My stepmom and stepdad (if he married my step mom, is he my step-step-dad? Does it matter? If a rocket hits the moon in space where no one can hear anything because space is a vacuum, does it make a sound?) told me recently they went to Liverpool, England. My stepdad loves loves pop music from all eras. He makes lists of the songs he likes and in what order and studies the bands as anyone is able to study a band.
When she shared they spent time in Liverpool on their cruise through the UK, I knew that would be the highlight of his trip. For folks who have no idea what I am talking about - The Beatles were from Liverpool. Their famous Abby Road CD has that photo of them crossing the street in that sidewalk crossing. Go look it up if my words aren’t quite the 1,000 words needed to paint a proper picture.
Last night, I played a game for the first time, that my partner’s Grandma Butler taught his family, called Liverpool.
My partner plays this with his family nearly every time they get together. They are a boisterous bunch of people. Sometimes there are kids running around.
I have vision issues, so it’s difficult for me to read cards. My eyes are already going back and forth to view things at probably 8x the rate that other folks are doing it - because I can’t see in 3D.
My blog about my vision issues: www.HowISeeThings.com
So, one time I thought, “okay, they play this game, I would like to try to learn.” To share this story quickly - it ended with me crying because I was so overwhelmed with the rules and the noise and the people who all play this game in their sleep. I didn’t know what a “set” was or a “run.” And having to follow numbers and shapes ❤️♣️♠️♦️ was just too difficult for me. so I ended up crying. I couldn’t take it.
Well, last night my partner’s sister was visiting (I will put a footnote here, but it’s sad, so read with that in mind) 1
I am learning I feel safe around my partner. I have learned I feel safe with this particular sister of his. She has ADHD the way that I do. She is funny, colorful, generous and loving. It’s easy for me to be around her!
So, I thought, “I am safe in this environment - it’s my own kitchen table. My partner is here and his sister is here. They know how to play this complex card game. Also, I have a deck of Bicycle E-Z-SEE LōVISION playing cards. So maybe I stand a chance at learning to play this game!”
These were a gift to me from a different of my partner’s family. I asked if they could teach me the game and I set out some objectives for how to help me learn.
His sister commented that she always felt like people who weren’t raised with card games had a distinct disadvantage in life, because they had been denied the opportunity to learn numbers and work with numbers and adding opportunities.
I mentioned that my dad had always said, “we don’t believe in luck. Because if we believed in good luck, we would have to believe in bad luck.” This was the reason I was given for why I wasn’t allowed to play card games when I was little. In all fairness, I did play UNO at friends houses maybe twice, and I was fantastic at Crazy Eights with my step-mom’s dad. He and I also played tiddlywinks. I believe I have mentioned a fun Tiddlywinks moment with her dad in one of my newsletters. We laughed about it for years afterwards.
So, my partner, Larry, and his sister, Sherry, and I sat down to try to learn this card game.
My partner says it was something his Grandma Butler taught them when they were 5 or 6 years old. All 4 siblings play this game. And Larry said it’s called “Liverpool.” Which reminded me of the fact that my step mom and her husband went to Liverpool last week!
Thus, the newsletter today.
We looked online to see if she invented the game. So there is a game called “Liverpool Rummy” which has some similar ideas, though different card amounts and different goals. There is also a game called “Phase 10” which may have similarities. But that one has the objective that people need to all get done with the first round before they can attempt the second round, and so on. Whereas with Liverpool, once someone finishes the first round, everyone advances to the next round, and so on.
Here are the objectives - complete with vocabulary I learned just last night:
Round 1: everyone is dealt 6 cards. The goal is to get 2 sets of 3. A set is 3 cards in a row, in the same suit ♥️♠️♦️♣️. each set needs to be in a different suit.
oh wow - I just realized I need to talk about drawing cards and discarding cards and so much more. having not grown up playing card games, this is like a foreign language for me to describe.
If you’re interested in playing, you can go look up “Liverpool Rummy” to find the rules about discarding cards, drawing cards, taking a card from the discard pile … all the minutia of how to play. Or you can write me and I can get my partner to explain it to you over the phone. Or I can make a video of us playing it once I get a better hang of the game.
In the meantime, here are the rounds, #s of cards to be dealt to everyone, and goals to meet.
Round 2: everyone is dealt 7 cards. Goal: get 1 set of 3 and a run of 4 (called a “straight” in Poker). A set of 3 is like 3 cards with the same number or face on them. 3 3s, 3 Jacks, etc. you can have 4 also, that’s fine. The goal is to”3 or more.”
Round 3: everyone is dealt 8 cards. (Do you see the pattern yet?) Goal: Get 2 runs of 4 In different suits.
Round 4: 9 cards. Goal: 3 sets of 3.
Round 5: 10 cards. Goal: 2 sets + 1 run
Round 6: 11 cards. Goal: 2 runs + 1 set
Round 7: 12 cards: 3 runs
Because my goal was to learn how to play the game, we did a few concessions to help me learn it.
We played cards face up the first time, for 4 rounds. We only had 1 deck, so we played the first 4 rounds twice. (Rounds 1, 2, 3, 4. Then Rounds 1, 2, 3, 4 again.)
Also, I had trouble understanding whose turn was when, so we got a silver round toy to indicate whose turn it was at any given time. If it’s a person’s turn, they are able to discard one card. If it’s not a person’s turn, they cannot discard, but they can take 2 cards.
Scoring after each round is like this:
Whatever you have in your hand, you add up points. You don’t want to have the high cards in your hands at the end of any round. Here are the points of what each card is worth at the end of each round:
Joker: 50 points. (This is also a wild card.)
Ace: 20 points
Face cards: 10 points (King, Queen, Jack)
10 card: 10 points
All other cards are worth 5 points.
A few last good tidbits -
The last few years of my life, my dad loved to play poker. He taught me how to play poker. So did my partner. We taught our kids. We’d play with sugar packets at a restaurant as we waited for our orders to come out. No one walked away with anything but we had fun playing.
Dad taught his hospice nurses how to play, too. One of the last visits I had with him, his hospice nurses told us he taught her how to play. She then turned to my dad, who could barely speak or move at that point “thanks” to Parkinson’s Disease, and she said, “he says I’m doing it wrong, don’t you, Stu?” Dad nodded gently. It was amusing.
I am so grateful to hospice nurses. They are so kind to their patients and are friends towards the end of a person’s life when their visitors have grown more and more scarce.
When I first saw the Lo-VISION cards, I couldn’t understand what made them easier to use. That is, until we started the game. It was really nice having large numbers or letters, and each suit had its own color. It was so much easier to just match colors and not have to continually try to make out shapes and make out shapes again … with the ♦️♥️ & ♣️♠️, the club and spade have continually been difficult for me over the years to discern the shape. Having 4 different colors made a significant difference for me in the ease of interpreting what was in my hand and what I needed.
I hadn’t originally thought they would help very much with my vision issues and constant eye pain. But they helped me significantly!
Look how easy it is to see these cards! Aren’t they great? They helped me so much!
And since we need 3 sets of cards to play the game, I ordered 2 more decks. I am traveling to Virginia to see my boys again this week (my youngest son turns 21 this week!) and so I have ordered the cards to arrive to their house so we can learn the game together!
I look forward to finding a place in my life where I will be comfortable enough to try playing the game with Larry’s family!
My partner Larry added this last bit of wisdom, which I jotted down before writing this newsletter - that I would like to add to the end of this issue:
Larry’s dad, Elmo (yes, that was his name), used to say “every card game combines skill and luck - in different amounts.”
I sure learned new skills playing that game last night. I also enjoyed learning a game that has brought hours of fun to my partner’s family for 6 decades now!
Her oldest son died this last week. He was in the hospital after fighting brain cancer for 7 years, fighting pneumonia, then had a brain hemorrhage and they couldn’t do anything about it. So we all just waited for the end these last 2 weeks. It was awful. He was only 38 years old. I have so much to say about what a good person he was, but I don’t know how to, in this SubStack format. Thank you for understanding. It’s been an emotional time.
Anyway, so his mom - my partner’s sister - was in town, visiting and she came over for dinner and I had them teach me this card game that they like so much.
I have to share that I learned so much playing this game last night! It’s definitely a skill to learn to remember what’s in your hand and what you’re looking for. One of my vision issues is “I have no visual memory,” So this was definitely a big moment of practicing visual memory for me - to try remember what I was holding and examine the card in the discard pile and such.
After I told my partner that my dad had played Poker at the end of his life, I realized that he must have learned some things between the ages of 20 and 69. I’d wager this is possible.