Wednesday 12 April 2023

Which was your favoured Monopoly token?


I am re-reading (third time) Anne R Dick's memoir The Search for Philip K Dick - which contains the information that his favoured Monopoly token was the Old Boot - and a critic commenting on the book later suggested that this was significant, in terms of PKD's self-image. 

Maybe... 

My own favoured token was the Flat Iron; and the reason I gave myself for this choice was the way it could slide smoothly over the board. 

The most popular token among family and friends (about which fights would occur) was the Little Dog; which seems an obvious one, because it was cute.

The other die-cast tokens in my game were the Top Hat, Battleship and Racing Car. 


In retrospect, it is surprising that I did not favour the car or the ship - so maybe there is some occult significance in the iron - but I am not sure what. 

I don't enjoy ironing, and never have; although doing it is indeed one of my current family-household chores. 

(Maybe the childhood choice was some kind of unpleasant self-fulfilling prophecy?...)


So, what was Your favourite Monopoly token as a child - and can you infer whether it represented anything about your character? 


6 comments:

William Wildblood said...

I think it may have been the Top Hat, probably because I aspire to being a member of the oppressor class. I don't mind ironing as there is a certain meditative element to it.

S.K. Orr said...

I liked the iron for the same reasons, but I tended to favor the artillery piece. I just liked how it sat on the board.

I'm one of those odd fellows who actually enjoys ironing. When I was a young Marine, some of us would get together in our off time and have "ironing parties." We would put on some music, ice down a six-pack, and just iron for a couple of hours, swapping stories and insulting each other in a good natured way. I got really efficient at it, and could make a set of cammo utilities look immaculate. Good times.

Ingemar said...

Wasn't there a shoe? Or am I suffering the Mandela Effect?

Bruce Charlton said...

@Ingemar - Well it depends what you call it - I would call it a boot because it comes above your ankle, but I could imagine kids might call it a shoe.

Leo M.J. Aurini said...

Mine was the race car, and I couldn't conceive of any other token being better. The top hate was a distant second, and the battleship was neutral. Didn't like any of the others.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN????

Lucinda said...

As a child, I liked the car best, but was never choosey about it to avoid potential conflict.