FUN AND GAMES

For the past few months, my Tuesday afternoons have consisted of playing contract bridge with some retired men at the Thornhill Seniors' Centre.

For now, I have eschewed playing duplicate bridge at the same venue taking a preference for friendly chatter over childish chastisement.

I must share that a few of the men are quite old which plays havoc with my mantra of trying to best anyone between the ages of 5 and 85. Maybe 5 to 75 is a more realistic range.

Though most of the players follow the archaic bidding systems of the Charles Goren era, they excel at the actual playing of the hands and they're teaching me how to play without fear. As one man quipped, "If you mess up with your partner, you're making your two opponents very happy." I suppose that's one way of looking at it and I guess that's why they don't keep score, something that a competitive person like myself still finds very hard to adjust to.

However, more than the cards, I enjoy the constant banter and every week seems to bring about another comedic exchange.

Here's a most recent example.

One man, a Turkish fellow who was born in Paris and speaks five languages, recently announced that he had moved to a new retirement home.

"What was wrong with the old home?" I asked innocently.

"Oh, there were far too many groupies there for my liking," he answered earnestly.

I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Too many groupies?" I echoed. "Are you sure you mean groupies?"

"Mais oui," he said, reverting momentarily to his native tongue. "You know, people were always sitting with their same friends at meal time or in the lounge. Everyone seemed content to stay in their own little groups. I didn't like that."

"Saul, I think you mean clique, not groupies.  Groupies are something else all together," I corrected gently.

"Ah, you're right," he replied."Of course, clique. Thank you very much. Une clique, that's a good French word isn't?"

Although miscommunication is often the name of the game, these Tuesday card games make for  some very entertaining afternoons.