Mal's Memories (From Penarth Times)

Mal's Memories

DO you remember being caught out doing something you really shouldn"t have been doing?

As a teenager I was very keen on playing cards, preferably that old gamblers" favourite three-card brag. Finding people to play with was never really a problem, but finding somewhere to play often proved difficult to say the least.

During the school holidays we hit on the idea of playing in the village infants school yard - after all, there was a covered shed with bench seats and no-one else was using it, so it seemed quite logical.

The trouble was that my parents got to hear about it and I was given a stern lecture about the error of my ways, and the evils of gambling, especially in school playgrounds.

When I reached 18 I discovered that the local pubs were a far more comfortable venue for card playing. We had a regular Sunday morning rummy school in particular and it was so popular that we invariably had more people than places.

The rules decreed that the first ones to turn up took the seats, so people started arriving earlier and earlier.

Eventually it was not unusual to see a number of people sat on the wall outside the pub up to an hour before it was due to open.

This earned me another ticking off from my parents who began to worry that their son was turning into some sort of dipsomaniac who could hardly wait for opening time.

I still enjoy a game of cards but nowadays, in my advancing years, the game of choice among my contemporaries is usually crib. But there is, of course, an alternative.

You can play poker online - any time of the day or night.

* Malcolm Davies is a former editor of the Penarth Times. Mal"s Memories are on the Penarth Times website www.thisispenarth.co.uk