Game time

In my previous blog I mentioned the name William Makepeace Thackery. I didn't want to diverge from the quote so I had to use another entry to describe what a rush of memories that name brings to me.

Authors. The game.

What child of six would otherwise know William Makepeace Thackery? But because of that card game, the gentlemen (oh, yes, there was the token Louisa May Alcott) Twain, Tennyson, Hawthorne, Shakespeare, Stevenson, Dickens, etc., were friends to me. It was a deck of 52 with 13 distinguished authors and the goal was to achieve a set of four works for each. We have 50 year old family jokes stemming from that game! Like my father's famous, "Let me check" when asked about a certain author, grandly pulling one card out of his pocket and proceeding to ponder the question.

The point is not the game. The point is the fun. Family members gathered together, playing a card game, no tv, no iphones, no ipods, no computers. Just people, matching wits. Learning about wins and losses. Shared time, shared laughter, shared values.

Shared.

Cherished.