Vive le chat

The iron is dead ...

Once upon a time, a guy could easily buy a railroad for $200, but, oddly enough, turn around and find himself hit with a $75 bill for luxury tax.  In those days, everyone earned the same salary -- $200 -- but income equality hardly did away with class distinctions or the gap between the rich and the poor..  Rent in a flop house hotel on Mediterranean Avenue cost you only $250;  a stay in a grand Boardwalk hotel set you back $2,000.  You could be sent to jail for no stated reason whatsoever, but those in the know -- and in possession of a certain small document -- could get out of jail free.


... long live le chat.

Yes, Monopoly, of course.  The great game of depression America, and one of the continuing triumphs of the board game industry.   The game has evolved over the years, but only superficially.  Its adherents detest change.  Therefore, despite inflation since the 1930s, players still joyously accept $10 for winning second prize in a beauty contest.

One small change made front page news this week: a playing piece has died -- the sturdy (and curiously non-electric) iron -- and has been replaced by an icon more in keeping with the decadence of our own times -- a non-utilitarian cat.  The iron was voted off the island, so to speak, by players whose votes determined it to be the least favorite of present day playing pieces.

Well, duh.  I could have told them that.  I don't recall anyone ever voluntarily choosing the iron.  The thimble and wheelbarrow, yes.  Certainly the top hat.  The Scotty dog was voted most popular, and yet I don't recall his ever being in much demand when I played.  Was he even included in my set?  I don't recall.

Actually, the pieces I recall best weren't the present day metal pieces at all.  They were colored wooded pieces in various abstract shapes.  See my illustration below, if you don't know what I'm talking about.  My set had most of these same pieces, but not necessarily in the same colors.  My brother always chose what we called "the milk can" -- that cylindrical piece on the left with the groove circling the upper portion.  My first and only choice was always the piece that reminded me of an old fashioned rubber stamp -- it's black in the illustration, but a lustrous royal purple in my own set. 

It wasn't until later in my childhood, when someone gave me the "Deluxe" edition of  Monopoly, packaged in a white box, that I began using the current-style metal pieces.

It's been years since I've played Monopoly.  However, in the last few years a childhood friend has re-emerged from obscurity, hurling bizarre taunts my way, claims of my supposed childhood inferiority at the game.  Sooner or later, I suppose, I'll have to put the lad in his place.  How better to do so than with the newly minted cat?  She's sleek, she's new, she's sassy.  She's so "today."  My buddy will predictably choose some favorite piece out of his fading boyhood memories, relying on a pathetic sense of nostalgia.

Nostalgia's for losers.