Daily Cascade

Cards and Me

Prompt:
Today is National Card Playing Day. What card games do you enjoy? Do you ever play cards for money?

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Cards and Me

When I was a young kid, I was allowed to spend the New Year's Eve at one of my uncles' house, where several other family members and their friends, and better yet, most of my beloved cousins would be present. That was when I was introduced to the card games. Not cards themselves, mind you, for my mother used to tell her own fortune--and she was very much into that--through her own personal cards, but I wasn't allowed to touch them. They were sacrosanct. In those days, however, every household had several decks of cards.

Coming back to the New Year's Eve at my uncle's house, I was the worst card-player ever! My uncle would pass secret chips to me under the table so I wouldn't fall into disgrace by losing all my play-money. I may not remember the games but I do remember, with much love and gratitude, all the attention our extended family gave to me.

I can also recall some women, who were friends to the family, who used to play bridge and who had bridge parties, in those days. I can still not wrap my mind around Bridge and other games like that, and I don't recall ever using real money in a card game, at least not in my family.

I bet I am still not good at card games, even though I recall my mother's cards' rushing into each other as she took the deck in her hands and shuffled them to randomize them more. I believe I liked those sounds very much.

Nowadays, I don't think anyone I know plays with actual cards. Some play online, and others play with friends they know in real life, but still online.

As to my incompetence with cards, nowadays I like to play games by myself on my computer: Word Games. math games, games that challenge the memory, and games that emphasize strategy. I'm still bad with most of those games, as before, when I was a kid. Except maybe word games, some forms of Mahjong, and solitaire.

Solitaire, maybe because I was an only child once. Also because I have to take after my mother in some way, haven't I!