Leta liked to play cards. This was ironic. When she was younger, cards meant her brother Aaron spending too much time in
the back rooms of saloons dealing poker. Her husband Claud’s card playing and
gambling, along with his drinking and reckless spending, made that marriage
miserable. However, she had learned several card games over the years. After
she divorced Claud, and when she was in her fifties, working and living her
single life as mother and grandmother, she occasionally substituted for someone
or other at her daughter Vivian and son-in-law Edward’s monthly Bridge Club.
While she was adept at Bridge, she preferred playing Pinochle, Euchre, Hearts,
or even Spades. At rare times, she would play gambling card games like Poker or
Blackjack, but these always made her a bit melancholy. With her grandchildren,
she played hand after hand of Go Fish and Rummy. When they had some free
moments, she and Vivian or her son Dale would play Gin or Cribbage.
Mostly, she appreciated the social
opportunities playing cards gave her. During the time of her marriage to Claud
Bassett in 1948 until their divorce in 1952, she gradually reduced the time she
spent in bars and taverns. It was not so much that her husband Claud made it
clear that he did not want her there, although he spent many nights and even
days per week in a couple of different establishments. While she did not want
to spend time with him there, there was something more that fueled her growing
disinterest. She attributed it to the many years she had spent drinking heavily
and meeting men who could color, if only for a night, the gray world she seemed
to inhabit. She no longer enjoyed or needed that kind of social activity. While
there were times during her unhappy marriage to Claud that going to a bar
provided a light release from an immediate tension or gave her time to reduce
her anger, mostly she began to prefer less demanding and less lonely company.
At the same time, she needed social outlets.
Sitting at home, sewing, knitting, and listening to the radio was an
insufficient use of her time. She visited her family, and with her sisters did
a bit of traveling, but her days seemed long with no one to share them and
little to keep her engaged.
For the first several months after her
divorce from Claud in October of 1952, she had much to occupy her time. She had
two new grandchildren—Alan, born to Dale and Kathryn, and Larry, born to Vivian
and Edward, she had affairs to settle with regard to her house—she sold it—and
settling her finances, and she was very tired. In fact, for the first few month
after she sent Claud out of her house and her life, she was so exhausted from
the ordeal of living with him that she slept long hours and for many other
hours cleaned her house, removing every trace of him that she could.
In the spring of 1953, Vivian shared that she
was pregnant again, and on August 24, Linda Leigh was born. Leta became a
grandmother of six, and she spent time holding babies and toddlers, and
chatting with their mothers.
She also spent time with her older grandchildren Don and
Connie, playing card games. She knew several and they knew several. They taught
each other. One Sunday morning, a church friend asked her if she ever played
pinochle, and the following Tuesday afternoon, she joined a group of ladies who
had formed their own daytime card club while their husbands were at work.
After she started working in 1954, she played Hearts or Spades
one evening per month with a colleague, his wife, and brother-in-law. They
would have cocktails and snacks, and play for hours. Initially, she deduced
that her colleague was attempting to match his brother-in-law with her. He was
a pleasant enough fellow, but neither pursued the other. They were content to
enjoy their monthly card game.
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