Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Random Memory #6: Oregon Trail

I'm continuing to live in a no-television apartment and it's working amazingly well. All my regular shows have started back up again for the new season and I'm not missing them or feeling sorry for myself at all.

One of the things that is keeping me sane is that I can get random dvd's from the library. Movies, documentaries, educational programming. It's fascinating what they have there. Recently I watched a PBS documentary on the Oregon Trail. That is a period of history that has always fascinated me. I have read lots of historical fiction based around that time period and we used to spend HOURS playing it after school.

As soon as the bell rang we'd RACE to the computer lab and stay there until it closed (an hour or so later). Mom learned not to expect us right after school. "Us" was Meredith, my brothers and I (and other students). You could take five people in your "wagon" so Mere and I always took each other, which ever boy we had a crush on that week and one random brother that we'd write off to cholera or a wagon accident or drowning. Because you knew SOMEONE had to die and we didn't want it to be someone we liked!

The best part of Oregon Trail was hunting (even if you could only bring back 100 pounds of meat) and running the rapids at the end. I still miss that game.

Did anyone else play?

3 comments:

Nesa said...

oh my goodness that brings back such memories!! Especially since Owl and I were talking about how great it would be if they would re-release the game for the new gaming systems, and if they still used it in school as a teaching tool!! Of course I used to laugh about how many people you would lose due to dysentry, thank goodness medicine has come a long way!

thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Emmy said...

I never played it.

I do play Oregon Trail on Facebook, though :P

Veronica said...

I was going to say there's a version on Facebook. I've played it a couple of times ;)