Courtney Sheinmel - Spit (the card game), Rediscovered

A couple weeks ago, I reunited with my fourth grade best friend, Elana, who was visiting from Florida. (Facebook is AMAZING!)

I wish I had pictures of us when we were little, but neither of us had camera-addict parents.

Elana was one of the most important people in my childhood. There?s a lot in STELLA BATTS about her?the close friendship, the endless games of Spit. I told her I wanted to put more of us together into the books, and thus began the sweetest trip down memory lane: the pogo ball contests, going into restaurant bathroom stalls and switching clothes, making friendship bracelets and selling them at recess, the nonsense song we made up in fifth grade and still remember word-for-word, planning our move to the Intrepid, and of course the cafeteria Spit tournaments.

Spit! Has there ever been a superior card game? I think not.

I?m not sure how I managed to be writing about Spit all this time, and not start playing it. Days after Elana went home, I was feeling so nostalgic about Spit. I brought a deck of cards with me when Lauren Oliver and I went upstate to write and relax for a couple of days. The ensuing game of Spit was not exactly relaxing.

I was so full of myself in the beginning: ?I?m really good at this,? I told her. Though I hadn?t played in, I don?t know, maybe twenty-five years. Somehow I thought my skill would have stood the test of time. I started out strong?so strong that I even slowed down my game a bit, so Lauren wouldn?t lose too quickly. But by the third or fourth round, something happened, some spark of Spit recognition in her head, and she was on fire. I upped my game, playing as quickly as I could. It was INTENSE and went on for about an hour. I?m sorry to say that in the end, I lost.

(The next night, I played a round with our friend Lexa, and lost again. But I think it?s important to note that Lexa played with the slapping, which I never did when I was young, and I kept forgetting to do that part.)

When I was in fourth grade, playing Spit through recess was just about the coolest thing you could do. I?m not sure that?s true anymore, but I no longer care about looking cool?at least I don?t care as much as I used to?and I plan to keep this game in my life on a regular basis from here on in.

Source: http://courtneywrites.livejournal.com/167683.html

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