An Occassion | Teresa Poast
Five Dollar Gifts
My family plays cards. It's what we do. When the whole family is together for a holiday, we play cards. When just one person stops by for dinner, we play cards. When I fly across the country for a visit, we play cards. It is the best motivator for the kids and teenagers, bacause the adults can get us to do anything in return for the promise of a card game. If they want us to clean the kitchen, it will be spotless within minutes. If they need errands run or chores done, they get done. We have all been raised playing cards, and it has become one of our favorite things to do. Other people who try to play cards can't keep up with us, because we know the ins and outs of the game. We all know that Uncle Charlie is going to cheat, and we take him with a grain of salt. We know that Great Grandma Wachter is going to keep quiet the whole game, then win with an amazing hand at the end, then she'll just sit there and giggle to herself for fifteen minutes. We know that Aunt Katherine is going to start yawning at about the fourth hand, and go to bed by the seventh... when she's still winning. We've been playing for so long that we know how every game is going to progress, whose going to win each hand, and even what cards people are going to discard. Even though the game is different every time, it always falls into the same pattern, which is comforting. Nothing reminds me of home like a game of cards.
Usually our game is international rummy, because we enjoy the fact that nobody outside of our family knows how to play it, though even the youngest of my cousins know it inside and out. One time, though, when I was really little, the adults decided stray from their usual rummy and have a poker game. It was originally intended to be just for the adults, but, as always happens in big families, news spread, and the kids decided that we wanted to play too. The rules were explained to us: everyone playing had to buy a five dollar gift, and instead of betting, we got a gift when we won a hand. Each of the children was given five dollars with which to buy a present. Max bought a decorated box. Katie bought a paperback novel. I bought a pretty bouquet of flowers. We spend the better part of the day in Grandma's craft room trying to wrap our gifts and make them look really pretty. Dinner was painful. We just wanted it to be over so that we could start playing. After dinner, Grandma told us to clean the kitchen. We have never cleaned so fast in our lives. "All right Grandma, the kitchen's clean". "Great Grandma Wachter's taking a nap, you'll have to wait". We sat in the basement with the tv on, but we weren't really watching it. We were just waiting for the adults to call us upstairs. Finally, I heard Aunt Sarah's voice calling down the stairs, "You kids wanna come play cards or not?". We were upstairs and sitting at the table before anybody even registered that we were on our way.
Finally, everyone was there, the gifts were all stacked on the window sill, and we started to play. Uncle Charlie won first, not entirely fairly, I'm afraid, but it won't ever be proved. He picked the first gift and unwrapped it... it was a pair of oven mitts shaped like lobster claws. Uncle Charlie left the game, and went to go watch tv. Aunt Lizzy won the next hand. She picked my bouquet of flowers and went to go put them in some water. As people won, they left the game. Finally, there were only a few of us left, and only a few gifts left. Aunt Katherine was dealing, because she was one of the only two only adults left. In retrospect, I think that Grandma K was losing on purpose, because she felt bad for us. Aunt Katherine was losing because she's just bad at cards. Eventually, though, when I was the only kid left in the game, Grandma K won a hand, chose her gift, and went to go start serving desert. It was just Aunt Katherine and I now, and everyone who had already left the game came back to watch the final hand. The cards were dealt, and we started deciding what we were going to do with what we had. We traded in our cards, reorganized our hands, and finally the time came to show what we had. Aunt Katherine layed down her cards, she had nothing. I laid down mine. Sadly, I had more of nothing than she had, and she picked one of the last two remaining gifts. She opened it. It was a figurine of a dog. That left the last present for me. It was big, and very poorly wrapped. It was the present that Uncle Charlie had brought. I didn't care what was inside, I had finally gotten my present. I unwrapped it, and was momentarily speechless. It was a taxidermied armadillo that my uncle had bought at a garage sale. It was the nastiest thing I had even seen in my life; it had definitely been through the mill, but I was so darn proud of it. My mother wouldn't let me touch it, and she spent a good five minutes yelling at a laughing Uncle Charlie.
Even though I ended up with the worst present, and even though I didn't win a single hand, that single poker game has influenced my life. It taught me that the game itself is more fun that the rewards. It also taught me to appreciate what I have, even if people don't think what I have is all that great. I play poker now, and I'm much better at it than I was then, but I think that losing that game of poker has been better for me than all of the poker games I've won put together.
My family plays cards. It's what we do. When the whole family is together for a holiday, we play cards. When just one person stops by for dinner, we play cards. When I fly across the country for a visit, we play cards. It is the best motivator for the kids and teenagers, bacause the adults can get us to do anything in return for the promise of a card game. If they want us to clean the kitchen, it will be spotless within minutes. If they need errands run or chores done, they get done. We have all been raised playing cards, and it has become one of our favorite things to do. Other people who try to play cards can't keep up with us, because we know the ins and outs of the game. We all know that Uncle Charlie is going to cheat, and we take him with a grain of salt. We know that Great Grandma Wachter is going to keep quiet the whole game, then win with an amazing hand at the end, then she'll just sit there and giggle to herself for fifteen minutes. We know that Aunt Katherine is going to start yawning at about the fourth hand, and go to bed by the seventh... when she's still winning. We've been playing for so long that we know how every game is going to progress, whose going to win each hand, and even what cards people are going to discard. Even though the game is different every time, it always falls into the same pattern, which is comforting. Nothing reminds me of home like a game of cards.
Usually our game is international rummy, because we enjoy the fact that nobody outside of our family knows how to play it, though even the youngest of my cousins know it inside and out. One time, though, when I was really little, the adults decided stray from their usual rummy and have a poker game. It was originally intended to be just for the adults, but, as always happens in big families, news spread, and the kids decided that we wanted to play too. The rules were explained to us: everyone playing had to buy a five dollar gift, and instead of betting, we got a gift when we won a hand. Each of the children was given five dollars with which to buy a present. Max bought a decorated box. Katie bought a paperback novel. I bought a pretty bouquet of flowers. We spend the better part of the day in Grandma's craft room trying to wrap our gifts and make them look really pretty. Dinner was painful. We just wanted it to be over so that we could start playing. After dinner, Grandma told us to clean the kitchen. We have never cleaned so fast in our lives. "All right Grandma, the kitchen's clean". "Great Grandma Wachter's taking a nap, you'll have to wait". We sat in the basement with the tv on, but we weren't really watching it. We were just waiting for the adults to call us upstairs. Finally, I heard Aunt Sarah's voice calling down the stairs, "You kids wanna come play cards or not?". We were upstairs and sitting at the table before anybody even registered that we were on our way.
Finally, everyone was there, the gifts were all stacked on the window sill, and we started to play. Uncle Charlie won first, not entirely fairly, I'm afraid, but it won't ever be proved. He picked the first gift and unwrapped it... it was a pair of oven mitts shaped like lobster claws. Uncle Charlie left the game, and went to go watch tv. Aunt Lizzy won the next hand. She picked my bouquet of flowers and went to go put them in some water. As people won, they left the game. Finally, there were only a few of us left, and only a few gifts left. Aunt Katherine was dealing, because she was one of the only two only adults left. In retrospect, I think that Grandma K was losing on purpose, because she felt bad for us. Aunt Katherine was losing because she's just bad at cards. Eventually, though, when I was the only kid left in the game, Grandma K won a hand, chose her gift, and went to go start serving desert. It was just Aunt Katherine and I now, and everyone who had already left the game came back to watch the final hand. The cards were dealt, and we started deciding what we were going to do with what we had. We traded in our cards, reorganized our hands, and finally the time came to show what we had. Aunt Katherine layed down her cards, she had nothing. I laid down mine. Sadly, I had more of nothing than she had, and she picked one of the last two remaining gifts. She opened it. It was a figurine of a dog. That left the last present for me. It was big, and very poorly wrapped. It was the present that Uncle Charlie had brought. I didn't care what was inside, I had finally gotten my present. I unwrapped it, and was momentarily speechless. It was a taxidermied armadillo that my uncle had bought at a garage sale. It was the nastiest thing I had even seen in my life; it had definitely been through the mill, but I was so darn proud of it. My mother wouldn't let me touch it, and she spent a good five minutes yelling at a laughing Uncle Charlie.
Even though I ended up with the worst present, and even though I didn't win a single hand, that single poker game has influenced my life. It taught me that the game itself is more fun that the rewards. It also taught me to appreciate what I have, even if people don't think what I have is all that great. I play poker now, and I'm much better at it than I was then, but I think that losing that game of poker has been better for me than all of the poker games I've won put together.
posted by Anonymous | 3:15 PM
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