Day 6: Games

Ann Dee Ellis thing. You get it by now.

I've always loved games.

You know, Rummikub, Clue, Life, Monopoly. Sometimes it was about winning, but it was always about playing. Most games make me think of my grandparents. Clue makes me think of the hours I spent with my cousins playing the game in my maternal grandparents' basement. Rummikub makes me think of summer days on my paternal grandparents' houseboat on Lake Powell.

All those days are behind me now. My mother's parents passed away, and it felt like they took the house with them. The dress ups, the 40-year-old board games, the smell of dry storage and honey...

Lake Powell seems impossible now that my father's father is gone. It couldn't be the same without Papa.

I always imagined growing up and continuing to visit Powell annually until I had my own houseboat. I pictured taking my kids there and taking them on Sea Doo rides across open lake water. I learned how to explore carefully at Powell. I learned how to bathe in the lake and sleep under the stars there. It was a huge part of my life, and there were so many games.

I loved sitting on the roof playing Scrabble, or sitting inside playing Euker. There was always a game to join in on, or a cousin to play with. Then when it got too hot sitting, all we had to do was jump into the water. We'd all splash and swim to new tiny islands, pouring mud all over ourselves then swimming until it came off. I still played those games well into my 20s.

Somehow, that was a lifetime ago.