Kalooki is always on the cards

MY GRANDMA was like no other, a golden girl, glamorous, with a sparkle in her eye and, if not flying off to Miami with her gaggle of other golden girls, would be found at the Victoria Sporting Club in London.

I have such vivid memories of her taking me to the Ionic in Golders Green to watch an array of films, giggles around the Friday-night dinner table or singing “Day-dayenu” loudly at Pesach with uncles and aunts tutting and shushing us. But one of the true legacies that Grandma passed down to me is how to play kalooki.

Kalooki originates in Jamaica and is also known as Jamaican rummy. Using two decks and two jokers — total 106 cards — it involves two to five players. And while its origins are found off the Gold Coast, it seems an integral part of our culture. Look at the diary of events in any any shul or care home and you will see a date and time for a game of kalooki; charities put on kalooki nights with an array of ages turning up — and Howard Jacobson even wrote a book about it — Kalooki Nights — in which his main character, Max, describes his mother as “a woman who watches trashy musicals and whiles away her evenings playing a footling card game called kalooki”.

Grandma Ruth and Debbie: continuing the family line of kalooki players

Play kalooki from the comfort of your own armchair’

The benefit of kalooki — or almost any card game, for that matter — as well as being fun and bringing friends and family together, is that it provides a workout for our short-term memory skills and has also been shown to improve long-term memory and other cognitive functions.

But for some, getting together a game of kalooki with family or friends may no longer be viable — and this is why kalooki.com is looking to create a community of kalooki enthusiasts.

The creators of the site lament the lack of clubs where people can play — not like in the good old days — while,

for many, it is the fact they can’t always get out and about that prevents them from playing. This club “offers them the opportunity to play from the comfort of their own armchair”.

My grandma’s legacy lives on in my two daughters and every holiday, we always have kalooki nights.

We set up the table with drinks, the score board and candles, we line up a good selection of music — and I am not ashamed to say we can get very competitive.

And all the time I can see and hear my Grandma, smiling and humming “Day-dayenu...” and warming my heart.