I can think of no better piece to begin this project than my grandmother's Scrabble set.
My grandparents had a house on the beach in Branford, Connecticut where we spent nearly every weekend. In my mind, those moments not spent on the sand or in the water were spent around a wooden card table on the porch, playing Scrabble. Mostly it was my mother and grandmother playing, often with my Aunt Lillian.
Eventually, and with great patience, they taught me to play with them, though they never let me win.
My grandmother, who to this day was the only person I ever met able to complete a New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle before the answers were published the following week, played with different rules than anyone else I've ever played with since. If you played a blank, and declared it to be, say, an "R," the next person to have an "R" on their letter rack could replace the blank on the board with their letter and reuse the blank in a future word.
We were also allowed, and even encouraged, to use the dictionary to be sure something was a word before we placed it on the board. That meant there were no challenges to anything people put down because it would already be confirmed by the dictionary. This bothers a lot of people I have played with as an adult, because to many of them, part of the fun of the game was to challenge a made up word. For my grandmother however, the point of playing something like Scrabble was to increase one's vocabulary. New words, as long as they were considered standard English by the dictionary, were always welcome.
I was from my grandmother that I learned words like QUA, ZOA, and ADZE, and that every note on the scale could be spelled out and considered a legitimate word - perfect for when one was stuck with too many vowels.
Scrabble came into existence in the late 40s. This particular set is at least 40 years old and was manufactured by Selchow and Righter on Long Island. This set has a feature that is rare these days - scoring pegs and a cribbage-like score board built into each letter rack. The pegholes on the bottom row represented a single point and the those on the top row represented 20 points. Most Scrabble sets today come with a paper score pad for which refills can be ordered from Hasbro, the current owner of the Scrabble brand. I have only once seen another Scrabble with scoring pegs; the set was designed for Target and the pins looked like small candlepins. Unfortunately, the manufacturer neglected to make the Scrabble board itself rotate easily, somewhat spoiling the set's design.
If you have gathered from this post that I collect Scrabble sets, you are correct. But this is the jewel in my collection. It is well-loved, the black printing on many of the letter tiles is worn, but miraculously, I still have the original box and all the scoring pegs. Of all of her grandchildren, I am the only one for whom a love of Scrabble, and of words, has stuck. When my grandmother passed away, my mother gave the set to me. It is one of the few things I have that belonged to any of my grandparents, and it is still used, with love.