Weather
everywhere can be unpredictable, and Florida is no exception. Freezing
temperatures in the winter have killed orange crops as far south as Miami. Oppressive
heat in the summer scares off most tourists all over the southernmost state.
Our recent vacation on the Floridian
west coast last month was planned with only relaxation in mind. Oh, yes, of
course we hoped to leave the frigid temperatures behind. However, we longed to
visit with friends even more. They had recently moved to the Cape after living
in Norwood for more than 40 years. As retired New Englanders often do, our
friends now “snowbird” in Florida for the winter months.
For
us, a trip to Florida in the dead of winter offered the possibilities of
leaving the snow behind, but the surety of catching up on friendship at the
same time. We packed layers of clothing and some light-weight jackets amid the
sunscreen and sandals, but left all expectation for truly hot weather behind.
What we didn’t expect was a two-day
monsoon several days into our vacation. And neither did our poor, generous
hosts who were at a loss to entertain us while the wet and white-capped pool was
steps away and the green lawns behind the lanai quickly turned into swamps. We ate as much popcorn at the movies that we
could stomach and jumped over puddles, dodging the furious raindrops as they
poured down.
It
was then that we remembered those lazy summer days as teens, and boisterous
nights as college students. What to do when there is plenty of free time on
your hands? Cards!
Finding a game for four that we all could
play wasn’t too difficult. None of us quite remembered all the rules of Whist
(a college-favorite), or Canasta (a childhood fad of the 50s and 60s). And so,
with some help from the others, it only took a few practice hands and some
coaching to get me playing Hearts again.
Florida’s sunshine returned near the
end of our stay and the pool and golf clubs were begging for our company once
again. That said, we still played hearts long into the night (if you consider
11:00 pm a definition of “long into the night.”) The best part was that Gerry
and I arrived home without tans, but well-rested and well-fed from our
wonderful visit with great friends.
That next week, for Valentine’s Day,
I gave Gerry a set of two glistening decks of cards meant expressively for
Canasta and we set about re-learning that game, too. Both of us remember playing Canasta for
hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of hours about a half-a-century ago with
neighborhood and school friends.
What
we learned while we played, quite by accident and argument, is that there are
several versions of rules for the game and some were invented while we were
busy in college and raising our families.
Now comes my lecture about trusting
a Google search over the array of better tools and information available in
print and online. Librarians continually preach: “when you Google, you need to
know what and how to Google.” This also
applies to online tutorials on YouTube and other sites on the Internet.
The game itself has an interesting
history and involves the year 1939, an attorney, an architect, and a little
basket used to store cards. Segundo Santos was the attorney, and his friend,
Alberto Serrato, often spent their evenings playing Bridge. The story goes that Santos was tired every
day due to the late hours at the Jockey Club in Montevideo, Uruguay where he
lived. He decided that the simpler game of Rummy would give him some relief,
but Rummy relied less on skill and brain power and more on chance. So he
invented a new game and asked for Serrato’s help perfecting the rules,
strategies, and techniques. They stored the cards between their games in a
little basket, or a “canastillo” and Canasta got its name. The game spread quickly
throughout South America and after World War II was over, it had reached a
willing population of card players in the United States. A craze had begun and
in the 1950s, books about Canasta flooded the New York Times bestseller list as
the game’s popularity grew throughout the world. Some of those books can still be found in the
Minuteman Library catalog.
Of course, many variations on the
game swept through regional areas. Modern American Canasta, with many more
complex rules, actually became the official tournament version of the American
Canasta Association. What we discovered about Canasta, through deeper and
deeper research, is that Modern American Canasta has very different rules than
Classic Canasta.
There are many books and online
resources to sort out these differences. The important thing is knowing the
rules of the version of the game you intend to play. Melding a set of black
threes, for example, is not in the original version. The discard pile is always
frozen in Modern American Canasta, but only in certain cases in Classic. Fortunately,
Gerry and I discovered the confusion early enough to set ourselves straight.
The Minuteman Library catalog has
scores of books on card playing and many of them include Canasta. Card Games
Properly Explained by Arnold Marks (2010) will certainly help anyone trying to
remember games of their childhood. The book includes rules and versions of
Poker, Cribbage, Gin Gummy, Whist, in addition to Canasta. 110 Card Games for
Expert Players by Jeremy Harwood (2015) includes histories, photographs and
diagrams. The Card Games Bible (2014) includes over 150 games. And of course, Card Games for Dummies (2004)
might be the obvious choice to have on hand for those of re-learning the game
of Canasta with a half-century more tread on our mental tires!
If you’d like to check out any of
the books about Canasta and other card games in the Minuteman Library catalog,
use a keyword search “card games” or call the library for help.
