A Miracle from the Past- Grandpa’s Aggravation Game

It’s strange how a chance conversation can take on a meaning of its own. Somehow, a random reference here or there connects us to others and sometimes with our former lives.Though I don’t know a lot about her, we connected in a very deep way because of a random story she related.

Games were my family’s major source of recreation…caroms, skittles, Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots, cards. But the all-time favorite was a crazy game called Aggravation. You might know the game- it’s sort of a cross between Chinese Checkers and Parchesi. Up to four play on a board with a series of holes that hold marbles. Players pick their marble colors around a cross-shaped series of holes. You roll a die- only a ‘six’ or ‘one’ gets you out of home, then on subsequent rolls you move your marble around the board, according to your die roll. You hope to get back inside your home area without being wiped out by another player. Since only one marble to a hole, if someone lands on your marble, back to home you go, starting over again. It doesn’t take long to find why the game is called Aggravation, I’d name it “Retaliation.”

There was no apparent reason she asked me if I’d ever played Aggravation. When I said it was our family’s favorite entertainment, she said her grandfather, who lived in Huntington Beach, California had invented the game. He made the game board from pine boards, carved to dovetail at right angles, forming a cross in their middles. He never did anything to market the game, but a friend took it to a gamemaker and made a bundle off it. Her grandfather was content to make custom boards for those he loved.

While living in Malad she received a phone call from her cousin, Gary, whom she had not seen for many years. He was on a road trip and was staying at some place called Downata Hot Springs- “Is that near where you live? I don’t even know what town you live in.” She excitedly informed Gary that she lived only about twenty miles from Downata, and they quickly made arrangements to visit the next day.

As they visited, she remembered Gary rolling his eyes back and asking her if she remembered Grandpa’s Aggravation boards. He sadly told her that all the grandkids got one, except him, and he really felt bad that he never got one. She quickly said, “I have one at home with my keepsakes, but you’re never going to get it.” She could tell that the game meant a lot to him, but even more to her. No way was he going to get her keepsake. They chatted, parted, and that was the end of it- or so she thought
An accomplished artist, one day out of the blue she got a call, asking if she could use some picture frames. She replied, “I can always use more frames,” so the man said he’d drop some off. She didn’t know his name and has never seen him again. Sorting through the frames later, she caught her breath, then let out a shriek. Between two of the frames was something very unexpected- an old-fashioned wooden Aggravation board- but not just any board, by its markings she knew that her grandfather had made it! She excitedly called her cousin, told him how she got it, then mailed it to him the very next day.

What an unbelievable coincidence- or was it? The odds of someone dropping off her grandfather’s handwork to her home had to have been a billion to one, or maybe a billion billions to one. But she doesn’t think it was a coincidence at all- in her eyes, it was a first class, honest-to-goodness miracle, and I have to agree with her. How can you explain how a handmade game from California ended up at her home? Her story means a lot to me, but nowhere near as much as it does to her- she doesn’t have to believe in miracles- she’s experienced one first-hand!