Scrabble

The next photo is the PROMPT. Remember, all photos are property of the photographer, donated for use in Friday Fictioneers only. They shouldn’t be used for any other purpose without express permission. It is proper etiquette to give the contributor credit.

PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast

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I’m indulging in a bit more of an intro than usual. I want to share how I got from Jen’s photo to the story I ended up with. At first, I zeroed in on the game Sorry which I played a lot when I was a child. Later, I would play it with my kids. So naturally I Googled the history of the game and came up with George Swinnerton Parker, founder of Parker Brothers and inventor of such games as Sorry, Tiddly Winks and Monopoly. Then as I was playing Scrabble on my iPad, which I do several times a day, it occurred to me I was following the wrong thread. This story is based on my own family history. 😉

Genre: Anecdote
Word Count:100

GAME ON

In 1948 James Brunot redesigned the game Criss Cross and renamed it Scrabble. It was first marketed in Great Britain in 1954.

My parents played on otherwise quiet evenings.

Mom was an avid crossword puzzle worker. Dad’s vocabulary didn’t compare to hers.

She spelled out, “QUA”

“What the hell is that? I challenge!” Flipping through dictionary, he muttered, “Oh, here it is, ‘being; in the character of’” Then he played his tiles. “SCREAM. Double word. Beat that, Mrs. Know-it-all.”

Mom added five letters to QUA to form SQUABBLE. “Triple word and my name for this game. I win. I quit.”