Simple pleasures gain ground

European board games are taking hold in the US, particularly for adults. Fantasy board games have emerged as alternatives to video games, appealing to adults who prefer a nonviolent game that can be played in one sitting among friends.

"These games are so good, they're enjoyable by everybody, whereas video games involve one person," said Scott Alden of Dallas.

After working as a graphic animator in the video game industry, Mr. Alden quit to run BoardGameGeek.com, an online clearinghouse of board game reviews and news. Last year the site saw its number of visitors increase by 30 percent over the same period the year before.

Alden reports that the sophistication and relative affordability of the Euro games are their greatest draw. "If you go to the movies and take your kids, it's 50 bucks, maybe more. You can buy a game instead, or two games, and play them multiple times, over and over," he says.

The recession is helping turn a younger generation to traditions they ignored when times were good.

Group knitting, for instance, continues to grow among young urbanites and the sale of handmade knits sold at city craft fairs or via the Internet is booming because "there's appreciation of the person [who made it] and time that went into it," says Debbie Stoller of New York, author of a series of books about the current knitting phenomenon.

Ms. Stoller formed her own knitting group 10 years ago. Today there are more than 500 similar groups across the globe, not just in the US but in countries such as Dubai and South Africa.

Stoller, also the editor in chief of BUST magazine, says that young knitters are embracing needlework because they never learned it from their mothers.

"Now daughters are ... saying, 'This is really pleasant and fun to do and really valuable,' " she says.

Knitting groups meet weekly at members' homes, or in cafes or stores. The appeal, says Stoller, is sharing tangible skills that have real value.

"Young people have no idea it can take two months to make a sweater ... it's important then to spend time with other people who appreciate that and admire the craft," she says.

However, a return to simpler activities such as knitting and board games isn't just the domain of the young.

Noelke-Olson, the Chicago fiddle player, says that her house jams typically involve players over 50 who are reconnecting to instruments they abandoned in early adulthood.

She started organizing weekly jams in 1996. They involve potluck meals and up to 12 amateur musicians playing in spontaneous clusters scattered throughout a member's home.

She sees the phenomenon as the true manifestation of her generation, which had turned more to media for music rather than personal participation.

"In the 1960s, we went out and marched when there was something wrong," she says. "Now a bunch of petulant people sit down and type their opinions on blogs, for all the good it does. People, they've distanced themselves from other people ... but none of it's like the responsibility that comes from sitting face to face with another person."

Noelke-Olson played her first jam 40 years after she first abandoned playing the fiddle. She remembers watching two players in a stairwell play against one another "for all they were worth. Later, when I came back, they were still there. I thought: Whoa, there is something more to this than meets the eye. Whatever it is, it's genuine," she says. "And it is."

Previous

1 | 2