I come from a family of game players. As a child some of my best memories are those of the fun times we spent playing board games and cards. On summer vacation every year we went to a cottage on a lake in Northern Wisconsin.
We spent long hours swimming and skiing and fishing, but the days it rained and we had to stay indoors were just as much of a treat. Usually there were scores of cousins with us and we divided ourselves into small groups and chose games to play for hours and hours. When Randy and I got married and had virtually no money to entertain ourselves “on the town” we and our equally impoverished friends played cards several times a week. It was great fun, with friendly rivalry, and unforgettable relationship building.
In retirement, playing cards and board games is one of the activities that become a widely chosen pastime again. We have a heck of a lot of time to fill and it’s a good way to meet folks who have similar interests. It works well because, as we age, our activities often become, by necessity, less physical. Many retirees enjoy the friendly games played sitting around a table, often loaded with drinks and snacks.
My sister, Lisa, was here this weekend and we spent more than a few hours playing games. At one point, Lisa said, “I wonder how cards were invented. Someone really genius must have thought of that because think about how many different card games there are.” It occurred to both of us, because Lisa is one of my faithful readers, that the cards and games topic would make a good blog post.
Well, holy cow! What a can of worms that opened. For those of you who want to know more about the history and evolution of playing cards than I can cover in this post, here’s a link and here’s a website about all things playing cards. Lots of interesting pictures on that second link.
There seems to be no conclusive answer to when and where playing cards were invented, and in fact, what we know now to be a standard deck of 52 cards plus 2 joker cards was an evolution that took a lot of twists and turns. A widely accepted consensus is that “cards” were first known in China in the 9th century and were used to play a game called yezi ge which translates to “game of leaves.” “Cards” migrated to Europe in the 1370s, and like the ones in China, were hand-painted, extremely elaborate and colored with rich dyes. They were available only to the wealthy who could afford them. In Germany in the early 15th century, wood block printing contributed to the availability of cards for the masses.
There was very little that was standard about playing cards early on. Different countries had different suits (many still do), and decks had widely different numbers of cards. Apparently, the court (face) cards early on were all men, with a King, a Knave, and a Knight. That ended up being very confusing so somewhere along the way, the Knave became a Queen, and the Knight was renamed Jack.
In 1864 an American patent was awarded to Cyrus W Saladee of Paducah, Kentucky, for corner (or edge) indices so cards could be held closer together and fanned out in the hand. That was also the same time rounded corners were added because sharp corners wore out so quickly. Cards used to have blank backs, but because the wear and tear would often allow specific cards to be easily recognized, or folks accidently wrote on them so often, designs, pictures, or advertising was printed on their backs. Jokers were added as an additional trump card to the 52-piece standard American deck specifically for the game of Euchre around 1863.
None of that information answered the original question of who thought up all these games. And really, I couldn’t find anything close to an answer to that question in my research. I even looked up specific card games like poker. There’s a long Wikipedia entry on the game of poker, but the bottom-line answer is, no one is sure who invented it. Card games seem to be as evolutionary as the history of the physical cards themselves. Human beings are creative and clever, and just as the 12 notes on the musical scale can be arranged in patterns to create an endless variety of music, a 52-piece deck of cards can be played in a seemingly endless variety of ways. And that was before Jokers were added!
In my family everyone plays cards, and it wasn’t long ago that I was playing with my 6-year-old great-niece. We were, she said, playing a game called Garbage. I thought I knew how to play it, but Natalie changed the rules I knew as we played. I imagine that’s how lots of games were invented. Kind of a build it and they will come mentality.
As I said earlier, human beings are clever. Thinkers will figure out what to do with anything they can conceive of, then make improvements, tweek as they use the thing they thought of, add a little twist here and there to make it harder (or easier), ignore something they used to do, and suddenly you have a new or different thing.
I’m sure that’s how games are invented. Then, many widely played games have variations (house rules) so you need to ask which rules the group you are playing with that day follows. There’s also the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention. I heard, quite coincidentally a few days ago, that the game of Monopoly was invented to help folks in the 1930s understand the banking and real estate systems of the time. I don’t know if that’s true, and it doesn’t really matter. But it does illustrate that learning is great motivation for inventing games.
Regardless of how cards and games are invented or evolve, I’m glad we have the joy of playing them. Game playing is, and always has been, one of my favorite activities. It’s a terrific way to break the ice with new friends and spend many fun hours with old friends and family. Regardless of where you come out on the scoresheet, I think playing is winning all around.
P.S. Randy and I played Pinochle a lot in our early Air Force years. In a Facebook group for the cruise we’re taking to the Panama Canal in November, a former Air Force veteran and her husband asked if there would be any Pinochle players aboard the cruise. We were the first to raise our hands. We can’t wait to meet these new friends and pass some pleasurable hours at sea with them playing cards. Couple that with Norwegian’s Freestyle Food and I’m looking forward to heaven on earth next month.
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