Summer Memories ~ Lake of Bays

Cottage – Family (Card Games)

If you have ever seen a “free for all mud wresting match”, you’ll be able to understand our family “group solitaire tournaments”. They were all out, every man/woman for themselves. Each player had their own set of cards and played Solitaire (aka Patience) like they did if they were playing individually, laying our suits from aces to kings. The variation to individual solitaire was that you could lay your card on someone else’s pile. This may seem simple enough, when there are 8 or 10 players vying for the same pile “heck” breaks out! No one is safe, not even a young “card shark” kid! Fingers would get crushed, hands smacked and names called! Oh, what fun we had, a lot of yelling and laughter! We would all go to bed (me) tired and happy.

When family, except me, were not at the cottage, my parents, as I mentioned before, would invite friend couples up for the weekend. At night, card games would take place, usually bridge or Euchre. I would normally sit and watch the action (?), until I got bored. The teams would be set up and the game would begin. My mother would really get into the game and would hate losing. She was very competitive in cards. When she started to lose, she had a process to change her luck. I’m not sure of its name or where she got it from, but it was very interesting and funny! She’d stand up from her chair, put a napkin on the top of her head, walk around her chair 3 times and then, sit down. She was sure her luck would change. I’m not sure if it ever worked, but it made everyone laugh!  I have tried it a few times myself, but I don’t think that it worked for me. I still kept losing!