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Board game is a blast for boomers
By Sandy Lockhart
Several weekends of playing games
at the cottage to pass the time led Barb
Lawson to make her own.
After about two years of research
and preparation, About Us Boomer +
Edition is now available to the public.
“It was a combination of things,”
says the Sparrow Lake cottager and
owner of About Us Games. “It evolved
from a couple of weekends at the
cottage of inclement weather and
game playing.”
About Us Boomer + Edition is
designed for baby boomers and older
– those born between 1934 and 1964.
The information for the game was
gathered by an online survey of 1,700
boomers across Canada through the
research firm Harris/Decima.
“I felt we needed the research to
underpin the game,” says Lawson,
explaining that the research gives the
answers credibility.
Some of the questions are sure to be
great conversation starters. What per
cent of the boomer plus population
has searched the Internet for a former
partner or love interest? Which
boomer plus gender is more likely to
have accidentally worn two different
shoes at the same time? What percentage
of the boomer plus population has
been on a blind date that went well?
“I chose the types of questions that
would elicit laughter, stimulate conversation
and let people learn about each
other. It is all about having fun.”
Lawson came up with many of the
questions by focusing on main areas
Barb Lawson developed her own board game for baby boomers. She
created the game after surveying 1,700 boomers from across Canada.
relating to the lives of the boomer
plus population such as beliefs,
experiences, preferences and thoughts
and opinions.
“I developed questions in each area
that I thought would result in interesting
findings, elicit a giggle or stimulate
discussion etcetera,” she says.
Photograph: Sandy Lockhart
Other questions came out through
test playing of the game.
“We looked at the survey results that
were more statistically interesting for
the game,” she says. “We chose what
was interesting to know about another
person or generation.”
She explains these are not questions
that you’d find the answers to in a
textbook.
“It is a fun and really lively game.
It really tells you something about
that age group, during that 30-year
period,” she says.
The game is a great is a great
icebreaker.
“You do tend to come out of it knowing
each other better and having had a
great time in the process,” she says.
One test group that played the game
for Lawson was a group of women who
had been friends for 30 years. They
reported back to Lawson that they
thought they already knew everything
about each other but the game had
brought out new things and given
them something new to talk about.
Planning for the game’s demographic,
Lawson made sure the game cards were
large print and a small package that can
be easily transported.
“We are at the age and stage in our
life, that we like to travel, whether it be
up to the cottage or across the country.”
The game is available online and
at the Muskoka Fireside Shop in
Gravenhurst. Lawson has plans to
develop other products and increase
the presence in the marketplace in
the future.
Boyhood memories form basis of new book
Ken Veitch has written a book
about growing up in Ufford.
Photograph: Sandy Lockhart
By Andrew Hind
How many times have you heard
someone say, “I should write a book
about my life?” And yet most would-be
writers never get beyond that stage.
Bracebridge resident Ken Veitch, a
man well-known for his passion of local
history, is one of the rare few who
followed through. The result, a selfpublished
volume called My Early Days
as a Boy in Ufford…and Stories People
Tell Me, is an engrossing, touching and
often humorous look at growing up in a
small Muskoka community in the 1940s
and ‘50s. Though intended merely as an
attempt to put in writing boyhood
recollections, the book also contains a
great deal of history related to Ufford.
“My mother died when I was three
and at the time my father was serving
overseas during World War Two, so I
was raised by my grandparents. Because
of that, I was subjected to a lot of oldtime
pioneer stories that I might not
otherwise have ever heard. That sparked
my interest in how Muskoka was settled
and developed,” Veitch says. “I was
always impressed with the amount of
work required to carve out a living in
this wilderness. The early settlers faced a
great deal of hardship, the kind of things
we can’t even imagine today.”
That interest in local history eventually
led Veitch to develop slide shows
about the early years of Bracebridge and
Muskoka. These demonstrations, in a
round about way, led to Veitch committing
his childhood recollections to paper.
“During my talks I always encouraged
people to write down their life stories.
They might not think what they have to
say is important, but one hundred years
from now their stories will be a window
into our life and times,” Veitch explains.
“Someone finally said to me, ‘Did you
write your own story down?’ and of
course I hadn’t. I figured I’d better start.
That was six years ago, and I just finished
the book this year.”
He acknowledges the book couldn’t
have been written without the support
of his wife, Sharon, and the assistance of
his siblings and members of the Ufford
community in adding details to the stories
he collected. Writing the book was,
for Veitch, an enjoyable and rewarding
experience, though he did find one
entry heart-wrenchingly difficult to
work on.
“It was really hard to write about my
mother because it was such a sad story,”
he says, referring to her long illness and
death during childbirth. “I was only
three at the time so I don’t remember
much about her or her death, but as I
wrote the story down it began to have
more meaning to me. It was really hard.”
That melancholy story aside, My
Early Days as a Boy in Ufford tends to
be a lighthearted read. This is partly
due to Veitch’s belief that people enjoy
history more when it’s entertaining,
but equally due to the humorous antics
of the cast of characters.
“Some of my ancestors sure enjoyed
life! They were real characters,” Veitch
laughs. “I enjoyed writing about their
shenanigans.”
Veitch self-published the book and,
recognizing the appeal would likely be
limited to people with ties to Ufford,
limited the print run to 100 copies.
They can be purchased at Reader’s
World in Bracebridge.
8 February 2010 www.whatsupmuskoka.com