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letter 09/16/06Janet KuypersI’m 36 years old, and I played gin with dad for the first time ever today. All my life I have remember mom and dad playing gin with another couple coming over, playing at our poker table (not turned over, of course), and I learned how to play, it’s the same thing as rummy, but instead of 8 cards there’s 10, and you can’t put 3 of a kind (or a series of 3 or more) down during the game, and you can’t take all of the cards on the discard pile, you can only take the top card. So if a card has been discarded, you’re out of luck, there’s no chance to get it back. Anyway, I think I never played gin with my parents, but I knew how to play it, and I probably played with my sister Sandy (but I can’t remember specifically ever playing with her), but now all I do is teach my husband to play gin. And we play together when we want to feel like we’re at a bar and want to spend time doing something other than talking or listening to music (only rarely are we dancing, so I didn’t bother mentioning that). Anyway, I asked my dad after mom died if he wanted to play gin, because I hear that he played cards with people before, when people were around and people hadn’t died yet. But they played pinochle, and like how they played gin, they don’t just play with two people (even though gin is a two person game), when he played gin in the past he played with partners, and they counted points, so that whatever team got to 500, then they’d win. Well, when John and I play, we don’t bother counting points, we just see each game who wins and leave it at that. And probably because I knew the game and taught the rules to him, I win more often. But when we play as a pair without counting points, we call all the time, because why not? It’s just a game, right? So anyway, because dad has been trying to find things to do after mom died, I didn’t know what to do for him. Some of his friends asked for suggestions, and I said, “find people to play cards with him, because it would give him something to do other than playing computer games or drinking,” but no one knows pinochle other than one guy, and he couldn’t think of two other people. I don’t know pinochle, but apparently, like gin, you have to play in a large group. But anyway, I’ve asked dad a few times if maybe he’d want to play gin, and he always says no. Yesterday even, he was playing a computer game, and I offered to play a game of gin with him, and still he said no. But today, my second to last day here, he was playing a computer game and I thought, okay, I get into a rut, and they say I’m like him, so I should take some initiative. So I went and got a deck of cards and sat down next to him and just started shuffling. And he finally paused long enough form playing computer solitaire (you know, you can always pause that game, like you really are so caught up in solitaire that you need to be distracted) to see what I was doing, and I said, “I got a deck of cards. Want to play a game of gin?” and he said, “let me finish what I was doing, and okay.” So I kept shuffling until he was finished playing, and dealt. I actually ginned the first game, when I got the winning card form his discard I said, “I’m sorry, but gin,” and then we played again, he called and beat me because I had absolutely nothing in my hand. And then we played a few more hands and then he said he was wanted to watch the game, so we stopped playing after about 4 or 5 games. And I talked to John on the phone long distance this evening, and I said that this was probably the first time in my life I had ever played gin with my father. Interesting, I learned this game from my father, without him trying to teach me, and this was the first time I had ever played gin with him. Interesting.
letter 09/16/06Janet Kuypersedited 01/13/11 I just played gin with my dad for the first time ever. All my life I remembered mom and dad playing gin with another couple coming over, playing at our poker table, and I learned how to play, it’s kind of like rummy... I don’t think I ever played gin with my parents, but I knew how to play it, and I probably played with my sister (I can’t really remember). Now all I do is teach my husband to play gin when we’re together and want to spend time doing something other than watching tv. But when we play and don’t keep track of the score, we call all the time, because why not? It’s just a game, right? Anyway, I asked my dad after mom died if he wanted to play gin, because he played cards with people before, when people hadn’t died yet. But now they play pinochle, and I don’t know pinochle... But anyway, I’ve asked dad a few times if maybe he’d want to play gin, and he always says no. Yesterday even, he was playing a computer game, and I offered to play a game of gin with him, and still he said no. But today, my second to last day visiting him, he was playing a computer game and I thought, okay, I get into a rut, and they say I’m like him, so I should take some initiative. So I went and got a deck of cards and sat down next to him and just started shuffling. And he finally paused long enough form playing computer solitaire to see what I was doing, and I said, “I got a deck of cards. Want to play a game of gin?” and he said, “let me finish what I was doing, and okay.” So I kept shuffling until he was finished playing, and dealt. I actually ginned the first game, when I got the winning card form his discard I said, “I’m sorry, but gin,” and then we played again, he called and beat me because I had absolutely nothing in my hand. And then we played a few more hands and then he said he was wanted to watch the game on tv, so we stopped playing after about 4 or 5 games. And I talked to my husband on the phone long distance afterward, and I said that this was probably the first time in my life I had ever played gin with my father. Interesting. I learned this game from my father, without him trying to teach me, and this was the first time I had ever played gin with him. Interesting.
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