IT'S IN THE CARDS: CHURCH-SPONSORED PARTIES BRING GROUPS TOGETHER

Edward Enderle gets pretty serious about his Euchre game and doesn't let much break his concentration.

There isn't any small talk at the table where he plays with his son Leon, Blendine Westrich and Mary Menz. Only few words are uttered and "pass" is most often spoken as the players wait for someone to throw out a card.

"You can't cheat in card games." Enderle says his rule as a mantra as the table regroups for a new hand.

He doesn't need to cheat -- he wins most of the time, Leon Enderle said.

Nearby, the only sounds are of card decks being shuffled and a hushed chatter among the players as they take turns or deal hands.

Euchre, Pinochle, bridge and rummy are among the most popular card games being played at card parties in Southeast Missouri. Two parties held last week, each of them sponsored by church organizations, drew a combined 200 people.

The card parties provide an afternoon of inexpensive entertainment, where each table provides its own deck of cards and players pick the game of their choice.

The event sponsor usually provides refreshments before the games begin.

First card party

Germaine Robert helped plan the first-ever card party Wednesday hosted by St. Ann's Sodality at the St. Augustine parish in Kelso.

Walking away with a dessert and a couple of prizes is not a bad way for people to spend an afternoon, she said. Each of the 86 people who played were eligible for an attendance prize, and the highest scorer at each table could win a hand-crafted birdhouse made by Peck Robert.

Robert wasn't able to play Euchre Wednesday because she was too busy with the organizational details of the party, but she plays with a group of ladies known as the "Kelso Cooks." The ladies often cater meals for parties and weddings and play cards together after they've finished in the kitchen.

"We used to play every two or three weeks, but now there isn't time," Robert said. During the winter, the ladies play together more often.

There was a time when people just gathered to play cards with family and friends as a way to pass the evening.

"We were the kids that grew up in the end of the Depression. We had to find entertainment, and it had to be free," said Melva Rose Lewis while playing bridge Friday during a card party at Trinity Lutheran Church.

Betty Haas, a game partner, remembers first learning to play the game as a child. "My brother was 10 years older and he went off to college," Haas said. "When he came back, he said he had a new game."

Haas has been playing ever since.

Wide variety

The variety of card games is as different as the crowd who plays. Most of the people at the card parties are women, but there are some men who play. Their games range from dominoes to bridge and nearly everything in between.

Haas usually brings an extra deck or two of cards when she plays, just in case one doesn't have the 52 cards required for the game.

While the players around them were shuffling cards and dealing out hands, Donna Etzold, Frieda Lorenz, and J.W. and Thelma Lemonds were playing dominoes.

"We wanted to try something different, instead of cards," Thelma Lemonds said.

The group, all relatives, try to play together frequently, but it doesn't always happen. They took the opportunity at the Trinity card party.

Anita Essner and her children, Cody and Cassie, play the board game Sequence fairly often during the winter and decided to invite some friends to play with them at the Kelso party Wednesday.

"We had played with friends at a parish night and liked it," Anita Essner said.

Elaine Heuring was a first-time Sequence player, though she's played cards plenty of times before. "I've played all my life and never knew there were one- and two-eyed Jacks," she said.

The object of Sequence is almost like Bingo -- except that players are trying to line up a row of chips on the board, with each chip being placed as the player discards from their hand. The winners must match two rows of five chips in a "sequence."

Heuring, Laura Glaus, Yvonne Schwartz and the Essners debated whether it was a game of incredible skill or memorization as they played. There wasn't any consensus.

"We play a little more friendly" than what the rules imply, Anita Essner said.

Competition isn't terribly fierce at the card parties, where most of the players come for the socialization and not necessarily the game.

Robert said even her children, adults now, like to play cards when the family gets together. "They grew up playing," she said.

Usually people who come to card parties make the rounds and attend dozens in a year's time. "It's pretty much all the regulars," said Marie McElreath of the crowd at Trinity Lutheran Church last week. "Once they come, they keep coming back."

The Trinity card party was sponsored by the Ladies Senior Aid.

Want to go?

WHAT: Card party

WHEN: 1-4 p.m. Sept. 19

WHERE: Knights of Columbus Hall, Kelso, Mo.

DETAILS: Contact LaVerne Rogers at 264-2585.