Remembering board game, “Careers”

Board games were a regular part of my life growing up. We had a little more than a handful of games that everyone I knew also seemed to have. Games like Monopoly, Life, Sorry, Trouble, Pay Day, and Careers were in everyone’s game closet. Of those games, it seems like Careers is the one that people talk about the least nowadays.

I probably liked Monopoly and Life better. Monopoly because I felt like you could exercise some strategy and Life because of the board topography and spinner. Careers came in a close third. Like Life, it felt like a roll and move game, which really randomized your chances at winning, but that was okay, because the fun part of Careers was, like life, exploring what you were going to be when you got older.

I am not sure why, but it was thrilling to get a career you hoped to get when you were older, or to picture yourself for a brief moment doing something unexpected. Me? An actor??

I am not sure why I don’t hear much about Careers anymore, I see vintage copies of it all the time at flea markets, and you can find newer versions of the game online. But when I talk to people about it, the younger generation has mostly never heard of it and older people’s memory seem vague at best.

Maybe it is time to bring this Careers commercial out of retirement and win over a new generation of players…