As a parent, there is an endless list of things I feel obligated to teach my children: toilet training, getting dressed, making a bed, reading, counting, shoveling, good manners, how to shake hands, riding a bike, etc. Often there arrive days when I suddenly become aware that I have failed to teach them a critical skill. This happened a few days ago when I realized that none of my children could shuffle a deck of cards. Card games were an ongoing activity while I was growing up in the Meloch home. Cribbage was played the most and Eucre was most loved. We played cards with each other, with relatives, with neighbors, and with friends. When I left home and joined the Army, there was always a game of Spades going on somewhere in the Barracks. Dale and I played endless games of Cribbage, taught everyone Eucre, mostly played Spades, and one summer learned Pinochle. At our church at West Point, we played Dutch Blitz at a constant pace. We have played newer card games with the kids like RataTatCat and Loot, but it has been awhile since we played older games like Rummy, Old Maid, Uno, and Skip-Bo. Last night, we played Skip-Bo and I made them all practice shuffling. Tonight, I decided to start teaching them games you play with a regular deck of cards. We all sat down to play Hearts. Zeke didn’t like the concept that losing was winning. Abby almost gave up after getting alot of hearts and the Queen of Spades on two hands in a row. Dale had no heart and played ruthlessly against all his children, even Zeke. Gabe won in the end with a negative score. Josiah lost, but started the game like a Meloch. He sat down to play with a pile of pistachios. I told him that he was being a good Meloch by sitting down to cards with a pile of nuts. Dale quickly piped in that if you were playing cards with the Meloches, you were always sitting down with a bunch of nuts.