Juanita Watson, 59, and her friends were laughing uncontrollably at a comedian’s jokes about hapless baby boomers when she turned to the others and said, “We have to create a game about this!”

And they did. Just launched, the Baby Boomer Retirement Game takes former flower children and yuppies on a nostalgic journey through the last five decades with the end of goal of attaining inner peace.

For Watson, who recently retired from her job as a special education administrator, promoting and selling the game has become an encore career. She makes certain that the workers who assemble the games are referred by a nonprofit agency that places highly challenged adults with special needs.

To emphasize the goal of peace, the game board is emblazoned with a giant peace sign and the box pictures long-haired hippies riding in a colorful van.

“The message isn’t all about money. The message is that you have to have a balance in life. It means you’re truly happy and are valued and cared for, and you are doing what you want to do,” Watson said.

That’s a refreshing change from the games of Monopoly and Life, in which players try to dodge bad luck and make money. The Retirement Game’s aim sounds a lot like an encore career.

Juanita Watson and her husband, Noel, designed the game with two other couples from their hometown of Ashland, Ohio: Lynn and Libby Livelsberger and Dennis and JoEllen Smalley.

The game challenges players to collect tokens for life experience, health and assets along with way. Each person receives a resuscitation card and must complete a will before starting.

Success depends on correctly answering boomer trivia questions such as:

• Who was Dobie Gillis’ beatnik friend?
• In which state did the Woodstock concert take place?
• Who wrote the book, In Cold Blood?

Should you land on a “Grim Reaper” space without a resuscitation card left, you’re out of luck.

“If you’re under age 40, you’re not going to quite get it,” Watson said with a laugh.

The Retirement Game can be played by two to six players and lasts 30 to 90 minutes. It costs $29.99 and can be ordered online from SWL Retirement.

(Piqued your curiosity? The answers to those trivia questions are Maynard G. Krebs, New York and Truman Capote)