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8/23/26
“Aunt Nancy, the Gambler”
It seems that as folks grow older, they like to tell stories of the past. As a small child, I spent nearly every day with my maternal grandparents while Mom and Daddy worked. Grandpa told story after story about the old days, and I was his captive audience. At the age of five or six, I didn’t realize that he was telling the history of our family, every day, bit by bit. He repeated stories often, so I retained the gist of some of his tales. But the details passed away with Grandpa. The two aims of my recent writing frenzy are to preserve some of my stories for those who may care about such things, and to try to get you to chuckle a little. So, here’s the story of Aunt Nancy, the Gambler.
Every year at Christmastime, our family gathered at the home of one Mindte or another for a home-cooked meal, to exchange gifts, watch football, and last but certainly not least (in this case), a friendly little card game. The host family always provided the main course of the feast and other family members brought the side dishes.
Aunt Nancy, a former bank teller, was known as one who didn’t want to part with her money unless absolutely necessary. So, her rule was that if she herself decided on the dish to bring, it was her Christmas gift to the family. On the other hand, If Mom, Aunt Joan, Aunt Edna, or anyone else called Nancy and said, “Nancy Dear, can you please bake a Pumpkin Pie,” or “Please bring lima beans,” or anything like that, Nancy expected to be reimbursed for the ingredients. Fortunately for the family, she didn’t charge for her time, because Nancy’s cooking skills were impeccable and her time, had she charged for it, would have been beyond our means to pay for. The other women of the family got used to Nancy’s rule and stopped asking for for specific dishes to avoid the “fine,” as they called it, but also because Nancy’s culinary creations were always delicious. Either way, she always took the leftovers home with her at the end of the night.
One Christmas, the meal was finished, gifts exchanged, football watched, and it was time for the friendly little card game. The game was always dealer’s choice, and let me tell you, there were some unorthodox choices. Like “Dr. Pepper,” which was five-card draw with tens, twos, and fours as wild cards. “Night Baseball” was another. I can’t remember the rules of that one. Whatever the game, the maximum bet was a dollar, but there was no limit on the number of raises. So, if the betting went around the table a few times, the pot could grow to twenty or thirty dollars.
That is, until one game, when Aunt Nancy and Aunt Edna were both dealt what they thought to be unbeatable hands. By the time the betting had gone two or three times around, the rest of us had folded, leaving the two women to battle it out. Nancy: “Raise you a dollar.” Edna: See you and raise you another dollar,” “Yours, and another” and so on, several times back and forth. At one point, Nancy threw in a five-dollar bill, “Raise you five.” One of the men objected: “Hey, the limit’s a dollar.” Edna: “Stay out of this! Your five and another ten.” At that point, Aunt Nancy’s cash supply was exhausted. She took her checkbook from purse, threw it in the pot, and said, “Call – I’m good for it.” Edna said, “Show ‘em.” Nancy had a full house, aces over tens. What a hand! Edna smiled and after a pause for effect, turned over the seven, eight, nine, ten, and jack of diamonds, a straight flush. Poor Nancy! She wrote out the check, made some quick goodbyes, and left. She even forgot her leftovers!
The following year at the Christmas card game, no one dared mention the checkbook, and Aunt Nancy remembered to take her leftovers.
Photo: Aunt Nancy writing the check, me, Cousin Jeff (presumably counting his aunt's winnings), and my sister, Alice. Aunt Edna was taking the picture. I think that’s Daddy on the right with his back to the camera.
Tom Mindte
August 2026
Aunt Nancy writing the check, me, cousin Jeff (presumably counting his aunt’s winnings), and my sister, Alice. Aunt Edna was taking the picture. I think that’s Daddy on the right with his back to the camera.