DOMINOES--A BOARD GAME OR A BORED GAME

In my 'hood we played a lot of board games. In bad weather. Before tv games like Pong. Even before Pac-Man. Certainly way before DS and Ipod.

But we never played Dominoes. Nearly every kid had some; we just didn't know what to do with them other than snake them around and knock them over.

Our favorites were Chutes and Ladders, Clue, Parcheesi, Life, and of course, Monopoly. Checkers and Chinese Checkers were big, too. And electric football.

My favorite next to Monopoly was a basketball game where you pulled a lever to shoot from 3 different locations on the court. The ping pong basketball had to land in one of your openings on the board. From there you pulled the level back the necessary distance to let it fly. Too little and your ball would dribble away. Too much force and you'd fire it completely over the backboard and seat with frozen cheering cardboard fans.

The goals themselves had little nets made of plastic surrounding the little rims. They didn't make the beautiful swish sound, but they were good for their time. Tournaments were played with invariably the St. Louis Hawks defeating the Boston Celtics time and time again.

Like watching some first-timer eat his first oyster, it was great fun to watch a first time basketball player in that little game. You could just bet that the first shot would be way out of the arena and onto wood floors or plush carpet. The game demanded touch, only honed after years of level sensitivity.

But when the weather would break, we'd be outside. Away from adult presence. Many times shooting at hoops of our own, with an occasional shot arching over the backboard a la board game.