Poker Night

After sixteen years, I finally got to play poker with the people my parents have been been playing with all that time. It's all family or people close enough to our family to be considered family. Several of them have died, and this was the first poker night had since my aunt died back in January. My sister stayed at home, and, wanting to do the exact opposite of what she was doing, I got to play.

We bet with pennies, though, so it isn't as glamorous as I might make it sound. Bluffing by betting a whole nickel, for example, never worked that well since a nickel isn't all that much. I ended up with a bit smaller stack of pennies than I started out with, but I never once had to get more, always winning a round right when I was starting to go out near the end of the night.

I remember our old house on Heath Drive right at the entrance of Foxcroft that we moved from on December 14, 1996, when I was four. Several times a month, everyone in our family would get together to play poker. My sister was just a baby, so I was the only person in the whole house that realized what was going on and couldn't play the game. Lots of times, though, my Uncle Jim would entertain me by playing me in my made-up game, "What'chu Wanna' Pick?" I remember the basic rules, but everyone recalls it as me constantly changing the rules to my advantage. I vaguely recall those times and cherish them since he died ten years ago.

I also remember them playing at my grandmother's house, which was just three houses down the street. At one point, I knew everyone from the six houses from the beginning of the street off of Foxcroft to the road that had a cul-de-sac on it where my cousin and I would race on bikes. Both families on either side of our house had kids my age; in fact, I think they would've both been in my grade level. One moved away not long after we did and the other's kid I passed time to time at school in the past and recognized him, though I know he would not remember me. My grandmother died eight years ago, and her house that was built when they moved in and my mom was still in school (her initials and handprints are/were etched into the sidewalk leading up to the front door) burned down a couple years later. The night it burned down is one of the worst memories I have.

By the way, sorry for making this so morbid. It shouldn't be because I am celebrating my past. The tone of this post was supposed to sound happy, though I guess it doesn't anymore.

We played poker at our former neighbors' house. As uncool as it sounds, I enjoyed spending a non-school night with my parents and two retired people. They both have retired since the last poker night I went to, about two years ago. The tradition has become so irregular since my grandmother died since it was really her neighbors and her family playing. Since then, my other aunt is the rallying point for family get-togethers. Birthday parties, holidays, and such are normally held at her house. In fact, there was a cookout there Saturday night. All I really cared about was the ability to see the football games on. Utah 25, Michigan 23.

Earlier on Sunday, after church, we drove up I-10 to Cracker Barrel for lunch at 10:30AM, for some reason. Afterwards, my parents decided we'd go see Lake Jackson after Fay. I learned where the first house I had ever lived in is because of that. It was off of Old Bainbridge west of the lake, and I guess it was my parents' first house, which we moved out of in 1993. My grandmother had given them a tree to plant soon after moving in. Dominating the front yard now is a giant tree.

It seems I would've been zoned for Godby or Leon and Nims or Griffin (I asked my dad and he said I would've gone to one of those two schools each since he didn't know which). Something about a new elementary school, too. On Heath Drive, I would've spent three years at Raa but had to go Chiles afterward. I am grateful to have gone to all the "rich kid" schools. Complain all you want about Deerlake and Chiles, but it's the best option you have when you actually look at all the other schools here.

A straight beats three of a kind beats two pair.