The Gamblers and the Games Children Play

We didn't realize, when the three of us went to grade school, that our family was a little different from other families.

Granted, we were more like the other kids' families than we were different. Like most families we knew we had a mother and a father who both lived at home, unlike my youngest son who knew what "joint custody" meant by the time he was in first grade because most of his classmates spent weekends shuttling between their parents.

We went to a Catholic school so our classmates were segregated by gender on the playground, usually by preference and later by the administration. Boys got to run around and play football with an empty taped, milk carton.

Sometimes boys and girls played "chase master" a pretty fast game of tag at which I was dismal. We jumped rope. We played a much simpler dodgeball with beanbags made out of bits of cloth that contained false koa seeds that were boiled then dried. The bag made a sharp smacking sound when it hit you if you weren't fast enough to get out of the way, that is. I don't think I'd be able to play the variations that are around today.

Some beanbags were made of uncooked rice, but that was considered a waste of food in those days.

When it rained, our classmates would choose quieter games played on the school's concrete lanai that lined the fifth and sixth grade classrooms along the smaller playground.

Jacks was popular among many girls. You could stuff a golf ball that had a good bounce to it and as many jacks as you needed into your uniform pocket. The jacks were metal and hurt if you stepped on one when you were barefoot.

But the most popular games among both boys and girls involved a deck of cards.

A deck of cards is pretty rare these days outside of a Vegas Blackjack or Poker table (or among some younger gents in our family).

However, in the days before we were old enough to be left home alone (probably when I was in third grade), our grandparents and our cousin looked after us. They taught us the card games they knew.

Our grandparents, according to my cousin and my limited memories of that time, held weekend poker playing parties that lasted from Friday night (pau hana-the night after pay day) to Sunday afternoon (so that everyone could go home and recover before going to work on Monday morning).

To give us something to do, because watching tv wasn't always an option, they taught us to play draw poker.

We learned suits. We learned what a pair was, what made up a flush, what made that different from a Royal Flush; that three of a kind beat a pair, that four of a kind beat both three of a kind and a pair; that a full house beat almost anything except a higher full house.

They seemed to draw the line at teaching us to bet at such a tender age. We were, after all, only in kindergarten and first grade. And our mother frowned on gambling of any sort.

When my classmates produced a deck of cards and asked if I could play, of course I assumed that every five year old had been taught five card draw, nothing wild, aces high.

They wanted to play Donkey. Donkey? What was that?

Then they asked if I knew how to play Old Maid or Go Fish.

We knew how to play paiute.

Our classmates didn't know any of the games we did. And we didn't know what to do with a deck of cards that didn't involve some kind of poker.

Later, because we didn't even know how to play Trumps we had to ask our older cousin for lessons.

Now what brought this on? I was cleaning out some drawers, never a good thing my husband says, and I found a deck of cards. When, I thought, was the last time I played solitaire with a deck of cards.

Just holding the deck in my hands made me want to shuffle them, so I did. And the memories came.

Now, I've got to ask all you grandparents out there, do your grandchildren know how to play Donkey or Old Maid or Go Fish with a deck of cards?

The next time there's a power failure here on O'ahu--and it's not a case of IF but rather WHEN, I can pull out my deck of cards--put on the old battery powered lantern and we can play cards. My own grandson is still at the stage where he's more likely to play 52 pickup than Old Maid.

I know it will be fun and before we know it, the lights will be back and we can return to playing solitaire on a computer.

(I want to thank John McLeod who maintains a nifty site that has the rules to card games from around the world plus all the card games you used to play as a kid.)

Family Sites Updated or Removed

Aloha 'auinala!

At least it's afternoon where I am. Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that the Tribalpages website has been updated, finally.

The Geocities website is, auwe, no more. Geocities, like the Hawaiiantel Ohana net is closing. However, I will try to put most of the pictures on this site.

For now, I'm still working on more stories.

Until next time, a hui hou.