Hello, my daylight dreamers. (Yep, I know you guys can taste it, too!)
As we head for the finish, let’s revisit a youthful pastime. Yeah, let’s go back into the vault and see what we can find.
For all my fellow boomer types, some of the following info may jog your memory a bit. (Jesus, did I just call myself a boomer? Hey, if the shoe fits, I guess.)
Close your eyes and think of those 1970s commercials. Sure, you remember. Games like Gnip Gnop (“ping pong” spelled backwards), Trouble, Chutes & Ladders and yes, of course, Candy Land.
There was another one, though, sort of a variation on tic-tac-toe. Yeah, they even had a memorable commercial where a brother and sister are playing the game, and after a particularly clever move on the sister’s part, his brother says, “Hmm…pretty sneaky, sis.” Any of you remember that?
Well, it was called Connect Four, and it first came on the scene in the 1970s. Milton Bradley. (In addition to the above, Bradley also invented The Game of Life, Operation, Twister, Yahtzee, Battleship and for younger kids, he was the idea man for Hungry Hungry Hippos (under the Hasbro label).
Connect Four was/is pretty simple. While it was primarily intended for two players, you can play with four.
Players choose a color and then take turns dropping colored tokens into a six-row, seven-column vertically suspended grid. (See the image above.) The pieces fall straight down, and they end up within the lowest space within the column.
The object of the game is to be the first to form a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line with his/her tokens. Bottom line, staying one step ahead and playing the right moves is the key to victory.
And speaking of victory, our mountaintop is well in sight now.
Looking forward to seeing you all again tomorrow.
JFish
@Copyright 2025 by John L. Fischer