Rolling Up The Sidewalks

Now that Coastal Coffee has closed for the season, the only thing left to do before winter fully arrives… as in a foot of snow and sub-freezing temperatures on a daily basis… is to roll up the sidewalks.

In real life, wouldn’t that be cool if we could actually do that. We could store them in the Town Maintenance Garage for the winter, and roll them out again in the spring. No chips, holes, or cracks.

Anyway, for those of us “die-hard” coffee klatchers, we now meet once a week at Coastal Coffee East – aka – Dunkin Donuts. The local branch of that chain is located about a mile outside of town, so on good days, I walk there, and on not-so-good days, I get a ride from Tim and Karen Rose. Tim and I share a fantasy football team this year, so we go over our strategy for the upcoming weekend, then chat about any local news, and then have a 3-handed game of cribbage.

Once in a while, another one of the “locals” wanders in, and they join the klatch.

That happened last week, as Charlie Snowdale, aged 97 and getting younger every day, stopped by. If we had a “Cribbage Master of Searsport”, Charlie would surely be it. He’s physically slowing down a tad, but his cribbage mind is still as sharp as ever. We asked him to join us in our weekly cribbage game, and he quipped, “I thought you’d never ask.”

Charlie and Karen took on Tim and I, and they were beating us handily. Surprise, surprise… LOL. As the game neared the finish, though, Tim and I staged a furious comeback. After my second deal, Charlie and Karen were in the dead hole (one point away from winning), and Tim and I were only 2 holes behind them.

Charlie had the next deal, and I reminded Tim to save “pegging” cards, because the dealer is mathematically guaranteed at least one point, so we had to “peg out” to win the game. This worried Karen a bit, and she asked Charlie what was their best strategy for keeping Tim and I from winning. Charlie calmly replied, “Don’t worry, Brian will cut me a Jack” - worth 2 points, and a quick victory. Well, the odds of that are approximately, 420 to 1, so Tim and I weren’t worried.

Charlie dealt, and I kept a king, deuce, four and a six. Pretty good cards for getting a “pegging” victory. I then cut the deck, and it was a jack. We all laughed heartily. What a great way to end our exciting game.  That’s why Charlie is the “King” of Searsport cribbage. He finds many, many ways of defeating you. Charlie is truly an inspiration to all of us “youngsters”. As the temperature continues to drop, our love of a good game of cribbage with not… and Charlie Snowdale will continue to give us “lessons”. It’s a great way to wait for the sidewalks to be rolled out again.