Gambling granny no cause for alarm

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This article was published 06/03/2019 (2439 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My Scottish-born mother is crazy about cards. She’s been teaching all the grandchildren (ages nine to 16) to play poker for nickels when they’re at her house. She supplies the money from a big jar and the kids get to keep what they win. Is she not encouraging them to become gamblers?

I’m worried, so I took my chances and had a talk with her. She told me in her well-preserved Scottish brogue to basically mind my own business. She said she brought me up gambling for pennies “and you turned out OK.” What do you think? Don’t I owe it to the kids to protect them?

— Worried About Gambling, Fort Garry

Dear Worried: Protect them from grandma’s evil ways? I don’t think so! She sounds bold, high-spirited and a lot of fun. If the kids are having a great time hanging out with their cousins and grandma, all is good.

They’re taking a break from computer screens and cellphones, and are learning a lot more than how to play poker and rummy. They are learning to socialize, to laugh and to tease, and are getting to know their grandma better.

Don’t worry about the nickels. Believe me, kids don’t value nickels anymore, and it’s doubtful they play cards with friends, with or without betting. By the way, do you spend time playing cards with your kids?

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I was so sad to read what happened to that couple at the restaurant. (They were Irish and Indigenous and were treated with disrespect on Valentine’s Day.)

Let’s not get on a high horse, people, just because you’re white. That doesn’t mean you’re better than the next person. We don’t choose what colour we’re born. I’ve always respected Indigenous people, and their history and traditions.

I would like to relate an incident that happened in 1972, when my son was six. We went to a fast-food restaurant at the corner of Donald Street and Portage Avenue. It was busy and we looked for a clean table. My son said he would ask for a cloth to wipe the table while I ordered the food.

As we sat down to eat, a young Indigenous man approached us. He said he had watched us, and we reminded him of his own mother and their relationship. He asked if he could sit with us and said he wanted to give my son a dollar. He was so sincere. My son accepted the dollar, thanked him, and we had a nice visit.

He seemed to be around 24 years old. I never saw him again. I always wondered what happened to him and hoped he had a good life.

— Best Wishes from Rose, Manitoba

Dear Rose: With a kind, generous and friendly way about him, let’s hope he did well in life.

He’d be about 72 now. It’s important to think about these exchanges we have with strangers over a lifetime and how they stay with us and affect our attitudes.

My dad used to talk to everybody, even people at a crossing light, and people would talk back with him. People sometimes think they should resist an impulse to interact with a perfect stranger, but most often it’s completely harmless, and sometimes people have a wise or funny observation to share.

Personally, I have learned lots interacting with strangers in stores, on buses, at baseball games, at concerts and in lineups. Most people are good, but we forget that.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave. Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

Miss Lonelyhearts
Advice Columnist

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