Info about Play Mash
How to Play MASH
If you grew up in the 1980s or 1990s, you have more than likely heard of the game Mash. The game mash, the name of which stands for mansion, apartment, shack and house, is a chance game often played by young children or pre-teens which was a fun way to predict your future. The basis of the game involved using a paper form to predict whether you would live in a mansion, apartment, shack or house with many other predictions and variations. Different categories of the Mash game include partner or spouse, number of kids, kind of car and kind of house. While there are many different methods of the game, the most basic includes one person drawing several ticks on a piece of paper within a certain time frame, and the leader of the game saying “Stop” at randomly. The ticks are then counted and will equal the number of rotations for that round. By the end of the game, the player will have four words that dictate their future which may be positive (mansion for a house) or negative (shack for a house).
Rather than using ticks, you can do the “spiral” version of the game which involves drawing squares and spirals until the pen lands on one item for the career, house, relationship or car. You start the game by writing the letters M, A, S and H on the top of a piece of paper in a very large size, which will each stand for different type of place to live. You can then sketch a square under each letter that is at least 2-inches each side. There will also be three smaller squares inside the larger square, lining the bottom edge of the square. Each side of the large square will be labeled with relationship, career, city and car. The player will choose three numbers to be written in the three smaller boxes which indicate the number of children.
The player should now write down four boys or girls they like, four jobs, four cities to live in and four types of cars. While the player looks away, you (the leader) will begin drawing a spiral around the large square and the player will say “stop” at any random point. You then count the number of spirals you drew before he or she said stop and write it in the corner of the page. The number of spirals should indicate a letter in the word mash by counting from M to H in order. For instance, if there are five spirals, it would be a letter M because M would be 1, A would be 2, S would be 3, H would be 4 and M would be 5. Cross out that letter and move on to each of the other categories. Each time only one letter is left in the category that is the prediction. So if the player got 4 spirals, then 2 spirals, then 3 spirals; the letters H, A, and S are crossed off leaving M for mansion as where they will live.