If you have never played Pictionary, an explanation is necessary.  It is a game in which 2-person teams compete to see how many words can be guessed by using only a picture.  Each team has cards with categories and there is a game board and dice. The main idea is just to get your teammate to say the word from the picture you draw.

One New Year’s Eve, we had a party and played this game.  It was hilarious.  My dad and my husband got chosen as partners.  Now we never played board games when I was growing up, and we had not had the experience of sitting down to play anything but cards.

My dad was a masonry contractor and had been a bricklayer before that.  My husband had worked on job sites and been a laborer.  So, when the words “hard hat” came up on the playing card that my husband drew from the pile, he drew a person with a hat on and a brick above it ready to fall.  My dad, of course, knew it immediately.  Because both of them had experience in construction, it turned out to be an asset.

I had been slightly concerned that my dad wouldn’t enjoy the game.  But I should have known better.  My dad was such a happy man, he would have rolled with punches and enjoyed himself regardless of what happened.  I was always concerned about everyone in a group being able to enjoy themselves.  But I needn’t have given a second thought about my dad.

It’s funny, but I realize that one of the reasons my dad was so fun to be with, was because he looked at things in a concrete way.  He never suspected negative emotions or attitudes from the people around him.  This was a wonderful thing, because he always looked at the bright side of everything that happened.  He could find it effortlessly and I marveled at this trait he possessed.  Because of this, his stable personality made him a joy to be with because there was no innuendo.  Things were clear and concrete, not abstract or untouchable.  What fun we had!  It was just like always, a real, solid, good time.