Card Games = Memories

I know, I know, I am totally late. I got a little distracted over the long weekend. Anyway, I am going to do my best to catch up.

Blog It July Day #5

What is your favorite card game and who do you like to play it with?

I don't really have a single favorite card game. The important thing for me is that certain card games seem to match up with certain people and places and situations. They have flavors and faces that make me smile.

International Rummy makes me think immediately of my friend Elysia, whose family often plays it on holidays. We once played it at her birthday party, and most people got bored (it's a LONG game) but I loved it.

Poker in general makes me think of my brother, who patiently taught me to play when I was way too young to understand gambling. And, it makes me remember hanging out at a poker party with him and his friends, ten years older than me on average, and winning the non-betting game. They couldn't believe it.

B.S. reminds me of elementary school, where we often played it during free time. I remember the sisters that taught it to the rest of us, Jessie and Amy, even though I haven't seen or spoken to them for 15 years. (At the time we called it I Doubt It, B.S. being a little too profane for seven-year-olds.)

Spoons reminds me of a particular day at summer camp, when we played it under a tarp at the picnic table during a rainstorm. 

I associate Hearts with watching my father play it on the computer. The same goes for Solitaire.

James Bond (also known as Conga, and probably other things), reminds me of a different summer camp, and of playing it with my friend Kirstyn.

I remember a really crazy Russian card game that I learned from a girl in my high school calculus class, and playing it at the end of senior year, when the teacher had given up on us focusing.

I also remember playing all sorts of card games at a cottage in Clear Lake, IA. The cottage belongs to family friends, and we used to go there pretty often when I was growing up. There was this one game our friends there had invented that was really good. (But I don't remember the name or how to play.)

The box for one of my many decks of cards

Oh, and there was another game we used to play in high school, but I can't remember that one, either, except for that I was pretty good at it.

So, yeah. I collect memories of card games... I also collect playing cards, in a very casual way. I have maybe eight interesting decks, ranging from candy corn-shaped cards to simple Bicycle decks.