My grandson graduated from high school in June, and his sister graduated from eighth grade the following week. Xavion’s graduating class traveled to the Bahamas and his grandmother arranged to take Imani on the same trip. I went to New Jersey to see the two of them the first week of July. I’d not seen them in person for some time, and my weekend with them was a delight.
I surprised the family with my visit, and one of the first things I did when my granddaughter came home from her overnight with a friend was to play a game with her. She likes to play card games – I think the habit came from her grandmother – but I have seldom sat in with them. The game that Imani wanted to play was called “Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.” Her mother played with us as she wanted to see how this half of her two “old folks” handled a memory game.
One of the cognitive tests that I receive when completing my yearly wellness check involves an assessment of memory. I wrote of this in my August 2018 column, “Orange Cat Pencil.” The nurse gives me three words to remember, then chats me up while I draw a clock with the hands at 10 minutes after 11. Then she asks me what the three words were. I’ve not failed the test since it started to be administered, but the rules are not as taxing as “Taco Cat.”
The card game requires that all the cards be dealt to the players, which in this case, were Imani, her mother, and her grandfather. The players are not to look at the faces of the cards and rotate placing a card face-up on the table. The players call out “taco, cat, goat, cheese, pizza” as they place it, and if one of the cards matches the name, each player tries to slap the card. Since the cards are all face down, the player has a split second to recognize it and slap it. The person who deals the card is not necessarily the one who is first to slap it. The last one to slap the pile must take all the cards. If a card is played with a picture of a taco, cat, goat, cheese or pizza, the players try to be the first to slap it. Got it? Now that we’ve mastered jumping through those hoops, let us set fire to them.
There are three “special cards” in this game: gorilla, groundhog, and narwhal. When the gorilla card is played, players beat their chests before slapping the card. If it’s the groundhog card, players pound on the table before claiming it. If a narwhal, players quickly clasp their hands over their heads before slapping the card. My daughter and granddaughter laughed at me as I tried to figure out whether to slap the cat, pound the table or thump my chest. I missed the narwhal clasp every time, but by the time my grandson came home from his girlfriend’s house (girlfriend!) my opponents had certified that, of all the old people, I was the better “taco-catter.”
My daughter may remember the days when I played Bid Whist with her good friend’s parents, but I think that I need to put that game into the family card game rotation. We will deal the cards and try to determine if we can win the hand with what we have. There will be no slapping and I’ll win that game and laugh at my granddaughter and her mother. Slap that.
cjon3acd@att.net