THE GAME

This was not going good. I got the call to come ASAP to meet up with the gang or better known as the tokens of monopoly. And by that, I mean the game MONOPOLY. It seems that someone had taken the keys to the grid and put them in the PURSE. The city built inside the city had gone dark. We were now on the move as we recently became financially solvent players. The time was here to force our hand on the ones who were throwing the dice on their terms and not playing by the rules.

It began a few years ago when everyone in the city saw a rise in questionable activity. It started with a group of us young novice players, the BOOT, the CANNON, and the WHEELBARROW. We noticed unusual activity in the various WATERWORKS along the coastline and the city's south side. We were always down in that area hanging out by the harbor leaving footprints everywhere and toting stuff around aka doing our thing (except for CANNON who was always on watch) when off duty from our jobs working the RAILROADS. Keeping the tracks maintained and fixing the overload of pitfalls on the rails was the number one priority in the cards due to the many AVENUES crisscrossing the lines. Before this opportunity was, literally granted us, we had gone around the BOARD over and over due to a streak of good luck with a hot roll of the dice. But by not planning ahead this eventually led to a lost handout. We knew in the beginning that elimination was not the way for this to end. So we thought of a clever way to reup our version of the game. Each avenue had their special color glamorously painted on a street sign marking their unique place on the map. The game was to pick an avenue by color, scout out the perimeter of the houses, then take a CHANCE to pick a lock, bust in and GO. Take whatever we could to market the stuff on the black market and make our PLAY MONEY to add to the cost of what we were paying in RENT. This area of the city was making us BANKRUPT. However, as new kids on the block, and by not following the rule book, the three of us, were tagged with the GO TO JAIL card. It happened when stupidity found us helping ourselves by going into house after house down one AVENUE after another. But all along the right cards were on the table since a roll of the dice had us picking a CHANCE CARD. But we took this opportunity to go way outside the box. This was not a smart move to take. The DEALER knew what was happening and gave the three of us another CHANCE. And now we were on the RAILROAD pay card, but this was a positive move to get back on track by helping to maintain the SHORT LINE, PENNSYLVANIA, READING, and B & O RAILROADS.

Luck was on our side when the board members opened a new game, and we were dealt the FREE PARKING spot - the one and only top spot on the board! But that best on the board corner freebie ended at midnight at the end of the year so now here we were playing our own game by looking for places all the way down to PARK PLACE and onto the BOARDWALK. This was the new way to pass GO to get a payload of money. Hoping not to get sidetracked on the cheaper rent streets of MEDITERRANEAN AVENUE to CONNECTICUT AVENUE would have cost us more just to stop and ponder. We made it down and onto KENTUCKY AVENUE. Then right away we did not hesitate to keep going and landed onto PENNSYVANIA AVENUE. Finally, we were in the right place to make a boatload of money. 

The AVENUES, where the hoity toity put so many houses, were still the top money makers. They were all the same color green as it was the signature status of the area in this area of the city. Hotels were just beginning to take over and add another upscale marketing feature to claim more AVENUES. As they say, dollars are a city's best friend. Who knows this area might just be the next big city within the city. HOLY TOLEDO! The gambling casino was straight up in the center of it all. I mean who can just go outside their lovely abode for a few minutes and then be sitting at a prime seat in a casino. THE COMMUNITY CHEST was the name aptly given to this place since the money being thrown left and right was in the triple digits every moment. The city absolutely loved it since the property brought in barrels of money due to the LUXURY TAX. But there was an invasion of real-estate moguls who were scamming the AVENUES. Money was being moved around where a particular group of properties were being bought out. Prices were soaring through the roof! Bankruptcy was the new word of the day. People were scrambling to draw a more favorable card. Suddenly UTILITIES were being taken over by the new players in the game coming from abroad. What next? 

We had to up our game with a new strategy since MONOPOLY was our claim to fame and had been for a long time. But that didn't happen overnight. Actually, it was a day that turned into a whole summer. And now the ones not playing by the rules have taken over the grid. Lights were out in the city. No one had access to anything. Everything was gone, either shut down, or moved over to be replaced by empty NON-PROPERTY SQUARES. There were no winners today. Darkness ruled. All was taken, put back in the box and left in the drawer to wait until the right time to play was here.

In conclusion: We, the top three tokens of MONOPOLY, do hereby nominate DOG, TOP HAT, THIMBLE, HORSE & RIDER, IRON, AND BATTLESHIP to join the new game due to begin at the beginning of the new year. We are determined to eliminate all those that stand in the way of each individual's quest to win a drawer full of MONOPOLY MONEY. They would also be given the chance to purchase any property, railroad or utility that they land on when the opening roll of the dice commences. May the best token win! 

Signed by the HASBRO gang - THE BOOT, THE CANNON and THE WHEELBARROW