"Oh, the games people play, every night and every day" -- Joe South
I have no clue what possessed us to do it, but one year when I was a lad, my brother, sister and I played Monopoly every night for an entire summer.
So some pieces got changed - ask me if I care. If I recall correctly, my brother won about 98 percent of the games, and my sister took a couple while I lost every single one. This is the reason I decline all invitations to play Monopoly today.
Scrabble - now there's a game I love and can say with intended braggadocio that I have never been defeated as an adult (let the challenges begin).
Games -- all kinds of games -- have always intrigued me.
MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey
I have always been lousy at chess, passable at checkers and rather good at cribbage. I have tried to learn mah jongg, but failed miserably. When I was in college, I, like my contemporaries, became a whiz at backgammon. I am fascinated by the game Go, but no one I know plays it.
While I'm only mentioning board, card and tile games here, in this gallery we also offer snapshots of outdoor pastimes as well as activities that needed a little larger playing surface, like pool, ping pong (all right, table tennis) and bowling. And, I can say with pride that I have participated in every single activity in this gallery ... although some, like skateboarding, are better left forgotten.
Here's a gallery of New Jersey people at play throughout the years. Be sure to have captions enabled to read about each picture. And here are links to previous years' galleries Click here for one Click here for another
Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find Greg Hatala on Facebook.