Grandma Thelma was not a good loser. In fact, I would have to say that she hated to lose, especially at cards. It did not matter who she played with, a solitary game or against one of her grandchildren. Losing was not an option for grandma.
She loved to play solitaire. And her endless days in the Catskills during the winter months gave her plenty of time to play. But she played even in the summer when there were many people up for the summer.
Grandma would eagerly deal out her seven piles of cards and start a game. But if it wasn’t going well, she might add an eighth pile. Or perhaps count out her three cards in a slightly different manner. Or maybe check the cards that were turned over to see where the card was that she needed. She would then work to get that card uncovered.
We would protest! “Grandma, That is cheating!” She always denied it. To her it was winning. Why play a game by yourself if you were going to lose? She said she was not cheating, she was just changing the rules. But rules are meant to be followed. Not to Grandma, if she had followed the rules, she once told me, she would not be here. She would have died in the Shoah. So you make the rules so that you win. To some degree I could not argue with that.
However, there were times she would never make up her own rules. During the summertime daily canasta games with three longtime friends (including my other grandma), she played honestly. Doing anything else would have been a disaster. And when you play with a partner, it is much more difficult to make your own rules, since you both have to play as a team. But to be honest team work was not my Grandma’s strong point.
She also never cheated during the weekly gin rummy game that the women of the colony played when the husbands were in the City. It was for money! A penny or two per point depending on the win. When she played for money, she always followed the official rules.
But with her grandchildren, the three of us who spent the summers in the Catskills, she would often follow her own rules. Sometimes is was as simple as taking a peek at our hands. I admit we were a little lax on holding our cards close to our chest. But when playing gin rummy with Grandma, we learned quickly to keep our cards hidden. She would warn us once if we held our cards where she could see them. But if we made that mistake again, forget about it, she looked.
On rainy days, when we were stuck inside for the entire day, my Mom would often ‘kick’ us out of the bungalow and send us across the lawn to our Grandparent’s house. They lived there throughout the year and had a television. But that was not our true reason for going. With our Grandparents we played cards or baked or just visited. The card games, however, were epic battles. They could go on for hours as we played gin rummy for points. Or perhaps a canasta game, the three grandchildren and Grandma. Or perhaps a canasta game for two. Hours of entertainment, And my Mom would get a break.
My brother believes (and it is true) that she would rearrange the deck, stacking it in her favor, if you had to leave the room for a minute. I remember often calling for someone to watch Grandma while I ran to the bathroom.I would bring my cards with me, I knew that if I left my hand unattended, I would not win. Sometimes, if my brother or sister were around, I just asked one of them to play out the hand.
You might think that she not a good role model by all this ‘cheating.’ But she really was so obvious about it, and never sneaky, that I am a little adverse to calling it cheating. We knew exactly what was happening. We knew she just did not like to lose, but at the same time she knew that she was not really winning.
It became a running joke. I remember once telling a friend that my Grandma always won at cards. She was amazed. “How did she do that?” My friend asked. “She must have been really lucky.”
“Well, luck had nothing to do with it,” I admitted. “She created her own rules. And in her rulebook, my Grandma always won.”
zicharonot 
Such a sweet and funny memory!
This is so funny! Thanks for sharing. It reminded me of fun times with the family on summer vacations!
Thank you. I like happy memories.