It may have been close to nine years ago, when Jan Willis became my Pinochle partner. We knew each other casually from the years of our children attending Gorham schools together – we did not go to the same church, live in the same neighborhood, or travel in the same social circles, but I knew Jan sold real estate and that she was a fan of the GHS musicals and easily cried tears of joy watching her daughter on the field hockey field or her son on the basketball court.

Of course, Martha Harris, (another Gorham Times alum who passed away in 2013) who was one of my formidable pinochle opponents at the time, (and who could get anybody to do anything, much like Jan), told me one Friday morning that Jan was going to become my new card partner, as Larry Kalp, who’d been my partner for a few years, decided he’d be happier to substitute when occasionally needed. Nothing personal, right Larry? Wink, wink.

Jan and I hit it off right away. We both liked to win. I’d been playing since I was nine, but Jan taught me to be a better player, which in turn, made playing more fun. Let’s just put it out there – Jan counts cards. With her perfectly manicured fingers, she devised this system of keeping track of what cards were played, by tapping certain digits on the table. My game consisted of a whole lot of guessing up ’til then, but Jan taught me there was more skill involved. We had a system (no cheating involved), and it was fun. It sounds serious, but we really weren’t. We laughed and talked a lot. You truly get to know people when you play cards together. In fact, when Anne Goff and Jane Charron became our new friendly card rivals a few years back, we found it necessary to add a half hour to our start time, as conversation increasingly became a fundamental part of the game.

Pinochle weekend summer retreats at the Kalp camp on Branch Pond in Ellsworth became a yearly ritual. Martha even made a trophy plaque to honor the weekend’s champions. Jan’s and my name didn’t appear quite as often as we’d like, but we so enjoyed the camaraderie of the weekend – great food, kayaking, laughter, and of course, a few bottles of scrumptious sauvignon blanc.