Cribbage at the centre

TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010
THE BARRIE EXAMINER
PAGE 5
SECTION A
forum
LETTER OF THE DAY
SOCIETY: Card game brings people together at David Busby centre
Census information
may not be accurate
From the Inside Out:
cribbage at the centre
The following is part of a
series the Examiner is running regarding those who
are linked to the David
Busby Street Centre in
Barrie.
JORDANN POOL
Special to the Examiner
T
he Busby Centre is
known in the community for the services it offers
including housing, medical,
clothing and food, but it also
offers many unadvertised
events cultivated by its participants.
Last week, my curiosity was
piqued by a group of men
playing cards at a table. I sat
down, introduced myself and
asked what it was they were
playing.
For the next hour I was
invited to sit and learn the
game of cribbage (a game
much harder to grasp than I
had anticipated) while listening to the story of a 20 year
friendship based on a card
game.
While struggling through
the counting and point
system of cribbage, the men
at the table shared their history at the centre.
It all started by word of
mouth. When the centre first
opened, a few friends began
playing cards, designating a
handful of tables to cribbage
and euchre.
Friends told friends and the
group began to grow. Soon it
became known that the tables
to the left were for the card
players and certain seats were
held by the regulars.
The Busby centre became a
social club for those interested in a friendly game of
cards.
The group has changed
over the years, growing and
expanding to new people.
Some days a group of seven,
other days 10 will gather
around to play with different
partners in a pick-up game of
cards. Many of the card players come simply for a coffee
and a couple rounds of cards,
not even attending the centre
to access the other services it
offers.
This is the appeal of the
David Busby Street Centre.
Everyone is welcome, despite
their needs, and the staff will
do their best to accommodate
them.
Where else can people
from all walks of life gather to
enjoy each other’s company
without pressures, expectations, or judgment?
The regulars were patient
with me, explaining their
moves and prompting me to
count them myself.
According to them, this
process of teaching is nothing
new. The same men come
every day for a couple of
hours to play their regular
partners, but are always welcoming to newcomers like me
who need a lesson or two.
The woman across from me
smiled and gave me some
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
I have read many articles, letters to the editor, editorials and
blogs about the mandatory,
long-form census versus a voluntary one.
I will state for the record that I
have filled out the long form of
the census in the past and did
not consider it an invasion of my
privacy.
What I am pondering is how
can proponents of the mandatory form ascertain that the data
from these forms would be
skewed or invalidated, if filling
the form was made voluntary?
Where is the 100% certainty
that forcing people to fill out a
form ensures all data will be
100% accurate?
pointers as I stared at the
board perplexed, making me
feel comfortable and a little
less of an amateur. The players commented on the changing card games the youths at
the centre play and their
eagerness to teach them the
old favourites.
Tournaments have been
organized in the past by the
centre offering treats or gifts
as prizes.
The same men have been
known to go outside and play
a game of baseball against the
Barrie Old Timer’s league as
well.
The cribbage boys just
want to get out of the house
and meet with their friends
over a friendly game, and the
centre is able to offer these
simple pleasures to the community.
They say there are not a lot
of places for them to enjoy
like this in Barrie and they
appreciate the centre for the
social gathering opportunities
it offers.
So I may have left the table
a little confused over the
value of a jack and the relevance of a suit, but I did leave
knowing that I will find these
men here at the David Busby
Street Centre next week, at
the same table, with the same
welcoming smiles, offering to
teach me all I need to know
about the game of cribbage.
For more information
about the centre, call
739-6916, or check out
www.busbycentre.ca.
Ernie Richards
E-POLL
Question:
If you were Prime Minister
Stephen Harper, would you
meet with Simcoe-Grey MP
Helena Guergis?
Definitely
No way
Recent question:
How do you feel about RVH
doubling its daily parking
rater?
OK with it: 8%
Money grab: 92%
www.thebarrieexaminer.com
Barrie
MP’s column
self-serving
(Re: ‘Conservatives aiding our
military might' in the July 22 edition of the Examiner)
Why on Earth would the
Examiner publish a self-serving
Conservative party promotional
column by Barrie MP Patrick
Brown? The column is nothing
more than Conservative hype
attempting to pass them off as
the country's sole source of
patriotism. Brown seems to
have the Examiner dangling on
a string.
Stan Schurman
Barrie
Editor’s Note: The Examiner also
publishes regular columns from
other political representatives,
including Liberal MPP Aileen
Carroll, and Green Party candidate
Erich-Jacoby Hawkins.
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