Playing games

My sister convinced me to order vintage sets of jacks and and pick up sticks. She said we were long overdue. Perhaps becoming a grandmother has made her uncharacteristically nostalgic.

We spent many hours playing jacks and pickups sticks when we were children. While our elders played canasta and dominoes at family gatherings, we entertained ourselves and each other playing simpler games.
We looked forward to the time we could join the adults.
I have happy memories of telling ghost stories with a host of cousins while in the background the voices of my childhood were heard in the background making "bids" and "downs" and talking about being "set."
Both my grandmothers were avid Scrabble players and were patient enough to play with us almost as soon as we could spell.
My grandmother-in-law kept a wahoo board set up on her dining room table most of the time. We seldom visited her that we did not play at least one round. But none of those games, nor any of the card games we played... not even chinese checkers, which I still love to play,  are endeared to me, and apparently to my sister, like jacks and pickup sticks.
They've just arrived, by the way.  A game marathon is in the works.
P.S. I plan to best her...