Have you noticed kids today don't play cards?

As a kid growing up, cards were just a standard in terms of games played. One would play war, solitaire, old maid or hearts. Last night I taught a 19 year old the basics of poker. He had no idea what the value of hands were, or even what the 4 suits were called. I know my niece and nephew only know about cards because I taught them a few games. It's weird for me to see standard playing cards being phased out as a pass time.

time. The kids might play cards, ... online.
I played a little cards, but mostly I was out playing baseball, football, soccer, bike riding, etc. Notice I said playing it, NOT watching it on tv.
dc

not making those up nor exaggerating and I can now honestly look back and say : WHAT THE FUCK WERE WE THINKING?:rofl:

My father was in the Navy and we spent two years on Adak, Alaska in the middle of the Aleutian Islands. I guess it helped that we only had one television station and that it was only in black and white -- but we were outside all of the time! When we were inside, we were playing board games or card games.

but it's in the form of things like Magic, the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!

It took FOREVER, but mostly because the kids were making alliances and ganging up on my wife and me. It is better as a 2-player game. Building the decks is half the fun and the kids love to go back through the cards from the 90's, 6th edition and earlier.

so I've never collected or played.

However, as far as alliances go, that was something that happened often in the larger games of Nuclear War, at least until the betrayals ;) And killing off a player by stealing all their population through propaganda is the sweetest feeling in the whole game, other than blowing up the solar system on a triple-yield explosion-spin of the 100-megaton warhead because you opted for the "If I can't win, nobody wins!" rule :P

Seriously. I've never even bought a lottery ticket. The lottery is a tax on people who are bad in math.

Besides, we look at the cards as "family" property. Every once in a while we put together a bunch of decks and randomly deal them out in to piles to be used as fodder for new decks. Building decks is half the fun.

It seems a bit wasteful to cast old cards aside once you've constructed the "perfect" deck. I've bought whole sets of Match Attax (a collectible soccer card game from Topps) to use as a party game, randomly dealing out cards to however many guests I have.

5 to 8 players. I always enjoyed those more. 2 player games always went so fast. IF winning is your goal, Reds your color. By the time Ice Age came round you could do a 4 turn kill if you'd built the deck right. 3 players is a balancing act, and if you know your opponents you know who to watch and have a pretty good idea when its time to strike. But when you get 6 players going, you really have to have a plan, and play both the cards and deal with the politics and interaction. There's always better and worse planned decks, but then there are the natural alliances of situation and the natural affinities and friendships of the people involved.


I got out a long time ago, though. Made a killing selling my collection, then started over and did it again. If I had people to play with I would have to consider sticking a few toes back in.

No shit. My wife teaches kindergarten and has one kid that is into games. More to the point, one kid who UNDERSTANDS games. He was frustrated with the other kids because they couldn't comprehend the simple rules of Candyland! It has been a major challenge to get the kids to just roll a die and move pieces around a board with NO OTHER RULES.

These aren't exactly "disadvantaged" kids here. The least capable in the game department show up in SUVs with LCD screens in the back of the headrests. All they do is watch TV (the "babysitter"). She has kids from less wealthy families, several with two-income families (or more). The more money the kids parents have the more likely they are to be clueless about social skills and show up without hats and mittens on a snowy day. We got about 3" of snow this morning and the kids without hats and mittens won't get to go out and play in it. Some people simply should not breed.

My kids all love games. They're 14, 16, and 18 now and all three girls can whip my ass in chess (and have been able to for a long time). We had a fairly lean Christmas this year but the "major" gifts were games we found at a store in the mall that is only open around Christmas. They've got some nasty-ass puzzles too and we're working on one they got for my wife right now. We finished another really hard one in two days over the weekend - all five of us worked on it.

Funny, but I wonder if the fact that we don't watch TV has anything to do with it. Hmm.

We watched plenty of TV growing up, but we also gamed, and I got into DnD in the mid-70s. It could also have more to do with how much a family participates together. I'd say that determines game-interest more than anything :)

You should read some of the entries at notalwaysright.com. My mind begins to numb at the amount of "more money than brains" types that show up time and again over there. It's really appalling how accurate that saying truly is...

"Gilligan!" I watched WAY too much TV. Hogan's Heroes, Speed Racer, Marine Boy, and all the Saturday cartoons, but that was when they only made a toy if the cartoon was popular. Now the cartoons are just commercials for toys they've already made.

I'm an old DnD head too. I've got the original three-book set (folded over center-staple with tan covers). One was "Men & Magic", another was spells, and the last was monsters. There were supplemental books also - Grayhawk and Blackmoore? I forget, but they're in the basement. I got the first beginners DnD set with the illustrations of the "pork orcs". They weren't called that in the book, but we all knew them as suck. I've got 14 "lead" miniatures of the pork orcs (out of about 350 or so total). Only about half of them are painted, but I got into it with 0 and 000 size brushes so they are really detailed.

As for video games, we had one of the original Pong machines. Other than that, I was mostly in arcades or playing space invaders or missile command on the Apple II. I got a USB joystick for Christmas so I can play MAME games on the laptop now. Otherwise I have to fire up an old Win 98 machine to play them with the D-style connector joysticks.

The "family participation" thing is really the issue. The kids with no clue will spend hours pouring over catalogs but can't focus on an art activity for two minutes. My wife's even had parents tell her how wonderful the catalogs are because they keep the kids out of their hair for so long. These are also the kids who have a standard answer to a simple question: "What did you have for dinner last night?" The answer is always "Wendy's", "McDonald's", or "Burger King", unless the parents weren't on a normal path and hit something like Arby's. Why have kids if you aren't interested in spending time with them?

But we also had the "Million Dollar Movie" at 3pm every day. Basically what later cable stations like AMC and TCM aired, so we saw plenty of old classics. The Marx Brothers and WB cartoons were favorites as well as The wonderful World of Disney and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I have Dish for my TV-watching but the Discovery channels just don't compare.

My father and I were watching one of those channels over the holidays on how the mountain ranges of North America came to be. I commented to him during one of the same commercial-break packages we'd already seen several times about how the show was mildly informative. For all the time they spent repeating themselves, they could have included another fifteen minutes of geology and geophysics. It was like repetition was the only way to keep the masses interested. Give me Nova anyday!

I came to DnD around 1976, so everything was hardbound by then. Although some of the books I received were hand-me-downs from friends that could afford to buy new, and I've still got those beat up copies ;) I think I have the Greyhawk supplements, too as well as at least two different copies of gaming systems by friends that should have published them. No miniatures here, but I do have a nice big bag of dice, including one 6-sided die made out of aluminum that I "machined" in a drafting class (we didn't get any instruction on how to properly use the milling machine, so I had to figure out the basics on my own.)

Ya know, it occurs to me that DnD could be done quite handily over Skype with webcams... :)

As this topic of "bad parenting" keeps coming up over and over, I am reminded of a program I once read where I think it was Boulder, CO, that had a test-program to teach people how to be good parents. Domestic violence went down during its run, as I recall, and always wondered whatever became of their system. The more I think about it, the more I'm in favor of something that probably would not be very popular here or anywhere: parent licenses ;)

Okay, I need to go to Ace Restaurant Supply and get a hotel pan before they close (if they're even open today...) :D

and was in local competitions. We played checkers with them too but they didn't like it as much.

Today it is cold and dreary and I am teaching my daughter to embroider and sew, now there is a skill not many folks have today.

I know how to sew, thanks mainly to Boy Scouts, and how to use a sewing machine from a job where I built and upholstered massage-tables ;)

I would like to buy a decent sewing machine some day...

so we have been learning how to control the machine and are ramping up to our first project. she is loving it.

she is currently taking a break and embroidering some pillow cases. the same way I learned on kit pillow cases. then we move on to more exciting stuff.

Herrschners sells kits that work well for kids or adults to learn and the plus side is that you have something you can use.

My mom taught me how to sew on a Singer Featherweight.
I still have it.
I also have two Singer Slant-o-Matics from about 1956. They do button holes and zigzags without attachments.

Sewing is pretty easy these days because clothes are very loose fitting & casual, therefore easy to make.

All these machines are all steel, electric, and will last forever. Some people like ancient treadle machines, but I don't.

A friend of my family who was like a second grandma taught me to knit and crochet when I was ten. She was also an excellent seamstress. She made my senior prom dress from a Vogue Bridal Pattern!!
In about four days!!

I know how to embroider too. I have a book by Erica Wilson who is the embroidery guru.

Dad taught me to check the oil and the water in the car and how to jump a battery.


Also, I learned how to cook reasonably well (simple American stuff) and how to make bread in a Cuisinart (no need for a bread machine). I am thankful my parents taught me manual skills.

She made a scarf for her teacher in 2 days from an entire scan. It was like 7' long. She just made a wall hanging "#1 Mom" for my wife for Christmas. She doesn't even look at her work and it comes out as even as machine stitching. I used to crochet and needle-point when I was in school and man did I get ragged on. I still loved doing it, but I never got as good as my daughter.

When I was a kid, we played all sorts of games and card games. I am trying to teach them to my children.

My kids love TV like most kids, but we try to limit their tv time and computer time so they will find other ways means of entertainment.

at least my niece and nephews play it.

while passing time waiting for our races or matches...we always played cards.

There was one game we played called "Speed" -- but I'll be damned if I remember how to play it!

but I don't remember how to play it either!

Maybe we were on the same swim team?

But you played your cards fast...

I will have to look this up!

We did call it spit!!!

How cool you found that...

What was your best stroke?

I also liked swimming the Butterfly, though.

I was on the swim team when we lived on Guam with my father (military). I remember we used to practice EVERY night and would be exhausted when we got home! We had meets on Saturday that would take up the whole day. My Mom never had to worry about where we were -- we were always at the pool!

we'd play slap jack, war, old maid and crazy 8s when we were younger. now, a card game, usually cribbage, is mandated after a family meal at my dad's house and my husband and i play cards at least two or three times a week.

i play euchre and hearts online, but i prefer to play with actual people and cards.

You can't watch one of those tournaments on TV without seeing an 18-21 year-old anymore.

Kids may not be into bridge or canasta anymore, but they do Magic, or Pokemon-type stuff.

Lots of different ages play it, but college age and up play the most.

I was teaching my 7 y/o how to play solitaire with a handheld deck and she says, "Oh, so it's just like the way it is on the computer." :D

When we are at the cabin or when we are doing pre-christmas cookies. They are GOOD too!! I won't play them. I just can't afford it..LOL

our pop warner football team plays poker on long bus trips

lotta kids in the free internet card rooms too

probably not as many as before. I don't see them playing so much euchre or hearts, though.

One game I haven't seen in ages is Authors! That was fun.


I agree about the DVDs in the car. I went on a five hour trip with my niece a few years ago who was watching "Dora the Explorer" the whole time. The whole time! It was so obnoxious. We, the adults, couldn't even have the radio on.

Now that our kids are getting older, they want to learn to play, too! When our family gets together, I'll bet we play cards every night!

11 kids playing multiple solitaire in a huge circle where you have to get up and run to set your card on a pile. It was really fun.

I'm 23 so I'm not far off from being a kid and played cards with others growing up.

Hell when I was in the Army with a lot of young adults and we played Spades all the time.

he wants to play chess with me. He's getting pretty good. I still beat him every time, and my wife wants me to lose a few now and then to make him happy. But I notice, every time he loses, it's a little harder to beat him next time. Old game. Smart kid. I'm proud of him...

We had a book about card games.

We had lots of used cards, talk about really big games of war.

I taught some neighbor kids how to play war, bought them dollar store cards to play with.

I myself dunno. They've played Tripoli, but half the time someone just gets mad and quits. We're waiting for them to get a little older so thay can join the family tradition of playing partners pinochle. :)

but just on the XBox,PS3 or Wii..that's where I learnt to play poker,blackjack etc..

Both my family, and my wifes. In fact when we had the big Christmas dinner at my mother in laws, the older nieces and nephews ranging in age from 11 to 17 were all laying on the living room floor playing cards. Not sure what. War. Spit. Something along those lines.

My dad taught me cribbage at a young age and I also learned gin rummy and poker. My kids do play Go Fish and Old Maid but with special cards. I'm sure I'll teach them as my dad taught me when they're a little older.