Could any of us withstand the scrutiny of outsiders if they were nosing into what we do during our off hours? Likely not. Unless, of course, we chose to spend that leisure time playing an innocent game like Monopoly. That could certainly withstand the glare of public judgment.
Nobody expects to find a Monopoly board under the carpet
But a Monopoly board that’s the size of an entire room? It seems odd, even eccentric. But apparently there is (or was) a trend that saw plenty of homeowners using an entire room’s floor space for a life-sized Monopoly board.
That was what homeowners found recently when they tore up carpeting in a room they were planning to remodel. All the squares needed to play a full-scale game of the U.S. version of Monopoly were there. The couple’s son-in-law posted pictures of the discovery on Reddit.
While tearing up their carpet, my in-laws found a giant monopoly board from pics
Lots of families devote an entire room to play for children, so finding the board is not as surprising or unique as it may seem at first blush. Still, the hand-painted version is a wonder of detail and color, and absolutely accurate — there is a Community Chest, a square for Go, of course, and even a Jail square and Chance, just like the board one buys at game shops.
The Reddit user doesn’t say where his in-laws live, or whether they will preserve the curiosity now that they’ve found it. But that seems unlikely; they are an older couple who want an updated room, not a gaming room.
Not the first time this has happened
While this one is completely harmless and innocent, a more cheeky version of the board was discovered during a home renovation about seven years ago in — where else? — California.
Apparently, the remodel revealed a rather adult version of the Monopoly board, with silhouettes of naked ladies perched atop property squares and other, “adult” alterations to the original. Word has it that the husband in the house wanted to keep the board and its semi-nude additions, but his wife nixed the idea before he could even finish articulating his thought. “That’s probably why we got divorced,” he said in a news item at the time.
Pulled up the carpet at the house, and guess what I found! from funny
Finding things in walls or under floors in old houses is not unusual. Sometimes people hide things like money, books, papers, or other oddities and then completely forget about where or why they hid them in the first place. Decades later — usually once these homes are purchased by new owners and a renovation gets underway — items belonging to the former owners are discovered.
Sometimes, they are valuable finds that the new homeowner gets to keep, like a painting or a rare book. But more often, the discoveries are little more than a glimpse into the past, and not worth much in a monetary sense.
More from us: Monopoly boards with maps hidden inside helped British POWs escape the Nazis
A Monopoly board painted on a floor is easily changed, and this recent one will no doubt go the way of others — smoothed over by a new rug or a hardwood floor. One can’t help but speculate what folks were thinking when they painted the board, or if their children, and perhaps they themselves, got much use out of it.
If not, they certainly provided an entertaining moment for a new generation, a social media-mad world that loves oddities, unusual finds, and questions about the past that can never be fully answered.