Colls
United States
Silver Spring
Maryland
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My six-year-old daughter and I often bring Set with us when we're going somewhere we're likely to have to wait or she's going to have to entertain herself: a restaurant, my office when her school is closed, a doctor's appointment, and so on.
Recently, we brought Set with us to her doctor's appointment, signed in at the front desk, and laid out a game on the bench in the waiting room. We had each found several sets quickly before a nurse came to the front desk and called us back to see the doctor. So we scooped up the 12 cards that had been laying on the bench, took care to keep our winning sets separate, grabbed the draw pile, and made our way back to the appointment rooms.
It's a large practice though, and it turned out that all the appointment rooms were full. So the nurse asked us to wait at another bench for a few minutes, while she cleaned up one of the rooms after a patient had left. Of course, we set up the game again and were quickly once again crying out "Set! No, no,.... Set!" We're not brutal about calling sets in error. My daughter is six, after all, and I'm old and dim.
The nurse came back, asked what we were playing, listened to my explanation, leaned over to look at the cards, and said "Set!" I explained why that was not in fact a set. "Set!" "No, that's not either." "Set!" "Yes! Great!" She spent a few minutes playing with us, during which time our doctor passed by and said "My family loves that game!" The nurse then mentioned how she should get a copy for her nine-year-old niece and left again.
A few minutes later, the nurse returned to escort us into a room and waited while we set up. She played a few more rounds (she was doing quite well!) before weighing my daughter and simultaneously asking lots of questions about where she could find the game. "Can I find it at Target? Where's this Value Village you're talking about?" (Note that I had thrifted the game)
As we chatted, I remembered that I had thrifted TWO copies, and had an unused copy waiting at home. So I offered her the game. And she hugged me. And hugged my daughter.
After she left, my daughter beamed with pride and said "I was just thinking about that, about giving it to her!" And the doctor came in and thanked us for giving the nurse the game, saying that it had made her really happy and excited.
So the nurse kind of won, but I think we all did. It was really fun. Although, come to think of it, I might have had just a few more sets than anyone else. Or not. We'll never know....
Edited for stray parenthesis at point at which I described myself as dim, for cryin' out loud.
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Posted Tue Feb 8, 2011 10:01 pm