Today is SCRABBLE DAY!
A day I simply had to post about because of the fond memories I have associated with this board game!
Today was chosen as the day to celebrate the game, because it is also the day that the game creator was born! His name was Alfred Mosher Butts and he invented this board game during The Great Depression in the 1930’s.
At the time that he created the game, many were out of work, starving for food, depressed. Including Alfred himself. He was an Architect – an out of work Architect.
I’d like to think that it wasn’t just boredom that caused him to create it. But that’s me and my positive spin on life, I guess π I’d like to think that as he looked around him, and saw people struggling, that he wanted to provide them with something that would not only stimulate their brains, but possibly also distract them from the misery of their circumstances.
The game was originally called LEXICO, later changed to Criss Cross Words, and of course it is now Scrabble, as we know it.
Alfred teaches us a lesson in tenacity – in the reward that comes with never giving up. Because initially his game was rejected by most board game manufacturers. He eventually encountered a man by the name of James Brunot, who purchased the rights to the game, made a few minor adjustments and renamed it…. making Scrabble (and Alfred) a household name.
The fond memories I mentioned? I can still see my Granny and Grampie now, huddled over their Scrabble board, trying to outdo each other and achieve maximum points so as to ultimately be declared the winner. It makes me smile. They played every night – early evening, straight after supper. And I looked forward to sleepovers at their house, so that I could be a part of the action!
As soon as I was able to begin spelling, there was always a ‘pre-game’ game – Grampie would take me on, and Granny was allowed to help me, but only a little bit. For a few years, I found myself scrambling for words! And then I started to get better at it, and Granny no longer needed to assist. I never did beat Grampie though – he remains ‘our champion’, in more ways than one β€
I found this image on Pinterest, and it made me smile even more, as it is a picture of the original game, and the box looks identical to my grandparents box – well used π
It was amusing to see my brother (the middle child in our family – nine years my senior) proudly unpack his very own Scrabble game when he was eighteen, and right up until the moment he moved out (when he was about 24, I think it was) I would regularly find him playing against himself, either on his bed, or next to the swimming pool while he was ‘tanning’.
No one in my family has ever participated in any formal Scrabble championships (that I know of) – playing against each other was apparently challenging enough! π The only time I have ever won a game, was when I played against myself π But that has never caused me to turn down the opportunity to play – I have definitely always played for the enjoyment of it π
Interestingly enough, even worldwide Scrabble championships have scandals attached to them! What next?!?! Ha ha ha!
Happy Scrabble Day, everyone! Please go and have some fun with words today π
nopassingfancy 
Happy Scrabble Day! Lol.
It’s refreshing to see somebody else talk positively about Scrabbleβ it’s soo hard to find people with good feelings about it and who actually want to play, haha.
“The only time I have ever won a game, was when I played against myself”
π€£ amazing. This is actually not a bad idea, though, as a way to improve. Like how chess people play against themselves, only vastly more fun π.
Oh, our Scrabble box was the original one, too! And looked exactly the same as the picture π.
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I actually did have some fun with words today, appropriately :).
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Reading this post brought back sooo many memories.. of many other games as well!π
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