Pandemic play helps break the monotony

Photo courtesy of Terry Shaw

BY TERRY SHAW

Willmar — Puzzles, paint by numbers, crosswords and various games are some of the many ways seniors have filled their days during the pandemic.

A few summers ago, my wife and I were visiting her brother and his wife.

They asked us if we would like to play a game of Rummikub with them.

We had never heard of the game but told them we would try it, loving games ourselves. We enjoyed the game, and, sometime later, we were browsing a garage sale, when my wife noticed the game for sale.

So, we bought it, played a few games by ourselves, and then we taught it to some friends, who liked the game also.

Last March, when the pandemic hit and we were asked to remain indoors, we decided to play one game every day to break up the monotony.

Pretty soon we were playing a game every morning, walking our dog, eating noon dinner, then playing a game in the afternoon, and then walking our dog again.

Each game consisted of four “hands” and lasted for about an hour and a half.

We thought we were exercising both our minds and bodies each day, between the game and the dog.

Rummikub is basically rummy using four double sets of colored numbered tiles instead of cards.

After you “meld” 30 points, you can play on anybody’s tiles that have already been played, and “steal” tiles if you can leave the required three tiles or more.

It takes a lot of concentration and memorization, so it’s a perfect game for seniors who believe that mind exercise is just as important as physical exercise.

Two things bothered us about the game, one being the turning over and mixing of all the 106 tiles after each “hand.”

I decided to take a black nylon bag I had and just put the tiles in it, shake the bag up, and draw new tiles from it. One problem solved.

The other bothersome thing was, especially with four players, trying to keep in mind all the different sets in front of each player after he or she played them.

You had a run of blue, say, and a set of three like numbers, others might have similar sets, which you could use or “steal” from, if you could just keep all the different combinations in mind.

So, my wife and I went to Menards and bought some small white construction trim boards, which were lightweight, being foamed filled, and we used Menards’ table saw in its warehouse, (which anyone can do) to cut them to the right lengths.

We took the boards home, and I took colored magic markers and drew tile lines and numbers on them.

It really made the game easier to play.

By the end of the year, my wife and I had played 364 games

She had beat me 187 games to 177.

We started a new “record sheet” after the new year began. I lead her eight games to six.