“So every time we play, we end up calling the cards basically completely unrecognizable things.”
So, one of the big traditions in my family is playing this card game called Canasta, which is basically a variant of Rummy. I know that as a Michigander, the big card game around here is typically Euchre, but I never really grew up playing that. Instead, I grew up playing Canasta. So in those like, family get-togethers and events and holidays, we usually play Canasta, and it’s a lot of fun.
But the thing with playing Canasta with my family is that they never use the right names for any of the cards. I heard that the reason why is because my grandfather, who was the one who kind of introduced the card game to our family, didn’t really speak English super well when he first married into our family. But the thing is that, as a result of that, when he taught everyone the game, I guess he called all the cards a bunch of incorrect terms, and now they just stuck around. So every time we play, we end up calling the cards basically completely unrecognizable things. So, like, for example instead of calling it like, a Red Three or Three of Diamonds or Three of Hearts, instead we call it a Cat’s Eye.
And like, I’ve learnt all the weird like, terminology and like, names that my family uses to describe each card, so I can play the game just fine. But the problem is that obviously, no one outside of my family knows like, the terminology. So what ends up happening is that I’ll try to introduce Canasta to other people and teach them how to play the game. Like, I’ll try to teach my friends the game. And they just get so confused because I keep instinctively calling the cards names that don’t make any sense. So I’ll be like, “Oh, if you draw a cat’s eye, you can play and get 100 points” and they’ll look at me like, like a deer in headlights.
So as a result, I don’t really teach people Canasta anymore, because not only is it always kind of difficult to learn a new card game, but it’s made extra difficult by the fact that I keep calling the cards terms that they don’t even know. So, Canasta has mostly stayed a family tradition.
