Six Square

My wife and I were reminiscing recently about the birth of our oldest son 46 years ago and a long forgotten game we played during his mother’s long labor. Each of us took a pad of paper and drew a grid of seven horizontal and vertical lines that intersected like a large bordered tic-tac-toe board with 36 squares. We alternated calling out letters to make words without seeing the opponent’s grid. We awarded 30 points for a six letter word, 20 points for five letters, and 10 points for a four lettered word. We modified the board and scoring system for five and four square games. We wondered why we stopped playing that game because we loved it. Now we have cell phones and computerized games to distract us. The value of Six Square was how it promoted interaction with another human. Just like technology changed our habits, a pandemic is going to do the same. To expand on a popular poster: Remember when everyone huddled together singing, then someone would blow on a cake before slicing it up for everyone to eat?