Card games and families

My sisters and I once played sixty games of yahtzee in a row one snow day.

We almost always have a game of cards (though sometimes it was pictionary instead) at cousin-level gatherings. Two summers ago all of us adult cousins got together on the cape and we all played round after round of Liverpool (a rummy game) and Gin Rummy (I don't anyone could tell you the difference). It provided a social net for us to communicate on - they are all religious and conservative and we are all opposite of that. But, we have the family history, love and the cards. (there's the drink in that side of the family too).

As kids in the nuclear family, we spent vacations and some weekends playing hearts, uno, crazy eights, spit, and many more I can't recall the names of (including solitaires, multi-player solitaires - I know that doesn't make sense)...... Now we play liverpoole/gin rummy and rumikub (a tile version of gin rummy). It's a way in which we can be competitive safely. though sometimes we piss each other off. We also have been able to pull in a new brother-in-law and his twin brother by playing these games with them. For my immediate family (which for me includes my parents, siblings and siblings children), it is a bonding activity. We're rooted in card games.

Go Fish

We didn't have a set time when we would play, but I remember some games of UNO played around the table on some sunday family gatherings, with usually about ten-twelve people or so--grandparents, parents and the kids who were old enough to not be a complete nuisance. Three generations of italians laughing and yelling and fighting over such a silly game! I remember it very fondly. I remember how my grandfather and grandmother used to relish each chance to drop the DRAW 4 card on each other. And everytime one of them did it, a fight would ensue. Not a serious fight, but still, how the f-bombs would fly!

Very good times.

Not bug with the extended family but my wife and I go through phases of scrabble and backgammon. I refuse to play these days cause she's unbeatable.

I once got so frustrated I slammed the bagammon board closed half way through the game.

Every family gathering was a reason to play cards. Pinochle for every four players and cribbage for the left-overs. Sometimes pitch, sometimes poker, but always pinochle. Every child could play 3-handed airplane, 4-handed partners, and double-deck by the time they were 7. It was a self-preservation move to avoid being bored out of our minds while everyone else played cards.

Not bug with the extended family but my wife and I go through phases of scrabble and backgammon. I refuse to play these days cause she's unbeatable.

I once got so frustrated I slammed the bagammon board closed half way through the game.

I learned the words for and meaning behind most swearwords during card games.

JPB wrote:

Every family gathering was a reason to play cards. Pinochle for every four players and cribbage for the left-overs. Sometimes pitch, sometimes poker, but always pinochle. Every child could play 3-handed airplane, 4-handed partners, and double-deck by the time they were 7. It was a self-preservation move to avoid being bored out of our minds while everyone else played cards.

Cribbage, yeah. We played a bit of cribbage, and hearts. Definitely something all us kids chose to learn, when it was winter and we were stuck inside with all the grown ups.

Sounds like pinochle was central for your family, too. Where were your grandparents from? It's always seemed like a very midwestern game to me...

littlek wrote:

I learned the words for and meaning behind most swearwords during card games.

My mom taught me these in the course of daily life.