Playing cards with my family, the atmosphere is thick with competitiveness, yet somehow subtly casual. Hand and Foot (or H&F) is a fringe card game enjoyed by many––I began playing when I was six. With a whole family of card players, it’s common that weekends turn into massive card tournaments. Baseball is America’s pastime, but ours is card games. Learning H&F was a difficult process due to all the rules and their many exceptions, but now it’s second nature. Actually, it’s difficult to explain the game to others now because I can’t even remember all the obvious rules: eights are worth 10 points, not 5; no table talk is allowed, though I do it anyways; you can’t make a book of twos until you have all 7.
On a Saturday night, Alex tries to talk with a British accent, failing miserably after a couple minutes; there are always new diversions every game to keep it lively. After four rounds, Alex and I beat my gramma and my sister. The sensational victory makes me confident: I beat my gramma, winner of eight card clubs and member of an H&F one now. Sadly, Gramma blamed it on luck of the draw. “We’re only recreational card players” so we wouldn’t last in a real card club.
A card club is an association of players that can vary in age (6 years old to 90) and demographics (rich or poor, educated or not, etc.). They meet regularly to play each other in teams or alone in a card game of their choosing. Typically, the scores are added up throughout the season and the overall winner is determined.
The origin of playing cards is uncertain: currently there are four theories as to how card games were invented. The most popular one is that they were developed in China. This could perhaps be “out of the tendency to ascribe all things unknown to the “East,” than it does out of evidence.” Paper cards would be possible to create in China because of their use of papyrus for schools: they had the needed materials available. They spread east through India, Persia, Egypt, and up into Europe in the late 1300s.
The earliest packs of cards were often hand painted and very expensive, considered rare works of art. After the printing press was invented, cards became cheaper to produce and therefore their games were more widely spread among all socioeconomic classes. The four suits of a deck originated in the Middle East as coins, cups, swords, and sticks. Coins evolved into diamonds, cups (which represented love in the past) changed to hearts, spades replaced swords, and sticks transformed into clubs. The king face cards are designed to look like historical figures: Charlemagne (hearts), Julius Caesar (diamonds), Alexander the Great (clubs), and King David (spades).
Card games are often reflections of the popular culture of the time, varying as time progresses. For example, the ace was the lowest card until the 1700s when the democratic movements became popular so the ace––a symbol of the poor––grew to be worth more than the court cards. Also, the hierarchy of the cards can be fit to any purpose, such as kittens, Harry Potter characters, or vegetables; they can be used for more serious reasons as well––cities, presidents, or dogs. Today, The United States Playing Card Company is the world’s largest producer of cards. They sell over 100 million decks of playing cards annually and produce decks with popular brands such as Coca-Cola, Mickey Mouse, etc.
Gramma has been in a 500, a few euchre, and four other H&F card clubs. She plays a multitude of casual games, typically with me or her friends outside of official clubs––it’s a consuming hobby. Her favorite games include Hand and Foot,––I would have to agree––Golf, 500, Euchre, Progressive Jinn, and Spite and Malice. She never got into bridge like most other players. Gramma is currently in an Oldenburg family club that includes her and her sisters as the other five rotating members; it’s typically Sheri, Tammie, Penny, Leslie, and Vonnie.
They created the card club in 1999––Gramma has been in it every year––and continue to play it to today. Originally, only three of the sisters knew how to play so they had to teach the other three and create a rulebook so they could pick the rules they liked and mix them together to standardize the rules when they played. Initially, the newbies gave up too easily so they played stupidly and lost the game. However, after a year or two, the newbies finally realized that just because someone’s about to go out and they’re in the hole doesn’t mean the game is over.
Gramma was always in first or second place until the fourth year when competition grew stronger––everyone learned the tricks of the game: be positive, smarter, and keep pushing to win. The Oldenburg sisters get together six times a year to play H&F now. Having never gotten last during the course of her time with the club, Gramma’s most recent goal is to never be in the bottom spot.
The sisters have their own reasons for joining as well as a couple shared ones:
1. It is a social gathering for the sisters to catch up with each other. They talk about their lives and how their children are doing and what their responsibilities/careers are now and what they do on a daily basis to keep occupied.
2. They can come together as a group, because they share a common interest: H&F. Besides from being sisters, they can express their enjoyment of the game in a competitive way.
3. Some sisters enjoy expressing their frustrations and disappointments. Venting at games is cheaper than a psychiatrist. This nonjudgmental environment is one of original reasons why the club was started, but has since evolved.
4. As their lives grew busier, they were unable to see each other quite as often. Vonnie established the club as an effort to get together; this was especially useful because Leslie is estranged from the family right now so this is the only time the rest see her.
5. It’s a night to party! With demanding jobs, they didn’t have time to socialize so this was a way to have a night out away from home and take a break from their mundane working schedules and responsibilities.
While these are fun, loving ways as to why they joined card club, it’s obvious that their end goal is the traveling trophy. The winner of the season gets her name, score, and year engraved on it and keeps it until a new winner arises. On the low end, there is an end of the year low trophy: a box with the stats of the loser written on it but inside is an adorable statue of an alligator with a life preserver.
After playing H&F for years, I knew it was time to experience an official club and see the differences. I had to discover if what Gramma said was true.
“The only good ace is a dirty ace.”
While this sounds like a snippet of conversation at a casino, sixty-year old grandmothers cackled around the card table when Gramma declared this at the card club finale. To arrive at the club, however, I was forced to endure a two-hour drive to reach Sheri’s new house in Luck, Wisconsin. The construction-caused slamming on breaks did not help my mood, but once we got out of the cities, the drive calmed down. Gramma and Tammie, however, got more revved up.
Discussions ranging from movies they’ve seen zInto the Woods: liked by Gramma but not Tammie), how Tammie needs to get her car fixed (she’s been driving to Northfield often to look at new houses), vacuums (I never realized that hair had to be cleaned out of the bristles for it to work properly), driving in storms (dangerous), turkey diseases (Minnesota is the one of the top turkey producing states), and meals they’ve had at card club (mostly delicious). It was fairly interesting actually to listen to but then Gramma offered me a Snicker because she thought I was hungry––I was––so I got to snack while they continued catching up.
I was interested to know that their mother is also in a card club that has many blatant errors. The ladies are in all their eighties but still use small cards, low lighting, and big tables. The H&F club has evolved––as the sisters have gotten older––to accommodate their poor eyesight and shorter arms by using jumbo cards, better lighting, a towel to place the cards on so they can easily slide it around the table, and card holders to combat their carpal tunnel.
The club has continued to meet the needs of the group by changing the typical routine. They used to play at 7:00pm on Friday after everyone finished working, they had four to five appetizers. This became unfeasible, as it didn’t fill them up enough after work (they didn’t eat dinner before playing), so they switched to soups and sandwiches on Saturday afternoons. Now, there’s a hot dish with sides after two games then desert after the last game; it’s even earlier in the day too because they’re older.
This current year was the 15th anniversary of the creation of the club. Going into the final, Gramma was in fourth and her goal was to not drop any lower––it would be almost impossible to jump up a spot anyways. We arrived at Sheri’s around 2:00pm and everyone else showed up half an hour later. Before starting the game everyone chatted, except for Gramma and Tammie who had one less smoke before getting down to business.
The playful banter and small table talk meant that there was never an empty void of silence. “You were so busy watching Pen throw the eights that you did the same!” hollered Tammie, immediately followed by “We need a lot of kings to make a book,” from across the table. This clarification of the next step so they could go out is quite common and it helps them to recognize what they need to draw or play. “I’m running” is a very popular statement to announce to the table, drawing envious looks from the others and a whoop––or as close as grandmothers can get to one––of appreciation from her partner.
For the first round of the first game, Vonnie went out quickly and unexpectedly, if the groans of the others indicate anything. Especially unhappy were Gramma and Pen because they had 3 red threes between them so they’re already in the hole. Finally, someone is ready to meld at 60; they only had nickel cards so it took forever to get the necessary points. If you’re not playing the game, it could seem rather dull––inside, evaluating moves, hoping for the luck of the draw, desperately trying to get enough books, it could be entertaining for hours.
With some country music playing, game two started. Leslie snickered that she’s “in between the bookends,” sitting between Gramma and Vonnie. While browsing the one inch green binder filled with score sheets, stats, pictures (lined up in score order), and special bonuses to be proud of (who got the most red threes) from the past 15 years (and getting confused by the symbols), I overheard some colorful swearing. Apparently the round was coming to a close and Pennie got an… unappreciated draw. She couldn’t get rid of her loser, but now––to Gramma’s advantage––she played negatively with rotten cards so she would think every new card she received would also be highly unhelpful.
There are many rituals in card games that players believe are the only way to be successful. Gramma for example, taps the card pile before drawing and visualizes what she wants; this surprisingly works more in her favor than not––even though everyone thinks she’s crazy. Tammy, however, doesn’t believe in rituals (she’s very realistic) but when someone else yells out a number of a card, she ends up drawing it anyways.
After my third cup of tea––decaf of course––the three games were finally over. I never realized how long it takes to play a full game of H&F as my family usually quits midway through. I guess when you play to 10,000 or a maximum of 6 rounds, it feels like it’s going pretty quickly. While Tammy totaled the calculations, Sheri blamed Facebook for infecting her computer with a virus so Vonnie had to outdo her by proclaiming that she’ll never go online because once she does, all of her information won’t be safe. The gap between the old generation and today (along with their ignorance of technology) was clearly evident. Tammie announced the results: Gramma won for the night and Leslie came in last. The overall loser was Vonnie and the winner was… Leslie! Everyone stayed in the same place they were before tonight, which was a relief to Gramma because she came in third–– A.K.A.: not last. Because Leslie won the club this year, it’s tradition that, for next year, she hosts first in October then each of the sisters host it once throughout the year.
Contradicting Gramma’s belief of not being able to last in a “real” card game, I think that after experiencing it I could hold my own against five, withering old ladies.