Eye On The Birdie – Post #30 Card Games and Other Boredom Beaters

Hello to those who read these words! I come in peace, and with some information you might find useful! But first, I will give you some information that is almost certainly not useful—about my daily going-ons! High school is dragging on… and on… and then suddenly everything is due and also I have four tests coming up. Yay! Also, I have a cold which caused a long, loud, embarrassing coughing fit in math. I have not golfed, but what with school, gifted testing, and maintaining my sanity, I haven’t had much time. As such, I’m falling back on golf-related tidbits from summer First Tee programs. And yes, card games are related to golf—some even are Golf! Imagine sitting under a metal pavilion in midsummer, at midday. All your mom brought was water, a disgusting snack mix, and two packs of playing cards. This is my (but mostly my sister’s, she has to bear it much longer) life most summer days. What would you do? What we do is drink the water, assure our mother that we will eat the gross trail mix if we are absolutely starving, and play card games. Many, many, many card games. Now, the first card games most people would think of (I assume) are Go Fish and Old Maid. These games get old fast. To relieve the boredom, we invented one revised form of Old Maid and include one little known card game that I am obsessed with and my siblings are sick of. The revised form of Old Maid is called Ninja. (The name is the thing that changed the most. But really, would you rather play a game named after an elderly lady or a stealthy warrior?) It is exactly the same as Old Maid except for one incredibly life-changing thing: No one knows which card is the “old maid”! All you do is shuffle the entire deck and, without looking at it, take out one card. I find that Old Maid is usually fraught with suspicion and subtle (or not so subtle) manipulation. When no one is trying to get everyone else to pick a certain card, there are many more chances to converse openly. You still shouldn’t tell people what card you have, but it’s fun to guess what card is the “ninja.” This game works best with a set of cards with pictures on them instead of aces or spades. For instance, we got a set of cards at the Farmington Nature Center with pictures of camouflaged animals on them. (Trust me, no one ever guesses that it’s the cute baby cheetah right off the bat!) But for the next game I’ll tell you about, you have to have a normal set of cards. This next game is called Golf. It has a large amount of complicated directions that you can find online, so I won’t go too in depth. Basically, everyone lays out six cards face down in front of them and takes turns flipping them over or switching them out for cards from the discard pile or draw pile, or rearranging the cards in their hand. Be careful, though—once you flip over your last card, you can’t switch out any more cards! Due to some very odd rules, this is the only game of golf in which the lowest possible score on a “hole” (or one round) is -6! Hmm… Maybe that’s why I like it so much! I hope this post has given you some fun activities for a hot golf course, a rainy day, or a family night. Maybe you’ve even got some ideas for your own card game! Of course, there’s nothing wrong with Go Fish and Old Maid. Just play whatever makes you happy! -Birdie P.S. Golf (the card game) also works as a solo game. For instance, if you really wanted to play it but your three annoyingly stubborn younger siblings didn’t, you could pl