Old Dogs and Their Tricks

My grand daughter Mary brought a set of jacks home from school today. She didn't know what they were so I explained and tried my hand at showing her how to play. I told her how "onesies" leads to "twosies" and so on as long as the player is successful in scooping up the correct number of jacks while the ball is in the air. I was a whiz at jacks when I was her age. I could hardly wait to impress her with my skill and fancy finger dexterity as I scooped up to "tensies." I didn't count on my astigmatism being quite as bad as it is or the fact that I'm getting accustomed to new, stronger glasses. I didn't factor in that the new ball is a plastic version of the very old rubber one that was much easier to control. Needless to say, there was no big show of Granny's ability as a queen of jacks. Mary kindly understood that my eyesight wasn't what it used to be and then was mightily impressed with how I can twirl a jack until it spins almost endlessly on the table top. Add another spinner and then another and, wow, Granny rules.