Tuesday 24 June 2014

Anyone for tennis?

There is pretty much wall-to-wall football on television, even though we have been knocked out in the first round.   Yet it still dominates the air waves.   No-one in our house is the least interested, so I switch on hoping for something else.   What else is there?   Tennis for the next fortnight.

The only other thing we can't stand is the adverts, so that rules out Channels 3 and 4.   By this time I am totally tired of looking for anything so I do what I should have done in the first place.   Switch off.

Have we become so reliant upon television to fill our waking hours that we have forgotten how to find other things to do?   Usually the farmer and I watch the antiques programme over our afternoon tea, followed by the News and the local News.   Then we switch off and once the farmer has had his shower we tend to play Rummikub.   A night without a few games of Rummikub is a rare thing indeed in this household.

If you don't know the game, which is rather like the card game Gin Rummy but played with counters, I do urge you to buy a set before the Winter sets in.   We were introduced to it by our Dutch friends F and R when they came to see us.   When we went to the Netherlands we bought a set for ourselves and we have played it ever since.

Sad how games have died out isn't it?  I have spoken here about Pencil and Paper games before, but there are also games like Chess, Monopoly, Draughts, Dominos and the like.   When I first moved up here almost thirty years ago Domino drives were a great feature of Winter Friday evenings when you could find one to go to somewhere in the Dales most weeks.   And the home-cooking in the interval was also well worth going for.   Now I rarely see one advertised - presumably because nobody wants to go any more.

When I look even further back, to when I was young, then the Saturday night dances were all the rage.   We would spend hours getting ready to go and then share a taxi into the nearest town (in my case Lincoln) to go to either The Co-op Hall or the Drill Hall to dance the night away (under strict instructions from our parents to share a taxi home too and to never accept a lift home from a boy with a car or a motor bike).   Times have changed.   Where does boy meet girl these days - wish I had five pounds for every marriage in my generation when the couple first met on the dance floor!

14 comments:

Heather said...

Every household would have a good selection of board games years ago. Our children loved Monopoly as the games lasted so long and they could stay up later! With regard to TV - we are the same and sometimes resort to repeats, but have run out of repeats of repeats as we know them all by heart!
You can't beat a good book.

Dartford Warbler said...

I`m with Heather. Too many ball games on the television and we switch off and start reading!

jinxxxygirl said...

Don't get me started about TV. So many times we threaten to end our service. Very few high caliber shows to watch and the amount of advertising is just overwhelming...There are days i could very easily just turn it off and never turn it on again...

I LOVE to play games but i'am surrounded by people who do not like to play. So whats a person to do..lol.......

The only sports we watch is in the fall with American Football and even then not too much. So many things i'd rather be doing.... :) Hugs! deb

shadypinesqltr said...

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine started a games night at her home. We meet fortnightly, everyone brings a nibble, we keep it simple. We've played all kinds of games but my favorite is Sequence.
I like tennis but the live coverage here starts at 7 a.m. I probably will watch more in the later rounds.

Gwil W said...

Come on Pat, if England were still in the World Cup, instead of bottom of the group we'd be glued to our TV sets. My favorite game is snakes and ladders. Every child should learn the lessons of this game. It's a real life educational tool.

angryparsnip said...

Love board games and puzzles.
If you like poker try Yahtzee you play it with dice, it is so much fun.

cheers, parsnip

Cro Magnon said...

TV, in this house, is mostly viewed in winter. At this time of year we are outdoors until bed (we TALK). Also, being an hour ahead, most of the decent TV programmes are too late.

MorningAJ said...

Where does boy meet girl these days? Online. That's the 21st century for you.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Oh yes, I forgot all about reading. The trouble is that the farmer is not a reader (other than the farmers' papers and magazines, which he devours)- so if I sit and read when he is in he tends to go to sleep! Thanks for calling.

thousandflower said...

My family get together with Joel's Mom and this year with daughter Siri once a month for a Scrabble fest. And during the winter we play it a lot. It's our game of choice. In the summer we're out working until after dark so no time for such pursuits. We don't even own a TV anymore.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

I've played that game with Don's aunt when we visited Wisconsin - lots of fun. Since the kids are all grown and living in their own homes I have no one to play games with. Don just doesn't care for them. I know, I can't believe that either.

We don't have a tv and don't miss it one bit. Instead of the constant noise/confusion/annoyance of the tv we have quiet. We can hear the birds outdoors, even with the windows closed - we have nice long talks in the evenings, which can also filled with handwork, reading or writing. There seems no end to the things we do without television.

Most people say they can't do without their "programs" - and it does amaze me at how many intelligent people fill their heads with the trivial nonsense of tv. If they didn't have it they would surely find something else to do - we humans are smart that way.

Terry and Linda said...

We hardly ever watch TV. Terry gets the market reports and then the news. I watch hardly anything.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com


Crafty Green Poet said...

We play a lot of Scrabble.

We don't watch much TV, except nature programmes and Wimbledon. We're both tennis fans though we don't like any other sports

DRP said...

this post was very good...