Backwords: A Trick Worth Knowing
In this moving autobiographical episode Mike Shaw recalls the days when he played cards with an old soldier.
The gas light glowed dimly as the old soldier drew his armchair closer to the fire and began singing a Great War marching song.
Alongside him in the neat but tiny cottage, a fair-haired young boy seated on a stool listened intently to the words.
Keep The Home Fires Burning and Pack Up Your Troubles were the favourites of the friendship duo, drawn together by tragedy that bridged the generation gap.
The gentle giant of a man - he was over 6ft tall and wore size 12 boots - found himself alone when death struck unexpectedly and swiftly.
He lost the wife who cared for him so lovingly. And the little boy next door was deprived of the kind lady who looked after him for a few hours while his parents had an occasional evening out.
So the pair came together in the darkening evenings of autumn, when the widower revived memories of his wartime years in the Army and entertained his young friend with the soldiers’ favourite songs.
Those sing-songs of more than half a entury ago taught me two things as that boy next door.
That one sure way of learning something - whether it’s a marching song or multiplication tables - is to keep on rehearsing it.
And that there need be no communication problems between the young and the old, who often establish an undefined bond.
It wasn’t just my ability to sing a word perfect version of Pack Up Your Troubles that was to astonish my parents.
Very soon my elderly companion and I were passing the time with a game of cards, graduating from the simplicity of Snap to the much more intricate All Fours.
By the time I had mastered the tactical basics of High, Low, Jack, Game, we were playing it as all true Tykes should play any game. Hard but fair.
My very first victory in a best-of-five rubber of All Fours was a watershed in my life at the card table.
After that I even managed to learn a few simple card tricks. Some I remembered and some I didn’t.
Here’s one which has stayed with me from that day to this.
Take 21 cards from the pack, and count them out, face upwards, in three piles of seven.
At the same time ask someone to memorise a particular card without revealing its identity.
Merely tell the person taking part in the trick to indicate which of the three piles it is in.
Be careful when collecting the cards up to be sure that the pile containing the mystery card goes between the other two piles.
After turning the 21 cards face down, repeat the process twice more, in each case ensuring that the pile containing the mystery card is placed between the other two piles.
For the piece de resistance, with the cards again face down, count out ten cards then hold aloft the eleventh, which, unless you have cocked it up, turns out to be the card which was selected.
Don’t ask me how or why it works, but it does. If you don’t believe me try it sometime.
