Char enjoyed mixing up the cube, but when she couldn't solve it after 30 seconds, she handed it to me and said, "Here Dad, you do it."
"Me? What am I going to do with it?"
Just like the rest of the world's population, I had a Rubik's Cube in 1980. Seriously, those cubes were everywhere. Even the stores in a small town like Rock Valley sold them. The teachers in my school were always yelling at kids to put them away. I guess Rubik's Cubes were the fidget spinners of the 80s. At best, I could get one one color on one side to line up. I even bought The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube to help me out. (FYI: This was 1981's best selling book with 6, 680,000 copies sold.)
What a disappointment. I found the book's algorithms to be as confusing as the cube itself. All I learned was how to take my cube apart and put it back together in the right order.
So, yeah, I solved my cube using a screwdriver, but that wasn't a very fulfilling solution. Since then, just looking at a Rubik's Cube has made me feel a small twang of defeat.
Anyway, I didn't think the screwdriver solution was right for Char's cube. So, I followed my daughter's advice, "Just look it up on the internet, Dad."
Now there are all kinds of websites and YouTube videos dedicated to solving a Rubik's Cube. I found the "You Can Do the Cube" site the most helpful for me. After learning the vocabulary, and how their solution worked, it was pretty easy. Twenty minutes later, Char's 2x2 cube had all the colors in the right places, and you know what? Solving it was fun. Char likes to mix the cube up, and I like to solve it, so we're a pretty good team.
Years ago I bought a 3x3 Rubik's Cube at Goodwill, and last weekend I tried my hand at solving that bad boy.
Drum roll, please...
Ta Daa!
Whew. I finally got that Rubik's monkey off my back. Thanks go out to Grandma, Charlotte, and the World Wide Web.
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