It is said that the first dominoes were made by sailors out of whale bone. In Europe, the oldest dominoes date back to the XVIII Century. In the XIX Century, many adults played dominoes in cafés in Italy and France.
Dominoes were also made of wood, ivory and bone on an ebony plate. Some were also drawn on cards or burned on small pieces of wood.
Dominos were kept in my grandparents kitchen in the drawer next to the kitchen table. You could reach them without getting up from you chair. The box they were stored in was cardboard, bound with a heavy rubber band. Opening the box the dominos were covered with scraps of paper, the evidence that my grandparents had a playful and competitive relationship. The scrap paper was used to keep score and clearly my Grandmother (1901-1988) was the better player because she often had outscored my grandfather (1907-1999). Today my son (6 years old) and my daughter (4 years old) have amongst their gazillion toys dominos and they enjoy to play this timeless game. Even my 15 month-old son likes to get his sticky fingers on the tiles...
Steven ,
41 year old
Montreal Canada
I remember going to my grandparents house in the summer and my grandfather and I would pour two tall glasses of fresh orange juice and sit on the balcony for hours playing dominos. We often created our own rules so that when all of the pieces were used, we would think of a new way to continue the game.
