Happy families game

When I was young we used to play a lot of card games, from Rummy, Trumps, New Market, Misfits and the Happy Families game. When I went back to my Gran’s recently I found all of the picture card games in the dresser drawer where they have always been and brought them home with me.

One of my favourites of these was the Happy Families game. The way we used to play it was by laying all of the cards face down and scattered on the floor. You then picked two cards at random and turned them over. The trick was to pick two cards from the same family. If you did you got to keep those cards and then you had to continue looking for the other two to complete the family set. Each family was made up of a mother, father, son and daughter, all with theme/trade they specialised in and colour that matched them together.

My trick was to try and remember where the colours were that I picked up as well as what my brother had picked up as well. Also as you may be able to see the cards were quite old (even ten years ago!) so I would try and remember the different creases, marks and tears on the back of them as well. (I like to win..)

The only downfall to this was the similar colours, like the light green for the Farming family and the dark green for the Tailor family!

I loved this game and it was so nice finding it again. My favourite family was the Postman’s family, but I think that was because it was pink!