Rat fink

If you have ever played rat fink, chances are you haven't played it according to my family's rules. I googled it once, trying to remember all the details. Wikipedia and many other internet sources identify 'rat fink' with a version of Egyptian ratscrew. That is, it is a game like Hearts, with taking tricks and so forth. It has been so long since I played Hearts that I would need to be taught all over again.

But I remember playing rat fink, around the table at my grandparents' house, when I was old enough to play and young enough that my grandmother's aim was to help me win. You know that age. It was a lot more like Uno than Hearts, except without the possibility of reversing the direction of play. I was a terrible loser, so the experience of the game was often bitter. That wasn't the important bit, though. The important bit was the family, gathered around the table--cousins, aunt and uncle, parents, grandparents. There was hardly room to move in the room once we had all taken our places, all squeezed into the small dining area next to the kitchen.

I loved being there, even if I hated losing. Eventually, I started to teach the children to play--hence the internet search. (Somehow it was the middle of the night in California when I was trying to remember if an ace was really worth 20 points, and things like that. Otherwise I would just have called my dad.) And the kids took to it. It is a bit more difficult, since Lucy is still far too little to play, and would rather snatch the cards from my hands, and because it takes all 5 of the rest of us really to get a game going. There's potential there, though, for some family fun, not least because the person who seems keenest to play is Anna.

Out of the blue, she'll say, 'I want to play rat fink'. That's my girl--far better than I ever was, because she is a team player and is as delighted when someone wins, even when she isn't the winner. I can teach the rules, but I still have a lot to learn about playing the game.