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Games People Play Continue Through Ages

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 4, 2009

Most of us remember, as a child, spending long hours playing cards or board games. (These were hours pre-dating television and game boy computers) Those games were shared by family and friends, adults and children alike, and were sometimes continued for days, until there was a winner.

But who could have imagined that those childhood games would play an important role in a senior living setting?

Walk into Freedom Plaza on any given day, or evening, and you're almost sure to find a game in progress in the card room: social bridge, more than likely, as that pastime seems to be as natural - and as popular - as drawing breath to residents. Amiable chatting and laughter usually accompany those games.

Not so with duplicate bridge, the regular Monday afternoon game, which is directed and sanctioned, takes on the silence, and the seriousness of a church service. Posted scores are scrutinized as carefully as stock market reports.

The poker table, when is use, is yet another sacrosanct area. The ante may not be high, but one wonders if the players have six-shooters under the table.

If the game is something as unusual as Mexican Train dominos, onlookers might come out of curiosity. Mahjong and pinochle are old hat.

Card games were popular pastimes in Europe centuries ago. in France, belot; in Germany, skat; in England, whist (the forerunner of bridge.)

They traveled here with the colonists and have, over the years, changed with the times. Tracing the origin of each game (with the help of Google, of course) could prove a fascinating study.

All this interest in card and table games at Freedom Plaza should come as no surprise. Many of the residents moved here directly from Sun City Center where the phone book lists 25 different clubs for card games, alone. Perhaps seniors, on the whole - Freedom Plaza residents included - realize that the same mental skills that games helped them to develop as children, skills that have served them for a lifetime, stay honed only as they continue to be used.

Or perhaps seniors - Freedom Plaza residents included - just like fun and games ... and especially games.

Peggy Burgess is a creative consultant for Freedom Plaza.

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