Way Back WhensDay: Cat's Eye

Cat's Eye

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents

Growing up in the 70's and 80's, we didn't have iPads or iPods or even Game Boys to play with.  Sure, we had our Nintendo or Atari, but the one thing a lot of families did to pass the time was play board games.  It was a regular practice around the Hunsperger home, and we'd play everything from Monopoly to Trouble to my personal favorite Cat's Eye.

The game probably isn't very well known or remembered by the people of my generation.  For some reason though, this game always appealed to me.  It came with four boards with indentations in them to hold marbles.  Those indentations formed the shape of a cat.  The object was to collect the corresponding colored marbles and fill up your board.  There were just four black marbles, which of course were the cat's eye.  Once your board was filled and the eye was in place you won.

Cat's Eye

The marbles came from a large bowl on a platform that had four exits with a pump (lack of a better word) on each side.  Because the pumping produced all sorts of colors, the player would have to dump the three other colors back into the bowl.  It probably sounds pretty simplistic, but I spent countless hours playing this game and many others with my mom, dad, and brother.  

When I was in fifth grade, and we were clearing out the game closet to make room for more, I donated the game to my classroom.  On rainy days when we couldn't have recess outside, I'd find myself at the game table playing again, sharing the fun times with my classmates and friends.