Maps of Days Gone By

 The picture below popped up on some social media group I belong to (HMGS?)  

I would so go to a museum like this and reminisce about some great maps from days gone by, but to be honest, I remember unique chits, but I barely remember the maps.

Without going completely down an internet rabbit hole, here are the wargame maps/boards that piqued nostalgia.

Battle Cry (the original Milton Bradley version) - Every summer, my family would take an epic 5-hour drive up to my aunt and uncle's farm house in Vermont.   It was downright barbaric for kids' standards nowadays.  Electricity that usually worked, but no Wi-Fi, a well that could barely support a family of four, much less all the cousins, and grandparents.   Just a creek to swim in, an old barn to explore, and a general store that still had actual penny candy.

And an odd built-in bookshelf with John Jakes novels, colonial architecture books, and an eclectic stack of board games. 

I played a lot of solo Battle-Cry on the more quiet days when the creek was running a little high to swim, or the sunburn needed a little indoor time to heal.    Nothing exotic here, but I think I could open up a copy and play it with less than 10 seconds of the instructions.  Heck, it's simple enough, I could probably make up equivalent rules.

D-Day (Avalon Hill) - Another random game on the shelf in Vermont was Avalon Hill's D-Day.  Obviously a bit LOT more set up than Battle Cry.  I did get through a few turns each vacation, although there was no place safe to keep it set up usually.    (Additional shout-outs from that shelf included Win, Place, Show from 3M, and a standard copy of Trouble I played with my younger sister.)

Divine Right - Yes, Wilderness Survival gets all the nods as a D&D accessory, but tell me the map doesn't scream fantasy setting I want to campaign in, much less an adventure wargame.

In writing this, I think I also filled in a gaping hole in my Georic Gazetteer project.  

I can't mention the Vermont farmhouse (which is still in the family) without remembering fondly a bitter snowy Thanksgiving we trekked up there (coal stoves, ground-floor only) and I spent the downtime playing and ton of Dice Baseball to bide away the time.  In some strange twist of fate, when I get old and start to lose my memories, one of the last ones to go will be Wayne Edwards of the Boston Clippers throwing a perfect game.  Yep, that and the to-hit charts will be engraved in my mind while all these nice strangers take care of me.