Triple Crown

I grew up in a household of girls. My husband grew up with only brothers. As you can imagine, we played with different toys, as children, due to what was considered "gender appropriate", for the era.

However, one toy that both of our 50's and 60's households shared, was a simple horse racing game.

We both remember that the game was housed in a rather narrow, flat box. There was a metal "spinner" that showed which horse made a move forward. The plastic horses stayed in slots, that ran the length of the box, and each individual player got to chose which horse represented him or her. The winner, of the race, was the horse that reached the end of the box, first. We agreed that both of our families enjoyed playing that simple little game.

One thing, on which we could not agree, were the horse's names. We toyed (bad pun) around with Whirlaway, Man O'War, Citation, Gallant Fox and Native Dancer. But then we remembered Twenty Grand and Sea Biscuit, All great horses, but too many names for the little game. There were, at tops, only four or maybe five horses.

I did a bit of computer research and made an interesting discovery. The original game had a copyright date of 1938. The manufacturer was named Whitman. Over the years, various horse names were added or subtracted. So depending what year your game was made, only the most popular horses, the real life winners, were the racers.

So, maybe the two families had different versions of the game. We will never know.

Nice memories.

Good and Gracious Lord. We thank you for our long lives and for the memories we hold dear. We are so blessed. Your steadfast love endures forever.