Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley (wikipedia.com)

November 8, 1836 � May 30, 1911) died at age 71, born in Vienna, Maine, but lived for two-years in Hartford, Connecticut with his parents, then went to Massachusetts, settling in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1856. Milton Bradley was a game inventor, he launched the board game industry in North America with Milton Bradley Company. I think he brought much joy to all kids of America. I don't know one person who doesn't have at least one Milton Bradley game. I think it also brought some families together in many ways. This was very important because you could also learn things from these games, like the game of Life, where you could learn things like how to manage money or how to live with lots of kids and how to pay for them, things like that. He made kids happy to this day. I still play some of the games that he made. He also invented the paper cutter. In 2004, he was posthumously inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The company he founded made games like Candy Land, Operation, and Battleship. I think if he were sitting here with us right now and he were to give us a little advice, he might say something like you need to have a little fun in your life and take a break every once in a while, and sit down with the family and spend some quality time together.

This was a game that he published

I think Milton Bradley is someone who's different because he has to be pretty creative to create the company and games that we has today. He did kind of stand up for what he believed in because he wanted this company to work and get big and now it is tons of kids who have his games in their houses and are playing them everyday. If you were to sit down and try to remember him, I think everyone would just open their closet door and look in the back and see one of his games. I think his legacy would be bringing joy to people's lives, and making them feel good about themselves when they win one of the games. I think he will always be remembered by everyone. I think Milton Bradley is able to think outside of the box - none of this new television show junk, he would sit there and think of a new game idea for everyone to play, and that everyone will love.

This was another game that he published

I think if we didn't have Milton Bradley we would have spent a lot more time watching television and cartoons in the morning and not enough time with the family playing board games and even sometimes learning new things. When it's a rainy day and you're stuck inside, what do you do? Well you play a game of course, and you always make sure you are the one winning. When I was little, the only thing that could get the family together was playing a game, most likely something hard and challenging, that will be hard to win, so when you do, you get to rub it in everyone's face. So I do think he had a big impact on many people's lives and I do think that he was a big help in the whole growing up process.