The Vine: January 7, 2011
This morning I had one of those terrifically weird mind bends, where a single spoken word instantly invoked a completely unrelated image-slash-memory.
What I am remembering is a game we played as kids. This would be in the mid-to-late ’70s, or possibly early ’80s, but that might be a bit late. The most clear memory is that among the game’s components were pink plastic cylindrical-ish pieces that, when viewed from the top, were shaped like asterisks. These pieces were maybe a half-inch tall, and about the same in diameter. Challenges in the game included stacking these pink things to make as high a stack as possible, or laying them end-to-end in order to pick up as long of a strand as possible with one hand (thumb/third-finger kind of action, if that helps this rather awkward description).
What I am not sure of at all is if there was a board associated with the game. I have a related memory of cards with a blue design that may or may not be the same game. I also think the pink stacking tasks were only a subset of the challenges in the game, like maybe you could pick the stacking challenge (or maybe it was dictated by the draw of the cards?) and go head-to-head with another player. This seems right, but even vague ideas about any other challenges are not available to my retrieval system.
I have tried Googling, website perusal, and even an email to the childhood friend I believe owned the game itself, but nothing is turning up. One other bit of information that is most likely not related: the word that started this freakish trip was “mostest.” There was a game (this one or a different one) that used the phrase “hostess with the mostest” for some element of the action. I can’t remember that game either.
“Mostest” resolves to “moistest”…ew, MS Word
*****
I’m looking for a book I read as a kid (early to mid ’80s) about a goldfish who gets into the wild somehow (dumped in a pond maybe? Accidentally flushed? Or dumped down a drain?) and has to learn how to survive in the stream he ends up in. He has all kinds of adventures and is nearly killed several times (I remember vividly a scene with a pike lying in wait for him, hanging in the water below him). He meets a female fish along the way, and in the climactic scene of the book, has to save her when she is nearly eaten by a water bug.
It’s a young adult/chapter book, not a children’s/picture book. Anyone else remember this one?
Lorena
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
I’m afraid I’m no help with the game, but if you’re willing to do some digging, BoardGameGeek.com is like the IMDB of board games. If your game isn’t in their database, then it was likely a toy, rather than a board game. BGG also has extensive forums, and a membership who likes to pounce on these sorts of “I remember this game from 30 years ago; can anyone tell me what it’s called?” kind of questions.
Wikipedia has a crazy-long list of board games with links. Just search “List of board games” and maybe one of the titles will jog your memory? Or, if you have a lot of free time you can Wikitunnel through the list and see what happens.
The game question was mine, and I will be heading over to BGG posthaste. Thanks, @Brian! (@Rachel, I had done the wikipedia perusal already, with no success…sigh.)
About two minutes after I sent the Vine letter, I remembered another one of the activities. It was forms of tiddlywinks. I am pretty sure now that a player would draw a card that would dictate which activity they had to perform.
The game pieces sound a lot like Risk unit pieces.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H7lfGhzhTIY/SUTQ_sRd0RI/AAAAAAAAB_s/DSLZ3yR4Beo/s320/pink_risk.JPG
Stacking them was fun, but definitely not part of the game.
Mostest:
Are you thinking of the Guinness Game of World Records?
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4797/guinness-game-of-world-records
We used to play this A LOT growing up, and I’ve come to realize that… they’re mostly drinking games. WTG, my parents.
@Jessica! Jessica! Yes yes yes! I am not crazy!
I love the Nation.
Now I think I have to find a copy to examine the drinking-game concept first-hand.
@Leigh-
YAY! So glad I could help! I was actually just talking about that game with my brother, how all the cousins would play it over my grandparents’ house, hence the inappropriate drinking game realization. What a great way to spend a Friday night! My parents still have theirs, but my dad’s never giving that one up. Good luck!
Is there anything the Nation can’t answer?
For the book, though some of the details don’t match, I immediately thought of the chapter in Voyages of Doctor Dolittle where he pulls a fish from the sea and it tells its life story. The fish was captured with its sister after being separated from its school by a giant fish, put in an aquarium (it learned phrases in English that way) and had to escape from the aquarium back to the sea. Would fit the chapter book thing, but I don’t remember a bug and it is the opposite journey for the fish – wild fish to aquarium, not gold fish dumped in the wild.
Thanks for trying, Hilary! It was definitely a stand-alone book, though. I read it time and time again in my jr. high’s library. I remember the cover as being white, with a drawing of a goldfish swimming by a water plant.
I can’t help with the book question. I can’t seem to get past the illustration of the old Battleship game…Dad and Billy kicking back, doing some male bonding with a warship game, while Mom and Susie slave in the kitchen, looking on whistfully and contemplating the next set of chores: ironing and mopping the floor.
I definitely remember that book too! It was a good one. The waterbug scene was pretty intense as I recall… the bug managed to grab fishie by the tail or something…
But unfortunately I’m no help with the title or any other information. Good luck, and I’m curious about the answer.
Argh, the book question is really bothering me, because I’m sure I’ve read it and I can’t remember the title either. My librarian-fu is not working, but I’ll keep tryign.
I think I finally figured out my book! I’m pretty sure it is “Troubled Waters” by Daniel Pratt Mannix, published in 1969. Described by some as a sort of “Watership Down” about goldfish, it describes the adventures of a male goldfish, Buck, who escapes from his backyard pond into a nearby river, where he encounters a female, Roe. They battle polluted waters and other (natural) dangers on their way to a peaceful tributary. Apparently, it was intended as an allegory about the dangers of pollution, as well as a way to introduce children to the ecology of lakes and streams.