Couple of ladies at our old-folks boarding house got up a four-handed domino game of 42. Been longer than 42 years since I last played, but I remembered how to shuffle the dominoes, draw seven, set them up so the other three players couldn’t see, and sound my bid.
One lady told us how 42 started.
God-loving Texas parents didn’t want their boy playing with cards and learning about poker. Or playing Whist, a forerunner of the card game Bridge. But they allowed their son to play dominoes. The inventive Texas boy turned the dominoes into a game that resembled Whist. He used similar words such as ‘trumps’ and ‘follow suit’ and “you can’t tell your partner what’s in your hand…just bid.”
Texas 42 was invented in 1885–says Mr. Google on my computer. Texans been shuffling those dominoes ever since.
I figure some youngsters who learned to bid “84”—that’s twice 42 when the Optimist announces his hand will capture all seven tricks—must have become a Wildcatter and drilled all those Texas oilfield gushers.
