The other day I read that the amount of time families spend together has dropped to an all time low. I guess that’s not really a big surprise considering all the things there are to do these days. I was reminded of something we would all do as a family during the good old days and that was building jigsaw puzzles. It was always fun and I wonder if any families still do this ?
Typically the puzzle was of the 1000 to 2000 piece variety and we would spread it out on the dining room table which was rarely used except for birthdays and special occasions giving us plenty of time for completion. Initially when the box was opened alot of us would start out working on it with someone, usually our sister setting up the border – the easiest part.
The rest of us would spend our time sorting the pieces by color and working on a specific section of the puzzle. The sky was almost always left until the end because this required looking for a specific shaped puzzle piece and the time frame for finding two pieces that fit together was less than desireable.
Even our dad who worked alot would come home at night, pour himself a drink or two and relax working on the puzzle with us. I can even remember our grandmother lending us a hand when she came to stay. We had a variety of puzzles with various landscapes, buildings or repetitive designs and some novelty puzzles like a pizza pie, cigarette butts and chocolates to name a few.
Of course, as the puzzle neared completion puzzle pieces would mysteriously disappear with regularity which was no surprise because the biggest reward of doing the puzzle was being the one who got to put in the last piece !
Webner House 