The Ridge Historical Society
Thanksgiving Week – Part 2
By Carol Flynn
Thanksgiving week is also National Game and Puzzle Week. The timing is intentional, as this holiday kicks off the next six weeks of friends and family gathering to socialize and celebrate. And after the winter holidays come a few months of cold weather perfect for indoor activities.
Puzzles and games are a time-honored way to entertain, engage, and bring together people of all ages. Tabletop boardgames fell out of favor when video games became popular, but the COVID pandemic brought a resurgence of interest in tabletop board games as people looked for fun activities while they were confined to home.
Forty years ago, the Beverly Hills Junior Woman’s Club came out with a boardgame for this community. “The Game of Beverly Hills/Morgan Park” was a fund raiser, likely for nursing school scholarships. The game, based on Monopoly, was a customized product from a company in Michigan. You can read all about it in this week’s Beverly Review at: https://www.beverlyreview.net/news/community_news/article_ce5223bc-6a82-11ed-89bb-8f4a686346d3.html
People bought the game as a keepsake. Janice Bruno Griffin of Morgan Park recently reminded RHS of the game when she contacted an RHS representative about the copy she had. Copies of this game are likely to be found in homes throughout the community.
It’s interesting to note which businesses on the game board are still around today and which are only part of memory now. The game is a snapshot in time, both recording history and becoming a part of history.