Do you know how to play ???42??? with dominos?  If you don??™t it probably means that you don??™t live in Texas.  ???42??? is the state game in Texas.  Lots of babies cut their teeth on an old domino, and by the time they start to school they know how to play dominos.  By the time they are twelve years old they know how to play ???42???.

I learned how to play ???42??? by standing at my dads elbow when he was playing.  Mom and Dad used to have ???42??? parties at our house back in the 1940??™s.  There would be six couples, twelve people, counting mom and dad.  That would make three tables of ???42???.

Each lady would make a pie or cake for the party.  There were always lots of coffee and cold drinks.  About half way through the evening they would take a break for playing and serve the pies and cakes.

With six couples there were always lots of kids and because the party was at our house, it fell to me to entertain the kids.  If the weather was warm enough we had to play out side.  We would play ???red rover, red rover let ???? come over???, or ???Simon says???.  Maybe ???kick the can??? would be the game for the night.

Regardless of what the game was we always had an ear out for refreshment time.  You can bet we were first in line for a piece of pie or cake.  Mom always had a big pitcher of Koolaid to go with our pie or cake.  Some times it would be grape flavored or some times it would be lime flavored.

As time went by and I grew up, I continued to play ???42??? any time I had an opportunity.  When I worked at a service station in whiteoak, Texas,  a bunch of retired oil field workers built a small building next to the station for a place for them to play ???42???.  When ever I had a chance I would go over and get in a game.

Then when I worked for r. G. Letourneau, he sent me to Atlanta, Texas to operate a ???dozer.  He had the contract to cut and clear all the timber where the corps of engineers was building Lake Texarkana.  We rented a small house from a man and his wife that liked to play ???42???.  This man also liked to coon hunt and he and his partner would go coon hunting and sell the hides.  They also put the meat in the freezer and when they got enough, they would throw a big party and bar-bee-que the coons and have three or four tables of ???42??? games going.

Then when I went to work for General Motors and made general supervisor of the night shift in the paint department, I got an idea of having a ???42??? tournament during lunch break.  I would give trophies for the first, second and third place winners.  This would help the moral and bring the workers closer together.  At lest, that is what I hoped. 

I had a big black board hung on the side of the paint office and told every one to write their name and their partner??™s name on the black board.  We had 28 teams sign up for the tournament.  It was an elimination tournament and it took five nights for the tournament to run its course.  On the fifth night I presented the trophies.  Even though the tournament was over, the ???42??? games didn??™t stop.

So the next thing I did was ??¦ but that??™s a whole nother story for a different time.

Johnnie and I had several ???42??? parties at our house here in Arlington but those have dropped by the way side now.  I still have the set of ivory dominos that I inherited from my granddad.  One day I will pass them on to my oldest daughter, but not until she learns how to play ???42???.

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