BRIDGE GAME

BRIDGE GAME
I played bridge last Wednesday (October 14). I am enjoying playing bridge, even though I don’t seem to get many good hands. One needs a few good cards to even play defense. I know that the “law of averages” kicks in, but am wondering over what time span?
You can’t use a bidding system because you have a different partner at each of the three tables. I guess it could be done, but you would need tremendous recall, when you might play with any of twenty different people, who might have various bidding conventions.
We do have some interesting conversations though. At one table, George was my partner, I like him as a person, and I enjoy him as a partner. He is an interesting guy. I would like to know more about his background. When George bids, he’s inconsistent. He likes to “wing it”. (Sometimes, it works out.) You still don’t know if his bid describes his holdings. If his partnership goes “set”, and his partner questions his bidding, he answers, “I wanted to tell you what cards I had!” He likes to cross-trump (who doesn’t?), and the corollary, he doesn’t like “No Trump” bids. He gets confused as to “whose lead?”; “whose trick?” and “whose deal?” But, George is 95! These memory lapses aren’t peculiar to George, for we all utter these words at various times! He still drives, and is very generous in offering people rides. He returned recently from a ten day cruise to Alaska!
George is living across the street in the Paradise Valley - Independent Living complex. He looked at Quail Creek, an Assisted Living facility (where I live), but it didn’t take him long to nix the idea of changing his residence. He is getting twice the space for half of the Q.C. monthly fee. Too, he insists on someone making his bed each day - probably a throwback to his military experience, when he was “in charge” of making his bed!
George goes out for breakfast each morning. He is a connoisseur on where to eat breakfast. He said that he gets up early and doesn’t want to wait for the Café’ to open.
At the third, and last table, we had an interesting conversation. Dorothy mentioned that Betty was off on her 22 day cruise aboard the Queen Mary 2 ($11,000!). George mentioned that he had taken a cruise on it too. He said that They boarded it At Fort Lauderdale, and sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco - 34 days! He said that there were 3,000 passengers and a crew of 2,000!
Then, Jim said that he was aboard the original Queen Mary during WWII, when it had been converted to a troop carrier - with 15,000 men aboard! He was the purser - in charge of the $85,000 “petty cash” fund - primarily for per diem - $5/day/man. Jim mentioned that the government was tight with money. I guess so!
An aside: Jim’s tale got me to thinking about my experience on a Troop Ship in 1943. I was returning to the States after flying 50 missions as a bombardier on a B-17 Flying fortress. The ship was “The Empress of Scotland” before the troop-ship conversion. I caught the ship in Casablanca. We spent seven days zigzagging every so often - just short of the time that It would take for a German U-Boat to aim and fire a torpedo at us. (We were unescorted). We could outrun the subs with our 30 knots. There were twelve of us officers in the former stateroom. We were served meals in the dining room - which was very nice. Even with the fast speed, due to changing course so many times, it took us eight days to reach Newport News.
Then, Dorothy mentioned that her brother won $30,000 playing poker on a troop ship during the war, She recalled a childhood memory:- She and her brother would visit a neighboring farm. They liked to help with the chores - like picking vegetables, gathering eggs and so forth. The farmer agreed to teach them how to farm. One day when they returned home, her brother was carrying a chicken. When they arrived home, their mother asked him where he got the chicken? Her brother told his mother, “It followed him home!”
We were the last of the three tables to finish for the day. I wonder why?
RCL - 10/17/09.