Loons for “Spoons”

By: Benjamin Vander
Guest Writer

One of my family’s Thanksgiving traditions is the card game “Spoons”. For those who have never experienced the joy of this particular game, it’s essentially musical chairs with cards. The goal is to get four of a kind and grab a spoon from a common pile, hoping not to be the one left without. For most families this would be a nice, casual game to help pass a tryptophan-dazed evening; but in my house, we play to win. With a video camera in place for instant replays and an unspoken commitment to dive, wrestle, and do whatever is necessary to get a spoon, the intensity is palpable, and hilarity ensues. Our yearly game has survived dents in the furniture, bribes of early morning doughnuts and coffee, and even threats of ended engagement between one of my cousins and his fiancé as they fought for a spoon. One particularly memorable evening found my twenty-two year old cousin Matthew splayed on the top of the living room table in a dive, only to be stabbed in the butt by my very own mother in an ingenious defensive maneuver. While some people might be embarrassed by this kind of behavior at their holiday events with the family… I just dive for the next spoon.