Croquet:

As a child I remember going to Granny's in the summer, excited to see my cousins Aidan and Erika, most probably on the fourth of July, and setting up either the badminton net or the croquet set. The croquet set had room for eight players (I think) which were distinguished by various colors. Yellow, red, green, blue, orange...I know all of these were there. There may have been a brown and black...Erika/Aidan...do you remember?

Well, British croquet is different. There are four balls for two teams. Yellow and red play together against blue and black. It's a game of much more serious strategy than what I remember, though I can't be certain that we ever played it right in Granny's back yard. :) As you aim to get your balls through the course you have to consider the advantages of knocking your opponents croquet balls out of the way. This was the tactic that my two teams took, as we had no chance of winning, ever. I have to say, I'm not that bad at croquet. And I love the power of wielding a croquet mallet (See photo below). It was an enjoyable, sunny, and very British afternoon. As for the most important lesson I learned while playing croquet: if you are on a team that does not contain Sam...you will lose.