Nov. 25, 2001 - 21:08 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Maybe Third ?

Human quirks of behavior can be a source of enjoyment to one side and often not really noticed by the other.

One place I worked had a fairly good number of people working in the department where I worked. Some of us who took breaks and lunched together discovered in our conversation that we were dart players. Not lawn darts but good old fashioned barroom darts having the board divided in circles and also pie sections.

Six of us split into two teams, one team playing during breaks and the other team playing at lunch. Each week we would switch to even it out. After some time we found that our accuracy made it very easy for us to move the throw line back in increments to where a bulls eye denoted a good eye and super coordinated control.

There were engineers coming into our test lab frequently, some of whom were Brits. They had observed us playing darts in the early stages. One day a short chat with them ensued, them asking about our play, etc. We told them we had two teams who competed with each other on breaks and lunches. They asked if they could play darts with us if they could field a team of three, we agreed to it and invited them to join us.

On the first day of play, one of the precise, picky members of the opposing team proceeded to measure the height of the board from the floor and nodded his approval, then he measured out the standard distance to the throw line and marked it out and chalked it. We told them that we would paint a line on the floor so that it wouldn't have to be measured out each day. That day one of our teams played and won hands down. The next day the other team played them and the results were the same.

Play went on a month or two with the Brits winning the occasional game, but with pride hurting. We continued play until the layoff came, always our teams being on top.

There had never been any wagers or anything like that. I think what kept us going was the sheer joy of the game and competition with another team. The subject of the distance from the board to the throw line came up once amongst us. The consensus of all parties on our two teams was that we played darts by their measurements and played fair, we had no guilt feelings. But there were snickers. It was very like playing Snooker Pool on a Snooker table and then on a Saturday night playing Slop Pool with the guys on a regular pool table.

Later in the time line, another place where I worked in the shop it became known between us that there were a few of us who liked to play chess. We got off work on Saturday at noon and we Chessmen would go across the street to the back room of the tavern, eat lunch and play chess. Sometimes the game would migrate to someone's home and continue 'til dawn the next day. The wives shooed the non-residents home so they could get breakfast for hubby and kids, knowing full well that if they invited us to have breakfast with them we would still be playing chess there 'til late afternoon. You might say, or might not, that we were wholly caught up in the game.

A new man in the shop found out that chess was afoot there and said he was a pretty good chess player and wanted to know if he could play with us on Saturday. He was invited to join us and soon proved that he was indeed a good chess player.

We had noticed in the shop his pickyness and need to have everything just so. He began to brag a bit about how he was whipping our tails off at chess. A collective wink more or less went between us all but very few words. We began to talk about how much fun we had when we played partnership chess. He became interested in it and asked to play. We invited him to pick his partner and he picked one of the better players among us.

The next Saturday we went over to play and have lunch and partnership chess was suggested by the newbie and we all said it was about time to have a game of partnership chess. He sat across from his partner and the game began. Right off the bat he ran into trouble. He tried to talk to his partner. One of the opposing team said something to the effect, "You can talk to us if you want, but you are not allowed to talk, wig wag or tap in code to your partner.

Funny thing about partnership chess, a guy has to silently sit while his partner destroys his game plan. And of course his partner's plays are in conflict with the other's estimate of how to play. Sometimes the game goes on seemingly for an eternity, other times one man will make a boo boo right at the start and voila, game over his mate has been checked.

And as it is said, "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword." So I was hoist by my own petard every now and then. I did learn one thing though, when invited to play a game the first thing I do is to find out the house rules. Seems to me that every time I jump blindly into a situation with both feet I often end up either neck deep in mud or up to my hips in snapping crockagators.

Over time a little learning penetrated my thick skull from the experiences of darts and chess. I still chuckle a bit over the past fun and wonder what childhood I am in, the 2nd or Maybe The Third ? . . . . . . . .

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