We were a family of board game enthusiasts. We played everything, and I am not exaggerating one bit. Some of our more competitive games were: Trouble, Clue, Sorry, Rat-rap, Monopoly (of course), Miles Borne, Life, Stratego, Battleship, and last but not least Risk! But no epic family battle with dice ever compared to an odd game gifted to us one Christmas. The simple, yet complex game of Trade and development known as “Settlers of Catan”.

It took a few playthrough s for any of us to ever develop a strategy… which relied on how well each of us could trade to make moves within the game. This became a cut throat aspect.

Now without explaining all of the rules you must understand this to further the story. When I say that trading was a big aspect, hindrance, and obstacle about this game… take my word for it. Often times the family would find each other screaming for wood or Iron or clay. With one bratty little brother hoarding the one resource anyone needs to advance. Because of this we as a family began to develop house rules in order to actually finish a game. As our games went on, these rules became more elaborate.

Then one evening someone got the brilliant idea of a new game completely. This version involved jail cells and partners… and your partner could become jailed, rendering them useless until the right number was rolled on the dice by the other partner. . .

Needless to say that about an hour into it the scene had turned from ‘innocent family board game night’ to a full on mutiny within the household. We managed to get our parents into jail… which was an actual sturdy prison a welder friend of my father had made just for the occasion… and we locked them up. Now we, the children had control of the house.

Just try to imagine 3 kids… the oldest being 14, and the youngest 6… now in full control of the entire house while their parents watched helplessly in a cage in the living room. Cue the music, candy, recklessness, horse play, broken dishes… complete freedom from order.

Of course once police finally showed up from all of the noise and my parents awkwardly had to explain how they had short handed themselves and gave up control of an entire house over a board game, we did get in trouble. We were grounded for a month, and had to work off the damages.

The next night I found my father standing alone in the dark backyard. I put on my winter clothes and walked out to stand beside him.

“Dad what are you doing?” I asked.

“Saving this family.” He claimed as he sprayed lighter fluid all over the game board.