Community Corner
Mahjong Keeps Seniors Sharp At Swift Community Center
Trading tiny tiles is a fun way to spend the morning and test the gray matter.
“Wun-krak. Sowth. Too-bam. Ate-dotz. Jo-quer.” The words of a seemingly exotic oriental language ring out in the back room of the .
Instead of a cabal of characters from far Cathay, the chatter is produced by a group of local ladies (Heddie Neale, Louise Chapotosto, Sandra Kettelle, Marle Tober, Joan Leyden, and Elsie Cardin) calling out their tiles in a rousing game of Mahjong.
Mahjong (or Mah Jongg) is a Chinese game that resembles Gin Rummy, but, instead of cards, tiles with pictures and ideograms are pulled from a common pool then mixed and matched to create collections and combinations forming a winning hand.
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The game at first appears to be relatively simple, but it’s not one of those “a minute to learn, a lifetime to master” affairs.
“It takes a few months of playing to get the hang of it,” said Kettelle, who has been playing since she was taught, as a young girl, by her mother and aunts.
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“First, you have to learn your tiles (Bamboo, Crack, Wind Direction, Dots, Jokers, and Flowers) and then the subtleties of the play," she said. "You actually have to think in Chinese to play.”
“I’ve been playing for four years, now, and I still learn something new each day,” said Leyden, who met the others through the games at Swift.
To ensure consistency of play, the rules are regulated by the National Mah Jongg League. The league also produces a new scoring card that lists the winning hand’s combinations each year to keep things interesting.
“You have to really think to play,” added Neale, who learned to play with friends down in Florida - a Mahjong hot spot. “It a good way to keep our brains going.”
The games take place each week at the Swift Community Center from 9:30 to noon with a table or two of three to four people in the winter (when seniors often go south) and double that in the summer.
After the game, the players will often share a meal offered by the Senior Center’s crew and then either go home or enjoy another Recreation Department offering such as Zumba in the afternoon.
“We sit on our butts playing Mahjong in the morning then exercise in the afternoon," said Tober.
Sounds like a winning combination.
