Several years ago, I wrote the following column, which appeared in our local newspaper. Headlined “Beware The Bored Games”, it warned spouses to tread lightly around the interactive games that had become a standard feature of suburban Saturday nights, and seemed to result in spouses wanting to politely kill each other in mixed company.
After it was published, I began to hear from friends who decided to ask their significant others the open question that I answered so poorly (and is still held over me to this day). But since social media hadn’t taken off, I rarely heard about the results. And I’ve always been curious how many husbands (and wives) might have fared better than I did.
So, this blog provides me a fresh opportunity. Read this column, and then ask your significant other the central question that “The Newlywed Game” so kindly introduced into my marriage. Post their response in the comments section below, as well as your reaction to it.
Do you remember those first few years of your marriage? It was easy to stay entertained then.
You’d spend hours listening to each other’s stories, learning about your histories and ex-girlfriends and occasional lapses of sanity in college (“Wait, did you just say you once brushed your teeth with grain alcohol?”). You’d take long road trips without the radio on (gasp!), exchanging tales of bad family gatherings and athletic triumphs and how you once played “barber” with your 5-year-old sister and cut her hair down to the scalp with only a few strands left to make it “pretty” (sorry, Sharon, that one was kind of rough on you; but karma has its way of balancing things, as my balding dome makes perfectly clear).
There was so much to learn, so much to keep the conversation flowing and interesting. And yes, it seemed important to know that your Aunt Ethel was a hypochondriac, that you hate zucchini and opera music, and that you once appeared on an MTV game show and accidentally and noticeably spit when saying the word “Twinkies” (I will continue to deny this publicly until it shows up on YouTube).
And then …
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