I just noticed the thread about dominos in the 70’s as a fad and it made me wonder if other families played enough dominos to matter.
When I was a kid, the men on my mother’s side of the family made regular use of dominos as a way to spend the time they had together. Always a four-hand partnership game called Block. Usually the same two on a team and the rivalry was serious. No money involved but team pride was a big deal.
When I was in my teens our family (Mama included) would play on occasion, often enough for my brother and me to learn the finer points. He and I also learned other variants than Block and spread the play of the game among our friends, but there were never more than a dozen or so people I knew who even owned a set of dominos.
As an adult my wife and I played an occasional game with other family members or an occasional friend who knew the game (or didn’t mind being taught Block rules). But cards and board games have been the norm for group play at parties and gatherings, and dominos are rarely if ever played.
I don’t know how you actually play and I don’t think I know anyone who does either. I guess that 70s fad explains why my family even owned dominoes to begin with.
Yeah, I grew up in Virginia and no one I knew used dominos for anything other than knocking them down. I remember seeing a TV show in which people were actually playing dominos and I thought it was delightfully exotic.
My family plays dominoes on a regular basis. My parents and their in-laws get together once a month to play, and the rest of us play whenever there’s a big get together. It’s a nice game that all generations can play. We play the Mexican Train version, I believe. We’ve tried to each Euchre to our girls but they have no interest.
FYI, in 2010 I lugged along our Dominoes set to play in airports during our long layovers to/from Maui. Otherwise, we’d have all sat in silence, listening to our individual ipods. So good family time was had. The downside to this plan was threefold:
A box of dominoes is heavy and bulky when packing on a carry on.
They must look like bombs to TSA folks because they were hand inspected on every trip through the scanners.
I’m from Spain. The 5yo Nephew just spent a week in the hospital (he’s doing fine) and one of the games which were brought there was a set of dominoes, we played several games.
Dominoes and mus (a card game) are probably the most common games found in old folks’ homes and in bar-sponsored tournaments in Spain. Russians play chess, we play dominoes and mus.
I’ve also played dominoes in settings in which it was assumed that “everybody knows how to play, but getting clarity on house rules before the first game begins is a must” in Miami and Costa Rica. The Miamian groups were heavily Hispanic and the people who did not know how to play were the Hispanic who hadn’t been raised as such (he’d been made in Costa Rica, born in Miami, grew up in a farm in Georgia, couldn’t even say “good morning” in Spanish without butchering it) and the few Anglos.
Years ago I went to SE Spain to visit with an English friend and his parents (retirement expats), they had some non-standard dominoes (numbers going to 12 IIRC, special rules) and we spent an afternoon playing one of them. Perfectly normal Sunday-afternoon activity.
I grew up playing dominos. I’ve heard the version of the game we play called muggins or all-fives.
General Rules.
match the numbers to play.
Doubles are played perpendicular to the chain i.e. —|---
you can only play in four directions off of the first double played (called the spinner).
to get point (the object of the game) the sum of the pips on the outer (exposed /open) half of the domino must be divisible by five. i.e. in the chain: 6:2 2:1 1:4 = 10 points because 6+4=10.
I just did a search (Yahoo!) for “block game dominos” and every hit I looked at had a different set of rules from the way we played it! No doubt the variations are many. Our version allowed for some good team play and some clever startegies. No doubt those features apply to other variants, but I can imagine hard-core players of one version being more or less lost in another version.
It’s good to know others are at least aware of the game(s) along with the set-them-up-knock-them-down things. Some of that stuff is utterly amazing with thousands of “bones” in elaborate arrays.
When I married into my wife’s family, I suddenly was ushered into a world of dominoes that I had no idea existed. They are from Fresno, CA, with Swamp Okie roots.
42 is a major part of their family reunions, and any time (ANY TIME) there are four of us in the same room, someone mentions the game. Often, when there are three of us, some one says, “Man, I wish we had a fourth,” just out of the blue.
I love the game, having come from a gaming and card-playing background.
I played dominoes as a kid with the family, and I’ve also played it with friends as an adult, in the home and in pubs (some pubs in Scotland carry a set of doms). Great game!
I think it may be more widespread on this side of the Atlantic. However, I’ve had to explain rules to adult friends quite often, so it’s not extremely well-known over here.
Cultural variation: you guys will take a set of rules for a game, call it a variant and give it a name. We, whenever there is a player who hasn’t played with the rest of the group before, spell out the rules. If it’s for a tournament, the rules get printed on paper and given to players when they sign up; if it’s a normal game, it’s usually a set of questions to decide on which rules to play with: partnered or solo? Does the double-nil get penalized or not, and if so by how much? Are we adding points from one game to another, or will each game be scored individually? and so forth. If I was to play with any of you guys who are giving variant names, I’d have to ask for the rules and mechanics to be spelled out, as those names mean nothing to me.
It may seem longer, but it saves the trouble that crops up when someone is used to a detail being different.
I haven’t played dominos in years, but then I live alone.
The town where my brother lives in south Alabama has a huge annual “World Championship” that draws hundreds of people each year including, believe it or not, a hand full of international attendees; it raises quite a bit for local charities.
Around these parts (Tennessee) Cribbage is a card game played with a unique scoring board that’s operated using pegs. I have not seen a cribbage board used in domino games but I suppose it could be. If others know of such a thing, I’d like to know. I’m aware that games morph in their rules and specifics from family to family and region to region. So anything’s possible.
I bought a domino set a few weeks ago on a whim. It wasn’t very expensive and I thought it would be fun. The included instructions were simple enough and matches what Enright3 posted. We found the game to be quite dull though. Perhaps we don’t know the strategy? Are there variants that we should try?
We are 2 people. Maybe that has something to do with it?
Sorry If I wasn’t clear, we play the card game cribbage at family gatherings, during vacations and over the holidays in much the same way dominos was mentioned in the OP.
:eek:
! I’d seen references to “old folks playing Cribbage” in novels, but never knew it was dominoes. Damn but I love the Dope!