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Card Games

 
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roger.pape
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Joined: 17 Mar 2009
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Location: Liverpool, NY

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:44 pm    Post subject: Card Games Reply with quote

Card games were a popular evening activity around Concordia. The first games I remember were played around the kitchen table at my grandparents home. One of those games was Touring. It had cards with old cars on them. I liked it because of the pictures of the old cars. Maybe that's what started my interest in antique automobiles. The object was to complete a trip of a set number of miles by playing mileage cards without getting stuck with a broken axle card or something similar. (This eventually became the French game Mille Bornes.)

Another game was Pit. It simulated a commodities exchange trading pit with card showing crops of wheat, flax, barley, and corn. It was somewhat of a free-for-all game, with the players simultaneously calling out "One for one" or "Two for two" to trade cards. The object was to get all cards of the same type and corner the market. While it was somewhat unstructured, it did have a certain amount of strategy associated with it. After the first round or two, there was no point in trading more than one card. One would invariably get cards of several different types, at least one of which would have to be traded again. Similarly, one would avoid trading two of the same type if possible. It was also useful to remember what you received from someone else. If it wasn't what you needed, you would try to give it back to that person on a future trade.

And, of course, there was always the game of Old Maid. Being stuck as the old maid was bound to cause a few tears. Is that game still played or is it considered politically incorrect?

Pinochle was the game of choice when I was young, although in later years it tended to change to Pitch. Young and old would gather around the table to play. For a youngster, it got to be a bit challenging holding all the cards when they decided to play double-deck pinochle. As we played, my uncle Bill Klingenberg would keep us all entertained with his many stories. He had a phenomenal memory and a story for every occasion.

Card parties were one of the main social activities during the long winter months. It seemed like there was some competition to see who would hold the last party before Lent.

During the 1940s and 50s there was a small clubhouse behind Concordia Harness and Shoe Shop where the older retired men would meet daily for their card games. I'm told that they were some spirited games. Bystanders said that the bidding was wild and guys would claim to hold cards and play cards that were nowhere near what they actually where. Maybe the eyesight was so bad that none of the players noticed.

My grandfather's favorite game was Solo. I never did understand that game. (If you don't either, you can find a description at http://www.pagat.com/lhombre/solo.html.) All I remember was that the games became quite loud and would usually end with someone slamming down a card and shouting "Unbekannt!". Why? That was unknown to me.
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