Weather too nasty to go outside?

How about a jigsaw puzzle for some new old-fashioned fun?

I have some mighty fond memories of my dad popping open a card table in the family room about this time of year, and pulling down boxes of jigsaw puzzles from a top shelf. We usually had the same ones year after year, maybe a newly acquired one or two. But since we hadn’t seen them for many months, it was like greeting old friends again.

Piece by piece, we’d work on them during the weekends, weekdays after school, passing by the card table between chores or with a few minutes to spare before dinner.

We enjoyed board games too, of course, but the trouble with those is that you can’t play them alone. Actually, you can, but you’ll always be the winner and even perpetual winning can get boring.

Jigsaw puzzles, on the other hand, can be enjoyed solo. While it was a fun pastime to do with others, you didn’t need anyone else around to “play.”

Bickering ensued only if you dared touch or move a section someone else had claimed and was working on, or if you were hogging pieces someone else was searching for. Often, in the end, if a piece was missing, there would be groans and moans until it was discovered that someone (a sibling, no doubt) had hidden it, just so they could lay claim to finishing the puzzle with the coveted “last piece.”

I plead innocence on all counts.

Of course, if you’re a solo puzzler, you miss out on all that “fun” — except that you ALWAYS get to put in the last piece.

It was a great way to pull us kids from the clutches of the TV. Remember, that was pretty much the only electronic diversion in those days of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and with barely a handful of channels at that.

To this day, it’s a favorite activity of mine, perhaps because of the childhood memories it holds. To say that I love doing jigsaw puzzles is an understatement. Obsession is more like it. Let’s just say that once that box is opened, there’d better not be anything else I’m supposed to be doing.

However, once the puzzle is finished, the thrill is over. I love doing them but not keeping them. If they’re complete I pass them on; if not, they get tossed. No one likes an incomplete jigsaw puzzle, so I figure I’m doing a service to the community.

A couple of Christmases ago, I gifted each of my kids with jigsaw puzzles made from their family’s photo. At a reunion this summer, commemorating the centennial of the family farm in Colorado, cousins brought a couple of jigsaw puzzles created from vintage photos of our parents. One-of-a-kind gifts and keepsakes.

Today’s kids (and grownups) have a multitude of electronic entertainment clamoring for attention. If you want everyone in the family to put down their cell phones and game controllers for even just half an hour, don’t harp and preach, and don’t shut off the power or the wifi.

Just quietly pull out a card table and a jigsaw puzzle. There’s no telling if anyone will come around to join you, but just in case they do — remember to hide a puzzle piece first.