Card Parties

[Miss Neecerie]

Ok...I find myself in the unique position of having accidently started collecting card table tablecloths.

This leads me to the 'Well I should start throwing card parties to use these'

So, card parties......


Besides Bridge....(which I have been scolded and told I can't learn til I turn 58 lol ) what else did nice ladies play and throw card parties for.


D...who sadly grew up playing poker for pennies as a child...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Canasta was second only to bridge with the neighborhood-card-party crowd, along with a form of euchre called "Five Hundred," the latter being more of a working-class game than the former.

Of course, Contract Bridge was *the* game from the mid-twenties onward for anyone with any kind of middle-class aspirations, simply because its structure makes it a natural for two couples to play. An entire industry grew out of it -- it was probably the most popular participatory pastime of the between-the-wars era.

Pinochle was for errant husbands hiding out down at the lodge hall.

Poker was raffish and disreputable, but lent itself to larger groups, so it had its enthusiasts just the same. Despite the men-in-shirtsleeves-smoking-White-Owls stereotype, it was very popular with women as well: my mother had regular penny-ante parties with the neighborhood gals, and I too grew up playing the game. If we ever have a transcontinental Powder Room gettogether, I think that ought to be our evening's entertainment.

 

[olive bleu]

Goodness..my mother used to have WILD card parties. Every friday night her friends would come over to play "Flinch". I don't know where my poor father went, out to drink i presume. But every friday night my sister and i would be swiftly marched off to bed right after dinner.But trust me, there was no sleep to be had. How many bottles of "Baby Duck" wine were consumed and how many packs of cigarettes were smoked, i couldn't tell you.but the Flinch nights went on for years.

At my house, we love card games, and it is the one thing my adolescent kids will do with me still.WE do play "Flinch" to carry on the tradition( sans booze and nicotine), and crazy 8's. 2 years ago when my kids were 10 & 11, they asked to play cards for New Years eve and requested poker.I thought that was cute and suggested playing for pennies.They insisted on at least nickels,and i stupidly agreed..to finally learn that their Grandmother had been secretly teaching them to play Poker on sleepovers for YEARS!lol

I love the idea of having adult card parties..but don't think i know anyone besides my mother who would be game.But i honestly don't think I'm up for that. ha ha.

 

[Zemke Fan]

Lizzie, you slay me...

.
Pinochle was for errant husbands hiding out down at the lodge hall.
.

... I absolutely love this line! Of course, my family played pinochle for years and years and years, and it's still my favorite card game.

 

[BeBopBaby]

I love to play canasta! Once you remember the rules (we use cheat sheets with the rules on them for reference when needed), it's a great social game.

There are even lot's of vintage canasta accessories/sets that you can start to collect that add to the fun of playing. My favorite item being the Xavier Cugat "Swing and Sway" Canasta Tray. Also, I love the vintage, hand-cranked card shufflers. I bet one of those would look fantastic on your card-playing table cloths.

 

[carter]

We also played every board game in existence

My grandparents had poker parties on Friday nights in their farmhouse dining room when we were little kids. We'd sneak down the stairs and sit on the steps until the adults would find us and let us sit on their laps for a few hands. Then back to bed.
When we were teenagers there were poker parties in our basement. My grandmother would usually clean everyone out.
We also played canasta, rook, and flinch around the kitchen table.
I didn't learn to play bridge until college.

We used card tables for jigsaw puzzles.

No one does this anymore. No wonder kids are bored and have short attention spans.

 

[Dthunderchicken]

Hi All;

At the risk of thread drift, a card game that you don't see very often these days in casino. It was very popular during and after WWII. There were 13 points per deck and you would try to capture the cards that held the points. Casino is only a two person game but moves quickly enough that three people can play one deck. We used to play it all night when we'd run trot lines while camping. I've tried teaching my kids (13 & 16) but they can't slow down enough to appriciate something as old fashioned as cards.

 

[Snookie]

Gin Rummy! I grew up playing rummy with my mom and grandma, but I'm no good at remembering what's in the discard pile, so I mostly rely on luck. Supposedly Gin Rummy was popular on Hollywood movie sets, while the stars were waiting for their scene...

We bought decks for Canasta and Rook, but haven't had the patience to learn the rules off the paper. I need to find an enthusiast to teach me.

What about Hearts? Is that Golden Era?

 

[BeBopBaby]

We bought decks for Canasta and Rook, but haven't had the patience to learn the rules off the paper. I need to find an enthusiast to teach me.

We use little cheat sheets to remember all the rules in canasta. They're invaluable if you're just learning to play. Games.yahoo.com also has a good online version of canasta that you can play that really helps you to learn the rules.

 

[Miles Borocky]

Bridge should be reclaimed by those of us under 58, I think. It's a lovely game for the conversation it allows, and its rules are arcane enough to ward off dummies. (I can't understand half of the rules, but I've only tried to learn the game a few times.)

Gin Rummy was the game I was going to suggest. If any of you have read Philip Roth's THE HUMAN STAIN you'll recall there's a lovely passage when Nathan Zuckerman and Coleman silk--two men who came of age in the 1940s and 50s--sit, older, playing gin rummy and listening to old big band tunes on the radio. Lovely moment.

 

[pigeon toe]

I second (or third) Gin Rummy!

When my girlfriends and I get together we often spend the night gossiping, playing cards and drinking. Our boyfriends act like we are old ladies (their moms do the same thing, only with Loteria!), but it's fun! We also like to play Uno, but you need to buy their cards for that.

 

[Paisley]

My parents used to play a card game called Pitch. I never learned it, though. I did learn how to play bridge, but as others have said, it seems to be a game for people of a certain age, and I'm not there yet. But I thought it was a lot of fun.

My best friend's ex-boyfriend's mother loves to play whist.

 

[LuketheLurker]

My best friend's ex-boyfriend's mother loves to play whist.

Before, I moved to my present Local, my friends an I would gather every Wednesday night at 8 o'clock promptly!, there were severe repercussions if you were late, to play whist or "whisk" as we called it. Every now and then we would mix it up and play a game of Palace just for fun. The night always ended somehow with somebody building a card house at 3 in the morning saying I gotta go, those were great times. As for poker, I taught them Faro once and we play most the night for quarters until they realized that the odds were on the house and that was the end of that. I was the house and made a killing that night, spent the next week buying things with quarters, It was great! I love card parties, they are such fun times.:eusa_clap

 

[Bluebird]

My great grandmother was always having people over to play cards. They always played eucre. I remember my g-grandmother introducing some of her card buddies as "your cousin Rusty", etc. As a kid you kinda wonder how you have a cousin that is almost as old as your gramma! Took me years to figure that one out.

With family we always played Cribbage. And g-gram was a shark. "Oooohh! Did I win?" Yeah, the old lady act didn't fool us one bit!! lol I miss those games...

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

You can put board games on a card table, too. (I highly recommend Cranium.)

The extent of my card-game-playing knowledge involved Uno, Slapjack, and possibly a couple of other easy games along those lines. And Mafia. But that's not strictly a card game.

 

[Paisley]

With family we always played Cribbage. And g-gram was a shark. "Oooohh! Did I win?" Yeah, the old lady act didn't fool us one bit!! lol I miss those games...

I haven't played cribbage in years. I'd forgotten about it!

 

[Bluebird]

I always have a nasty habit of getting "skunked" in Cribbage. Oh, well! It was fun anyway (I'll have to dust off the old board!!)

^_^bluebird

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Mahjong, then you can have all that nice Catalin to play with.

 

[Jack Armstrong]

Canasta was second only to bridge with the neighborhood-card-party crowd, along with a form of euchre called "Five Hundred," the latter being more of a working-class game than the former.

Really? I never knew that. My mother taught me to play Five Hundred when I was a kid. I guess it makes sense, since Granddad was a carpenter, and definitely a worker.

It was Dad who taught me how to play Gin rummy. I enjoyed the game, but was never very good at it.

 

[Rachael]

I was going to suggest Mah Jongg but it's already been mentioned. My ex's grandfather loved to play, and we inherited his bamboo and ivory set. There are several variations, but the one we play is very similar to Gin Rummy. Now if only I could find a way to accidentally end up with the vintage set..