The Charbonneau Villager Newspaper 2019 Mar issue Villager newspaper | Page 6

6 THE CHARBONNEAU VILLAGER
March 2019
Good fortune comes with a healthy brain
Mahjong players enjoy ancient Chinese game coupled with modern-day friendship
By LESLIE PUGMIRE HOLE
PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP
T
hink you know mahjong from a
computer game you like or that
app on your phone?
Think again. The nearly 500-
year old game has nearly as
many versions as its age and is
played passionately throughout Asia
and the U.S.
The game has cousins in dominoes
and the card game rummy (did you
play Rummikub as a child?) and is
touted as a bulwark against dementia
and Alzheimers.
"You may have a million things on
your mind when you sit down to play
but you can put that aside and
escape," says Rosemary Ricken,
mahjong maven of Charbonneau.
Ricken leads a weekly mahjong
meetup at the country club as well as
offering personal lessons to newbies
who want to learn the game.
Jeannette Ross, a youthful
90-something who has played
mahjong since she was a child, points
out that the uninitiated look at the
144 ivory tiles decorated with a
dizzying variety of Chinese symbols
and assume the game must be very
complicated.
"It's not hard, you just need to
concentrate," says Ross. "I try to
never miss it."
The main Charbonneau group
meets every Monday at 12:30 and
plays for more than three hours.
Many players, like Lindy Anderson,
also play in smaller groups on other
days.
Despite still working as an event
planner for the Charbonneau Golf
Club and keeping busy with
grandchildren, Anderson — who
never heard of mahjong until she
moved to Charbonneau in 2005 —
plays three times a week.
"A neighbor asked if I wanted to
take lessons with her," says
Anderson, who was instantly hooked.
"I'd play more if I could. Why not? I
love the game and I'm retired."
Newbie
Darlene
Crosby
(center)
quizzes
regulars
Katie Howe
(left) and
Lindy
Anderson
(right) on the
fi ner points
of mahjong
during a
Monday play
afternoon in
Charbonneau.
PMG
PHOTOS:
LESLIE
PUGMIRE
HOLE
In mahjong, players create melds similar to gin
rummy and try to fi ll their hand with a set
combination of tiles.
Mahjong's social nature is one
reason why women have become
such fans, especially in the U.S.
Elsewhere, it's as much a man's game
as anything else but in the U.S. it
seems to draw the females who enjoy
the combination of fellowship and
competition. Charbonneau's group
plays the game as directed by the
National Mah Jongg League, which
suggest interested newcomers come
was developed by the early adopters
and watch a game or two to see what
of mahjong in the U.S., Jewish women
it's all about.
living on the East Coast.
"It helps if you have
"I lived in New York
'card
sense,' if you've
“You may have a
but never played until I
played gin or pinochle or
million things on
was invited by a
your mind when you hearts before," says
neighbor when I was
sit down to play but Anderson. "But it's not
living in Florida. She had
grown up playing in New
required. Some folks
you can put that
York and she just
take to it after the first
aside and escape.”
assumed I did too," says
— Rosemary Ricken
lesson and others take
Ricken. "I was working
months to learn. I
at the time but I took to
suggest people give it at
it right away. It's good for your brain;
least
four
tries
before they decide if
you have to be planning your next
it's for them." ■
move."
In a recent television interview,
actress Julia Roberts described her
love of mahjong and why it brings
her calm: "It's about creating order
from chaos by the taking of random
tiles."
Anderson and Ricken, who became
good friends through mahjong,
Ricken offers newcomers private
lessons in mahjong; call her at 503-
694-1070.
To see more photos from this
event, log on to the Villager’s Flickr
account at: https://www.flickr.com/
gp/168299322@N02/1077Pc