Whether you grew up in the 1990s, the 1970s or even the 1950s, chances are your childhood memories can be found in the board games lining the walls of DeWolf's Non-Sports Cards & Junque Shop.
After all, owner Brian DeWolf said he has acquired "thousands" of such used, nostalgia-inducing games over the past 30 years.
"I started selling things at flea markets when I was 5 years old," he said inside his 1420 Villa Ave. store. "In addition to selling, I did a lot of buying."
That's true for board games that have stood the test of time like Monopoly and Life. It's also true for stuff that few will remember.
For instance, can you recall ever seeing board games tied in with such forgotten pop cultural phenomena as "Charlie's Angels" or "Miami Vice"?
It was the latter that struck the imagination of Randy Henrickson, a Moorhead, Minn., man who was in Sioux City to support his daughter, a Minnesota State University basketball player who was then playing at the NAIA Regional Championships.
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"I grew up playing board games and still play them with my family," Henrickson explained, glancing at a vintage 1980s cardboard box. "Yet I have never seen a 'Miami Vice' game in my life."
That doesn't surprise DeWolf, who noted such games would be produced to cash in on a cultural zeitgeist.
"It may be a simple game that has a tie-in with a few TV characters," he said, showing off boxes bearing the likenesses to the stars of "The Honeymooners," "Monday Night Football" or "I Love Lucy."
"Or they may take an established game and slap a current TV show on the cover," DeWolf said, pulling "The Simpsons'" version of Yahtzee from his shelf.
Indeed, the quirkier titles first attracted DeWolf to vintage board games.
"Like a lot of people my age, my first collection consisted of Garbage Pail Kids trading cards," he explained. "Since then, I've branched out into vintage vinyl records, action figures and just about everything else retro."
DeWolf said vintage board game collectors tend to be adults wanting to share a favorite toy from their childhood with their own families.
"It's definitely a push-back from the more electronic games of today," he said. "When you're playing a board game, it demands human interaction."
Which doesn't mean that the more modern versions of vintage games haven't been dumbed-down in DeWolf's opinion.
"Some of the rules have been eliminated to make game play faster," he explained. "The more modern versions of Monopoly are a good example of that. In addition, newer versions of Monopoly have trendier game piece assigned to them."
DeWolf shook his head.
"It really hurts games when they try to update things that were perfect to begin with," he continued. "Old school Monopoly is still preferable to the newer versions."
Though some of DeWolf's customers aren't playing with vintage board games. Instead, they're utilizing them as pieces of art.
"Especially on some of the western games from the 1950s the cover art is just breathtakingly beautiful," he said. "I know of many people who will frame the art or use them as a conversational piece."
Whether you're playing games or using them as a way to start conversations, DeWolf is certain these collectibles will take customers back to their childhoods.
"Looking back at many of these games is a way to see how pop culture history has changed over the years," he said. "You can tell a lot about a kid by looking at the kinds of games he played as a kid."
