TC Tahoe

My father was/is what a lot of people would call, a con man.

In my lifetime, he spent four years in the air-force, he sold vacuums (filter queen) he sold fuller brush door to door, he was a cop in Denver for a short period. He has driven taxicabs, owned a wig store that catered to strippers and hookers in Las Vegas. He has been a gravedigger and a cemetery caretaker and I am sure I am leaving some things out.

But through it all there has always been one constant. He plays cards. Whether in small 'friendly' games, in Las Vegas tou aments or dealing poker for the Mob, he loves cards.
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My mothers grandmother, a woman everyone called Grandma Jenny, was a psychic. Ok, that is a label I stuck on her. She said she had "the knowing" in fact Grandma Jenny said everybody had The Knowing, they just didn't know it.

She read palms and cards. She tossed the dice and read the tracks the chickens left in the mud.

People came to her for not only readings and concealing but also for medical help. I have been told she made the best poultice in Montana.

Grandma Jenny was half Irish and half Cherokee Indian.

One of my favorite games to play with Grandma Jenny was her version of Button Button who's got the Button.

I used to get out a big jar of buttons she kept next to her sewing kit. There were probably a hundred buttons in that old Mason jar. Buttons of different shapes, sizes and ... Colors.

I would take the jar in her bedroom while she stayed in the kitchen. I would hide a button in one of my pockets, then I would march into the kitchen with my best five year old poker face and stare at her.

Grandma Jenny would look at me, take a sip of her warm beer, one glass she nursed the whole day.

She would look me up and down and then say,

"You got yourself an extra greenness to you boy. It seems to becoming from your left pocket, not the regular pocket mind you, but that little pocket you keep you lucky coin in." Grandma Jenny would wink at me and go back to what she was doing.

I would remove the button from the pocket she said and try and bluff her again. She always won.

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I was born with severe eczema covering my entire body. I have been told I looked like a leper
At the age of two I developed severe asthma. So as a child I spent a large amount of time in the hospital.

Please don't think I am looking for any sympathy here. I am not, I am simply giving you a little bit of my background.

I don't feel like I missed out by spending so much time in the hospital. I really enjoyed the place. The Deaconess Hospital, I have fond memories of her. My wife thinks I'm crazy because walking into a hospital makes me feel a little homesick.

Now, I should point out that I did spend time out of the hospital too. The nature of my illness was such that I would be out and fine for weeks even months, then I would have a flair up and be back in the Deaconess for, well, weeks or months depending on the severity.

It was my time in the hospital that I became an avid reader.

During one of my extend stays my father gave me a book on cards. It taught not only how to cheat at cards but also some card tricks. I have to say I was hooked.

Grandma Jenny came to visit me in the hospital. My mother later told me the nurses used to search her bag before they would let her in because she was always sneaking in her "homemade concoctions"

On this visit Jenny saw the deck of cards I had been practicing with, she made a face and said "there's a lot better things to do with a deck of cards then play with'em".

She proceeded to teach me about her cards. The Tarot.

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These are just two of my family members
So, as you can see, I come from some odd folks.

Which led me to discover, what others have called, my odd array of talents.