$15.00 trip down nostalgia ave.

My how time flies and this is perhaps never so evident as stepping directly into a pair of old wargaming shoes.  I was 13 years old when the movie Platoon came out.  My interest in all things Vietnam was peaking, just ask a neighboring farmer of ours.  The poor guy thought some military brat  had gone awol and was hiding out in the woods.  So he did what any concerned citizen would do, call the cops.  When they came to investigate they came to the same conclusion.  I knew better but no matter, all my ammo boxes and gear had been confiscated.  I suppose the barbed wire, bunker and trenches added a little too much authenticity as well.  Oh well, those were certainly the days, running through the woods, battling with my friends.  Now days i do my battling alone on cardboard but hey, its harder to catch ticks and poison ivy this way.  So as i watched and re-watched Oliver Stone's idea of what "the impossibility of reason" looked like, i was even more thrilled to learn that Avalon Hill had released a game based more or less on the film.  I'll never know exactly how many hours i spent on the dining room table with this thing, the living room somehow all too easily transformed into the prerequisite environment of foliage and heat within the battlefield of my mind. But it was awesome. Why the fascination?  Looking back on it, i can't honestly put my finger on it but it sure struck a timely chord with me.

So recently i was overcome with a wave of "remember when" and paid 15.00 for my time travel ticket.  The feeling was still there when the box showed up, all until half the already punched pieces were missing. ARGH!!!  So i put my fond reflection on pause, shipped the thing back for a full refund and found an unpunched copy for the same price!  

This time around however, i had a live opponent, a self professed hater of wargames and all things war.  Perhaps the cinematic tie in sold her, or perhaps she was just in a particularly unselfish mood.  Nonetheless, i proceeded to explain to her what the purpose of doing this or that was, and then further what the overall point was and lo and behold her competitive spirit simply could be contained no more but in the end it would prove inadequate.  She became more concerned with the row of dead that was lined up beside the board then the living NVA that still littered the board.  Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.  I doubt she understands any more than she did why I waste my time with this stuff and perhaps even less so since playing Platoon.  Nevertheless, "I think now looking back, we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves..."  and i think she would agree.

On the shelf goes the game, but i know it will always be there, as will Elias, fighting for what Rhah called, possession of my soul...ok ill stop.

thanks for reading
JMK