A Sepia-Toned Slice of F+W History

What do you get when you combine a board game whose name rhymes with “monotony” with all of the excitement of owning your very own hog farm? You get Farmer’s Quarterly’s First Class Farmer board game! You’ll struggle to keep your farm productive through all seasons of the year in the face of natural disasters while trying to keep the bank and the tax collector at bay.

First Class Farmer came with a four seasons game board, play money, mortgages and deeds, disaster cards, and pig, cow, and pickup truck game pieces.

Published by F+W back in 1965, a copy of this board game has been sitting on the top shelf of our library collecting dust. The Writer’s Digest Book team decided it might be a good idea to play the game at our holiday party (a feat that few have dared to try-I believe some folks from the production department attempted it once under controlled circumstances).

First Class Farmer: It's like "The Waltons"-in a box!

Unfortunately, after a few mugs of Melissa’s mulled wine the game instructions were kind of hard to wade through and we abandoned First Class Farmer in favor of the I Love the 80s board game. Oh well, maybe next year.