If you’re like most of America, you’re stocking up on games and puzzles to pass the time as much as you are toilet paper and bags of beans. Even Garden & Gun’s new trivia game, Bless Your Heart, sold out almost immediately on Fieldshop and Amazon (though you can still snag a set until those places restock here). In a recent Talk of the South newsletter, we asked readers to share with us their favorite card or board game. Below, you can read their answers. As for myself, I’d love to be piecing together this clever fried chicken puzzle, or playing a game of bocce in the backyard with my family. After all, there’s nothing like a little good-natured competitiveness for expunging some of that extra housebound energy.
“It is my family’s tradition to try to outsmart each other each Christmas holiday playing Scrabble. Problem is, the more wine I drink, the smaller my vocabulary reservoir becomes.” —Kirsti N.
“My favorite card game is UNO because I get to play it with my grandson, Joey. He knows more about the game than I do, and he gets to teach Mamaw something she doesn’t know. Every now and then he lets Mamaw win a game or two. —Bea T.
“I have two favorite games—Scrabble and Clue. Can’t play them now as I live alone, but can’t wait till I can when this ‘lockdown’ is over!” —Barbara M.
“Mine would have to be poker. When I was a kid, my best friend, Debbie, and I would sit and play poker all afternoon. We used plastic poker chips and pretended we were in a saloon in Tombstone.” —Cynthia R.
“Chutes and Ladders with my precious grandchildren.” —Vicki A.
“Cribbage or Cards Against Humanity.” —Sloane H.
“Spades, and we found Trickster, an app, to play with friends.” —Tracy S.
“I absolutely love to play mah-jongg, a game with tiles, played with two, three, or four people. I have learned how to play all four positions in order to still play by myself and keep my brain sharp while separated from people.” —Charlotte P.
“Kings in the Corner is a great card game.” —D.G.
“There are so many! Canasta, because it is fun to play, but really it is the friends I play with. Also Cranium, because it can be played with all ages, which adds to the fun.” —Sally M.
“We gather once a month for a wonderful time of fun and fellowship. We play Pennies from Heaven. It is so awesome and clever! Love my “pennies” friendships. —Carey D.
My all-time fave board game is Dealer’s Choice, a used-car buying challenge, where you can LIE. Of course, your opponent may ask to “look under the hood,” in which case you could be undone. Don’t worry about me—my church knows what kinda girl I am. Snort! —Pam A.
My favorite game is FreeCell on my tablet. It’s something I can do that makes me think and entertains me at the same time while in self-quarantine. —Linda V.
There are three of us sequestered in a condo on Davis Islands, in Tampa. We have been working crossword puzzles together. At least once each day, we come to the table and challenge ourselves to find answers to the puzzles we find in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Most days we find we are smarter than we thought. On the weekends, not so much. —Mary Ann H.
