ROLL CALL TO ALL MEMBERS !!!!

[kdfrawg]

In my estimation, too few people play pinochle any more. For some reason I learned as a kid, at 10 or 11, and we would often play at home. Then I taught a bunch of my friends in Junior High and we all played quite often through high school. Then there were some games at college and the game suddenly disappeared. I had not heard anybody talk about it for a long time until just now. Thanks for bringing back the memories, Teresa!

[Teresa]

I love to play cards. My family always played cards ( cause no one had any money to do much of anything else, probably.
And we still don't! 
So I learned to play cards early..
I love to play Pinochle, Spades, Hearts, Canasta, all kinds of Rummy, Pitch and I play poker ( Texas Hold'em) but I'm not real good at it.. LOl
I like board games too.  Rummicube and Probe and games like that.

[Jo McDonald]

I grew up with an older brother and a younger sister - and our parents played a card game called Rook  -- so of course we learned to play too, and Mama would sit down with us and we would play blind pitch..old maid and Real pitch.  Then when I married, Fred's family all played 500..Oh what a great card game that is.  Then came canasta -pinochle - and we learned to play bridge.  Fred is NOT fond of  bridge, but let me tell you, folks - I could do without a lot of sleep as long as three others were sitting at the same table with me and we were playing bridge.  My favorite for sure !!!  We didn't play 500 for several years, but when we started going back to Minnesota for the summer months, the Minnesotains play a mean game of 500 and YIPPPEEEEE  We were back playing that again.  It  really is a game sort of like bridge - [ if Fred heard me say that he would shake his head and frown - he DOES NOT THINK SO].  We both like spades and hearts and I try to play poker, but perfer slot machines to that.  lol  I learned to play whist also and that is what the game of bridge came from.  The game of Whist was started in England and that is a good game too.  Has anyone figured out yet that I am a FOOL FOR CARD GAMES?  The card game Up River and Golf are fun games  I love Rummy games, and board games.  Is it any wonder our kids and Grandkids like games? 
You all are probably sighing and saying  ENOUGH, JO  get off here and go do something in another room.
  So -- with that I will "pass" and let the rest of you play.

[Teresa]

NOW you know why I play cards? 

[flo]

Had not heard of the game Rook since I was a kid.  We three girls got cards for chirstmas one year, one got Rook, one got Authors and I forget what the other one was.  Probably old maid for the youngest. As for bridge, my dad and step-mom tried to teach me but my thick skull just could not grasp it. They belonged to several bridge clubs.   Now give me pitch and poker and I'm set to go.  The Smith family was a pinochle player so learned that, but haven't played in several years.  They played with 3 decks.  Play a lot of Texas Hold'em and some pinochle on pogo.com and win some, lose some.  Also like Scrabble.  Fun when you're not playing for money.  Another game we played when my girls were growing up was Skip-bo.  Haven't heard of it in awhile either.  Let's face it, when funds are short, you learn to entertain yourselves and wish today's families done the same.  Some do, but a lot never have time to sit down and play cards, or a board game.  Don't know what they are missing and their children are missing a lot.  Have a good day, everyone.

[Jo McDonald]

Oh Flo....you brought back a wonderful game name----Scrabble..My late sister-in-law , Barbara McDonald  whom I loved dearly, was my scrabble playing buddy -  We used to play when the four of us were together for a week-end - after supper was over and the clean up was done, We four would play 500 - then when the guys "played out" and went on to bed Barb and I woud get out the scrabble board and start in.  Hours later we were still playing.  One night we were at their home on Grand Lake and we were deep in thought with our Scrabble game, chin in our hands, looking thoughtfully at the board .. Russ got up to go to the bathroom -- passed by the door and looking in at us -- but he didn't speak and neither did we -- he returned to bed and the next morning at the breakfast table, he siad.." Fred, last night the girls played scrabble so long they both fell asleep sitting at the table"    hahahahahahahahaha  We just howled -- what a funny thing that was .. serious about the game?? YEP -- WE SURE WERE .  LOVED IT !!!  I remember back when John Batson and Marge still had the drug store and Red Door  - each day at noon, when John went home for lunch, after eating - they would play Skip Bo and would keep a running total on their wins and loses.  She told me that one day while she was at the beauty salon.  Such a wonderful couple !!  I miss her and miss seeing John as well.  Good grief - I am long winded   byeeeeeeeeeee

[Teresa]

NOW you know why I am windy!!     

PS~~ But you also know why I love to listen to my mom tell stories.
I remember when Mama, Aunt Barb, Aunt Rosalie, and Grandma Mac and I
would start to play canasta. We would start after supper and sometimes play until morning and we had to fix breakfast..

We used to have a ball when all the McDonalds would get together!

[kdfrawg]

When I was much younger, we used to play a lot of card games with the family, mainly poker, pinochle, pitch, gin, and canasta. My uncle Max was smart as a whip and he was an expert card counter, so he won a lot. But then I started paying attention to what he was doing and figured it out. By the time I was 12 or so, they wouldn't  let us play any more so we went fishing a lot, instead.

[Wilma]

We could play the children's card games but anything with a real deck of cards was a no-no except solitaire.  So we spent our evenings singing.  My sister played piano and my older brother played guitar.  The four of us sang everything especially cowboy songs from a book one of my uncles had loaned us.  And of course there were the church songs.  My sister was pianist for Sunday School and the high school vocal groups.  It was a very small school but one music teacher tried to have a band.  My sister on piano or trombone, my older brother on guitar or trombone, me on violin and maybe a half dozen others on various instruments.  Music wasn't very important in school then.  It was important to me.  My grades were always better if I participated in music.

[Janet Harrington]

My first day back to work after three months of unemployment

Everyone,

I had my first day at work at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.  We were told to be at the facility at 7:30 with a notebook, a black pen, driver's license, social security, and our employment papers that we had to fill out. 

There were suppposed to be 24 new officers show up, plus me.  21 new officers were there, plus me.  While the new officers went to a warehouse and received their uniforms, I was sent to a building to get my picture taken and my ID made.

When I got there, I didn't bring the paperwork and I had been told to go there without an escort, so already the Sgt. in charge was PO'd.  Not at me, but at a LT.  Anyway, I went back to the admin building, got my paperwork, went back to the building for the ID, again without an escort.  The Human Resource person told me that if the Sgt. gave me any problems about not having an escort to call the director of that building who happens to be a friend of mine.  Well, after I got back to the building for the ID, the Sgt. gave me not one lick of problem.  Strange.

In this building, which is called the Admissions and Discharge (A & D), or Reception and Diagnositcs, (RDU), I found out I knew at least two people who worked in there.  Debbie Garison, who is the daughter of Bill Redmond of Howard and is married to Carl Garison, who also grew up here, two years behind me in school, and Jana Still? who was a dispatcher for many years at Greenwood County Sheriff's Office.

After the ID was done, I was sent to the training building which is west of the correctional facility about 1/2 mile.  There I sat in a classroom with 5 other people learning things like sexual harrassment, signs to watch for when an inmate is thinking about suicide, how contraband gets into the prison, little things like that.  This was all before noon.

They gave us 30 minutes for lunch, so I speed down to Arby's, go into the drive thru, get my lunch and head back to the training building.  This all takes about 20 minutes.  Not much time for lunch.  I should only have to do this running for lunch this week.  Next week I'll just eat at the facility at the Vo-Tech kitchen.  They have meals from $2.00 to $5.00 and you buy a ticket at the Human Resource office as money is not allowed in the facility.

I spend the afternoon with the new officers.  We all learned about insurance, sick leave, vacation, funeral leave, all the great stuff that Human Resources does.  The nice thing about HR is that one of the ladies is named Gloria McLean, who grew up outside of Piedmont.  Gloria and I were in Rainbows together in Eureka when we were still in school, so I've known her and her parents a long time.

A training lieutenant is an acquaintence of mine and a Lieutenant from the Security Squad, (that's not the right name, but these are the guys that do all the take downs and go into cells when inmates want to act up and not come out, etc.), is the son of a former sheriff that I was a sheriff with a few years ago.

I actually feel like this is going to be a good place to work.  I'll keep you posted on here as different things happen to me.  Next week I get to go to A cell house where I'll be working with inmates and learning by job under my supervisor.  Should be fun.