue cardboard squares imprinted with letters. B, M, C, R, O, A…and the dreaded Q, if I’m without a U.
In these tile letters, I touch childhood memories of gathering around the Formica kitchen table set upon worn red-and-white linoleum tiles to play Scrabble for Juniors.
The cover of the vintage Scrabble game for kids from my childhood.
It is the early 1960s and this “crossword game for children” manufactured by Selchow & Richter Company, Bay Shore, N.Y., marks my introduction to Scrabble, which today, in the grown-up version, remains my favorite board game.
Imagine that.
Imagine then me, a wee wisp of a grade school girl leaning across the table to snatch letters from a box lid, shaping those letters into a word and then, triumphantly, carefully, lining the letters upon the playing board, all the while scolding my siblings for bumping the table.
To play on this side of the vintage Scrabble board, players laid letters down to complete the pre-printed words. Lay down the last letter tile in a word, and you earned a red counter chip.
The 1960s Scrabble box cover includes an image of a cowboy at a time when television westerns were popular.
On the flip side of the vintage board, players created their own words, earning one point for each tile in each word formed or modified. As I recall, I couldn't get my siblings to play this side of the board too often.
While I’m certain my brothers and sisters wanted to win, I doubt their interest in this word game ever matched my passion. I delighted in unscrambling the letters into words. Words. Glorious words. Through my cat-eye glasses, I could envision the possibilities.
My earliest memories are of words read aloud from books. Books. Glorious books. At age four, after surgery to correct crossed eyes, I remember Dr. Fritsche at the New Ulm hospital asking me to look at a book. I could see. The pages. The words. The pictures.
Can you imagine how my parents must have worried about their little girl’s vision, how, as a poor farm family they scraped together enough money for the surgery that would keep me from going blind in one eye? I am, to this day, grateful for the gift of sight.
Those are my thoughts on this morning, the day after I heard a bit of trivia on the radio about Scrabble, information that proved to be false. Scrabble was not invented in 1955 as the radio announcer shared.
Rather, Alfred Mosher Butts, an unemployed architect, conceived the idea during the Great Depression and trademarked it in 1948.
For those of you who appreciate trivia, here’s some Minnesota trivia to tuck away in your brain: Jim Kramer, a proofreader from Roseville, Minnesota, won the U.S. Scrabble Open in 2006. This past year, he ranked fourth in the Division 1 section of the National Scrabble Championship and earned $1,000. Three other Minnesotans—from Minneapolis, Rosemount and Spring Lake Park—were among the 108 players participating in the Division 1 competition.
What, I wonder, initially drew these Minnesotans to Scrabble? Did they, like me, gather around the kitchen table as a child to grab letters from a box, form the letters into words and then slide those letters onto a playing board? Do they, like me, love words?
Letters in the adult version of a Scrabble game I received as a Christmas gift in the 1970s.
LET’S HEAR FROM YOU. What’s your favorite board game and why? What are your memories of playing board games as a child? Do you still play board games?
As any Scrabble player would know, I could not legitimately make the word "Minnesota" in a Scrabble game. But this is my blog and these are my rules. If anyone is ever up to a game of Scrabble, I'll play. The guys in my house just don't seem to enjoy word games.
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Very fun! I have been searching on e-bay for a game I had as a kid, only I don’t know the name of it! Which doesn’t help my search. It was a grocery store game…with tiny plastic carts, and this GIANT board…but it also had two other – or 3 – on the reverse side of the board. It was so cool!!!
I honestly haven’t played Scrabble in ages – I should pull that out with the kids…
Good luck in that game search. Isn’t it interesting how, as adults, we long to reclaim something from our youth?
BTW, I would have pegged you as a Scrabble player.
Yes, I enjoy it and I don’t know why I don’t play more often. The current game-of-choice at our house is Clue – with Battleship close behind. Yatzee helps with math so we play that, too.
All good games and all I’ve played.
I remember those days of “having to play” scrabble with you. I disliked the game then and do now. Mostly due to the fact that I am a terrible speller and you would NOT let me make up words. I liked the games Clue and Pit. I also don’t like Life, Monopoly or any other long lasting game. Thank the good Lord that HE gave me the gift of designing.
I expected I’d hear from you, dear sister. Sorry I “made” you play Scrabble. But, hey, I had to play the game with someone and those someones would be my siblings.
To this day I avoid playing any games that involve math. Just ask my friends from the monthly Family Game Night I attend at my church. They’ll tell you, “Audrey doesn’t like to think.” Nope, not when it comes to math.
I thank the Lord, too, that he gave you the gift of designing. You’ve saved me from making major decorating and other mistakes.
Love this game……love words & the English language. I do not play many games but “Scrabble” is much more than a game.
It’s stimulation for the brain! Thanks for the memories, Audrey.
Well, if you lived nearer than five hours away, Jeanne, I’d challenge you to a game of Scrabble. I know it can be played online, but I’m a more hands-on, touch the tiles, place them on the board kind of player.
Ditto!
I grew up playing a variety of card games, mostly Whist, which is still the standard in my dad’s family. Lately we play 500 or other similar bidding card games with friends and family. I have always enjoyed words, but my sisters preferred board games like Monopoly, so when I married into a family that enjoys Scrabble, I was at home. BUT, playing word games with a family of readers and teachers means you have to be good. It’s hard to win at Scrabble in this family.
I play Scrabble so seldom any more that I really have lost my winning edge. I got whooped at a family Christmas gathering and finished dead last.
My husband’s family is big into card games, which I never have enjoyed. I forget the rules and really don’t have the interest. So many a family gathering I’ve had to find something else to occupy my time.
Several times my husband and I were asked to sub at a card club. “Several times” are the key words here. We haven’t been called back in years. Might it possibly have something to do with my flippant approach to card playing among much too serious card players? Yes, I think so. But I’d rather talk than concentrate and play cards.
Four of us play scrabble most Saturday evenings and compete to be top of the league at the end of each year. The weekly prize is a posy of flowers from the garden which gets more and more challenging as Winter progresses.
We still play the card game cribbage sometimes. I remember playing against my grandfather when I was about 10 .
I love this weekly game of Scrabble competition idea, especially with the posy of flowers prize. Pray tell, where do you live? A posy of flowers would not work as a prize here in snowy Minnesota.
We are on the South coast of England. If you can visit my blog posts and comment that would be great , best wishes , Patrick
Ah, England, that explains it. I’ve already stopped by your blog, Patrick, but did not leave a comment. Yet.