Susanna Pretzer, Literary Manager
I grew up playing The Oregon Trail. In about fifth grade, we had “Gameboard Club,” and at lunch we’d go to ignore the board games in favor of the ring of Apple IIs around the perimeter of the room. We’d compete more for the cleverest epitaphs than to reach Oregon. At home, we had a later version of the game, but I only remember the more elaborate hunting system. The game I remember best — and I’ve found that a surprisingly wide range of others do too — is the classic one, on an Apple II, where hunting means pointing in different directions while standing in the same spot.
I recently read an article by Anna Garvey that terms the generation born in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s the “Oregon Trail generation.” As someone born in 1990, I object. I have a hard time giving up The Oregon Trail, letting it belong to a group I’m not part of. Garvey underestimates the longevity of The Oregon Trail and the impact it had on even Millennials like me who never used a card catalog, who can’t remember a time before computers existed. The Oregon Trail is an important part of the culture that defined my childhood, along with the Spice Girls and The Land Before Time, Harry Potter and Saladfingers and AIM.
In the script for The Oregon Trail, protagonist Jane was born in 1984, and we first see her play the game in 1997. The Oregon Trail was first produced in 1974, but it was a mainstay of elementary schools through the late 1990s. According to most classifications, Jane is a Millennial, and perhaps on the tail end of the supposed “Oregon Trail generation.” Whatever the label, she is among the first to grow up with computers and to turn to a game like The Oregon Trail as an old friend, whether it is to avoid or confront the problems of her own Millennial life. When I played the game recently, I was swept along in the nostalgia, but as we follow Jane, she’s not looking back from adulthood. She looks in all directions in time, but largely from the period Garvey’s article focuses on, when the internet was young and the future was nearly impossible to predict or control. For all that I might argue with her terminology, Garvey identifies a generation of young pioneers, striking out for the unknown territory of adulthood and the digital age at the same time. And when it comes to The Oregon Trail, that means to expect snakebites and dysentery along the way.
Play the Game!
Now it’s your turn.
Whether you’re a first-time player, taking a trip back into childhood, or you never stopped playing, the road to Oregon is always a challenge. How many hardships can your crew withstand — or what will your epitaph say?
Let us know on facebook or twitter with #AwesomeTrail
-Susanna Pretzer, Literary Manager
The Oregon Trail
September 4-20
The Writer’s Center, Bethesda
