No, I’m not referring to the Agatha Christie play. I’m not that old. I’m referring, instead, to that awesomest of awesome board games.

I was originally going to do this entry on a variety of board games. I used to have a nice little collection, including several from the series of board games based on video game classics, such as Donkey Kong, Pac-man, and Frogger. Of course, I had Hungry, Hungry Hippos, but that’s a game that I daresay most formerly fat kids hate in a very special way. I also had a Clue knockoff called Mystery Mansion as well as Uncle Wiggly and classics like Life, Parcheesi, and Monopoly.

The problem, though, is that I hate board games. I was an only child and, after the two families nearby with children my age moved away when I was 11, I was pretty much left to my own devices. I played a game every now and then with my parents, but it’s not quite the same as playing with someone your own age. So the board games sat in my closet or under my bed, providing shade for the dust bunnies while I retreated into my internal imaginary worlds.

But Mouse Trap was different. This was the one game I pulled out on a regular basis, not to play it but because I wanted to build it. Truth be told, I never once actually played the game. But I wore the board out, piecing together the trap. Maybe this game is the root of my lifelong love of building things and taking things apart. Who knows? All I know is that I could spend hours just tinkering with all the pieces, figuring out the “how” of it all. No wonder Velma Dinkley was always my favorite Mystery Inc. member 😉

While looking for a photo of the version of the game that I remembered, I came across the following video of people building a life-sized version of the Mouse Trap for a charity event. Could this be any more awesome? Also, check out the hat that the guy at around the 57-second mark is wearing: That’s what the little mice looked like in my version of the game! Good times 🙂

Was there any joy comparable to picking out your cereal based solely on which one had the best prize inside? This was, of course, long before the days of Nutrition Facts panels that droned on about sodium levels and fiber content (and, of course, long before we would care about these things).

Who cared that the cereal was filled with enough sugar to possibly quadruple your blood sugar levels? It’s the one that had the ___________ (fill in the blank with whatever cheesy piece of plastic crap you simply HAD TO HAVE but now couldn’t remember what it was if your life depended on it) inside! And, of course, the instant you got home, it was absolutely imperative to rip open the box and cram your little hands into the bag of cereal until you dug out the prize inside (or maybe that was just me). Between you and me, wasn’t the end result of all that anticipation usually about as much of a letdown as Ralphie’s Ovaltine revelation?

My favorite go-to cereal, both for toys and taste, was always Frosted Flakes (Tony the Tiger never steered me wrong!). These lovely trinkets to the right are obviously little Tony baubles. For the life of me, though, I can’t really remember what they’re supposed to do. I know it involved dropping them into an old soda bottle filled with water, but that’s all I can remember right now. Strangely enough, though, I still have six of them.

I guess cereals still have prizes inside, right? Sadly, it’s been a very long time since I walked that far down the cereal aisle at the store (the oatmeal and bran flakes are all right at the beginning of the aisle…I guess they don’t want us old fogies walking too far to get our fiber). I can’t really imagine getting that excited over a hunk of plastic floating around in my Special K, but I might change my tune if they ever advertise something like “Free Dr. Crusher Action Figure in Every Box!”

Now that would be awesome.