Candy Land was created during a crisis: Three ways to change a life today
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2020
⏱️ 6 minutes
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Summary
Candy Land is one of the most popular children’s board games of all time, selling an average of one million units a year. I played it for hours with our kids and have begun doing the same with my grandkids.
But I did not know the story behind the game, a narrative that is remarkably relevant to our time.
One of the fears we all face every day is that our lives won’t count for something significant. None of us wants to leave the world the way we found it. Each of us has a God-given desire to make a difference that matters.
As I was reading Acts 20 recently, I found it to be a powerful model for maximizing our impact in these challenging days.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a bonus episode of The Daily Article podcast, presented by the Denison |
| 0:07.8 | Forum and featuring Dr. Jim Denison. Hi, I'm Jim Denison, the Denison Forum, and this is the Daily |
| 0:14.8 | Article Special Edition for April 20th, 2020. Candyland is one of the most popular children's board games of all time, selling an |
| 0:22.2 | average of one million units a year. I played it for hours with our kids and have begun doing the |
| 0:27.0 | same with my grandkids, but I did not know the story behind the game, a narrative that is remarkably |
| 0:32.1 | relevant to our time. In 1948, retired school teacher Eleanor Abbott invented the game into San Diego |
| 0:39.0 | Hospital. She had been diagnosed with polio. During her convalescence, she was surrounded by children |
| 0:44.2 | suffering from the same horrible disease. She wanted to create a game that would entertain them |
| 0:49.0 | during their painful and lonely days. Candyland became so popular among the young hospital |
| 0:54.0 | patients that Abbott decided to |
| 0:55.8 | pitch it to Milton Bradley, one of the leading toy manufacturing companies. It quickly became their |
| 1:00.7 | best-selling board game. The game was especially helpful during polio outbreaks. Children left alone |
| 1:06.7 | in hospitals without their parents would often be overcome with feelings of abandonment and homesickness. |
| 1:12.0 | But even those as young as three years old could play the game, since it requires no reading |
| 1:17.0 | or writing, only the ability to identify colors. During the height of the polio epidemic in the |
| 1:22.5 | 1950s, children were prohibited from congregating at public pools, lakes, or parks to prevent the spread of the disease. |
| 1:29.5 | Most board games were designed for all family play, but Candyland could be played by children who were confined indoors alone. |
| 1:37.0 | What did Eleanor Abbott do with her royalty income from her best-selling game? |
| 1:41.0 | She donated it entirely to charities dedicated to serving children in need. |
| 1:48.5 | As we wait for social distancing restrictions to ease, we should not waste the days until they do. |
| 1:54.9 | As I noted in this morning's daily article, God knew about this pandemic before it began and |
| 1:59.8 | intends to redeem it for his glory and our good. |
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