Everyone has their hobbies. Tom’s is playing games. Monopoly in all it’s iterations, I think we have seven different types of Monopoly, even one in French. That was for Meghan when she was studying French in middle school. Thank God they don’t have one in Latin, she would have nailed us all to the table top. Anyway, board games. We always played a lot of board games at home when I was growing up. The girls grew up on Monopoly, actually cutthroat Monopoly, yes we did make children cry. We played Risk, but we gave that up because we couldn’t play it sitting down and things got a bit hostile. Clue was another favorite, but we didn’t always play by the rules and it confused friends of the girls when there were sleepovers or play dates. Candyland was a sort of fun favorite, but it didn’t last all that long, the girls were way past cute by that time. And, I have to say, my favorite was Snakes and Ladders. I even had a small pocket set that I could take with me when we were out to dinner with the girls and we’d play Snakes and Ladders. When you opened this index card sized box, it folded flat and became the board. The inside held tokens and die. It was fun, it was easy, it was entertaining and kept the girls actively involved at the table.
Since they’ve grown up, Tom and the girls, we’ve moved to poker. Tom started watching the Texas Hold’em poker on the Travel Channel. Then, once, when we were up in Baltimore, we went into a games store and bought chips and a felt top. We’d play with the kids when they were home from college or when we were in Baltimore. Then Dick’s had one of those Black Friday sales at 6 AM the Friday before Thanksgiving and lo and behold, there we were, in the parking lot, awaiting the door opening. We bought three briefcase sets of chips, one for each of the girls and one for us.
Now the girls have poker parties, or they used to. And, once a month or so, we have a Texas Hold’em night here. $30.00 buy in, $5.00 for the house for noshes, and an evening of laughter, fun and a little competitive action. Those who come and play are out for a relaxing evening, up for a little ribald comedy and double entendre, some mixed nuts, a little guacamole and chips, some wine or beer. It’s a good way to have friends in and enjoy their company.
So. Poker!