Playing Cards

Playing cards has been a family pastime for as long as I can remember. During the summers during the great depression, my siblings and I lived with our maternal grandmother in Oskaloosa, Iowa. ¹ Those days still evoke pleasant memories of our care free days; spending time in the stadium where we practiced running the cinder track or walking to the other end of town to visit Aunt Rita and our new baby cousin.

Sometimes we just spent time in the park where the large statue of Chief Mahaska ² was. Sometimes we just sat in the lower branches of the apple tree outside the kitchen door and ate green apples and saltine crackers.

When we were in the house, we usually sat on the floor of the living room playing Michigan Rummy. I don't know how we learned the game, but it was fun game and we spent hours playing it. From time to time, though, Grandma would walk thru the room to make certain we were not playing Euchre. She always reiterated that there would NOT be any Euchre games in the house! No Euchre decks were allowed! None of us knew what Euchre was, but it was obviously a card game and I just assumed it entailed betting, although I had and have never heard of anyone in the family being a gambler, but there were no two ways about it, no Euchre games were played!

As adults, we do have favorite card games and each is associated with certain family members. One of our enduring favorites is Spite and Malice, taught us by my sister Adeline. It's a simple game that doesn't require much strategy, and you can chat and gossip thru the game and still experience enough excitement that we are always willing to 'play another round'. We play Spite and Malice tournaments and anytime two family members are together either a game or a tournament starts.

Another favorite is Rook, played with regular playing cards. We learned this game from my sister Esther when we spent a Christmas holiday with her and her family one year in Baton Rouge, La. We enjoyed the game so much, we delayed our trip home to California one whole day just so we could play.

Other family members have been into more 'pressure' games like poker. Aunt Bessie and Uncle H. O. and his wife Pauline, along with friends played poker every Friday night for many years. My brother Elbert and his wife, Mary also had a long standing practice of playing poker every weekend. I am not a poker player. I never learned the rules and when I have played, I had a piece of paper with the possible hands written down so I could identify a win or loss.

One time I begged to be included in one of the weekly poker games at Elbert's house. Every thing went well for the first few plays, but it soon became obvious that my being a beginner didn't make real poker players happy. I found a reason to quit the game and I could hear the sighs of relief as I drove back home. I was never invited to join their poker games again.

I am not a good card player. The why's and wherefores elude me. I can't count fast enough. I'm just a simple country card player and I leave the heavy playing to others.

Jack of Diamonds,
I know you of old.
You stole all my money,
and you stole all my gold.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskaloosa,_Iowa
   Oskaloosa is a city in, and the county seat of, Mahaska County, Iowa, United States.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Mahaska
   Sculptor Sherry Edmundson Fry bronze statue of Mahaska
   Mahaska or White Cloud, (1784–1834) was a chief of the Native American Iowa tribe.