Playing Cards

"You know how to play Rummy 500?" asked my Pappy as we sat at my kitchen table when I was ten years old.
"Rummy 500?" I replied, confused. I had never even heard of it. "Will I need to drink?" I asked, "Because mommy says that drinking is bad."
My grandfather laughed. "No, Abby. You won't need to drink. Absolutely no rum involved. Unless we lived in the Wild West."
"Then will you teach me how to play?" I asked.
"Sure." And then my Pappy pulled from his pocket a deck of old, used, and quite grubby playing cards. "You start with a deck of cards..."
That was the day my collection was born. From that moment on I became a connoisseur of cards, a collector of Bicycle packs, a lover of aces, and a dealer of spades. I asked for playing cards for Christmas, relatives brought me packs home from vacations, and I hunted down interesting playing cards in Goodwill shops.
Fifty-seven card decks later and I am still not tired of finding a new card pack for my collection.
I think I enjoy collecting them because of the memories attached to playing cards- my grandpa and me playing Rummy 500, for example. I also think they make great souveniers. I have cards from Alaska, Arizona, Florida, M&M world in New York City, and from Georgia, to say the least.
I have Elvis cards, early 1900's cards, and Easter bunny cards. I especially love packs of used cards that are missing an ace, or a two of clubs. It makes me wonder where the missing card is now. In the trash? In someone's book as a bookmark? Lost in a dark corner?
So if you need a pack of cards, chances are I have one. If you want to know how to play Rummy 500, just ask me. And if you happen to have a renegade ace of diamonds in your junk drawer, there might be the slightest possibility that I have the deck to match.