Playing scrabble- a family tradition

 Doreen and I had a game of Scrabble last night here at the Loft while Fred was watching rugby.

I have kept my Dad's board, it has a bag which Mom made, and the little fabric covered book (which I had made for her) filled with 3 letter words and pages full of tricky words using the 'j', 'q', 'x', 'z'. We still use both the book and the bag when we play a game.

Last night, while we were playing, I was chatting to Doreen that Scrabble has been part of the Wedderburn family tradition for more than four generations.

As a little girl I was aware of games being played by my grand-parents in the dining room at Kalkwal, the family farm, of an evening, using the paraffin lamps.

My folks played regularly and we joined in as we got older.

This scrap of paper is a gem. It's from the mid eighties and early nineties just before Mom died. Dad recorded some of the memorable, high scoring words like on the 16th December 1985 I scored 216 by placing 'relaxing' over two triple word scores. This score was trumped in a game between Mom and Dad during the May of 1992 by placing 'acquires' on two triples for a score of 221.

I got two opportunities to use all my letters last night and almost got to a score of 400. Dad notes two games where he played three full words and scored 361 in 7 rounds.  They had a high score of 434 in the March of 1987 while I was away in France.

Impressive.

How we appreciate these jotted notes that reflect our family passion for words, for scrabble and the pleasure of playing the game together.

I think it is appropriate to follow the tradition, I will start to jot down the memorable, high scoring games or words too, as we play here at the Loft.

Last night's killer game, I got all my tiles out twice!