By Hilda Zaiser – Winnipeg, Man.
During a fleeting moment of ambition, I decided to create some order in my messy storage room. As I was tidying the shelves, I came across my old Scrabble game. Although dusty, the game was complete and intact.
I hadn’t played in a long time. One partner passed away, another moved, and others simply lost interest. Finding another partner wasn’t so easy.
It seemed a shame to have my board sitting idle and useless on a shelf, especially when you consider the fact that it’s the type of game that helps exercise the mind in addition to being fun.
Today we are urged to do puzzles like Sudoku, word search, and crossword puzzles in order to keep our minds fit and functioning. Good advice indeed.
My mother always believed reading helped maintain a sharp mind. You certainly can’t go wrong reading a good book. One of my friends has, I’m sure, read every Charles Dickens book ever published and enjoys discussing his works.
My father was one of those people who read the newspaper from front to back. He sat at the kitchen table with the paper in front of him and absorbed every word and every paragraph.
No matter what mental exercise we choose to pursue, it is sure to help keep our minds functioning at an optimum level.
In the meantime, I wiped the dust off my Scrabble game and phoned the nearest seniors’ centre. The staff member in charge was quite agreeable to having an informal Scrabble club on Wednesday afternoons at the centre.
The first Wednesday, one person showed up. We had a leisurely and sociable game and looked forward to more of the same the following Wednesday with possibly other members. We were off to a good start!
