Tuesday, February 25, 1964 The Frances Hubbard diaries

February 25, 1964 
Tuesday, cloudy. cool. little warmer at night.  I ironed, were at Marilyn's for lunch.  The girls, Clifton and a I called on Rikens at night.  Played Rook.  Did some mending.  Received 1st issue of Escondido paper.
Comment: Interesting that they were playing Rook, a card game without "cards" so it did not violate fundamentalist belief that cards were the devil's tool: From the Internet: "It is likely that Rook cards were introduced for the benefit of members of fundamentalist protestant religions, such as the Mennonites, who considered (and in some cases still consider) playing cards to be the "devil's tool". They were forbidden to play cards; but Parker Brothers filled the void with a game that was played like cards but did not use the standard playing card deck. There are people who refuse to play any cards with a standard deck but who will happily play Rook all night every weekend. There is a close parallel here with Kvitlech cards, which were playing  playing cards bearing numbers, made for use by Central European Jews who were also forbidden by their religion to use standard cards."  
http://www.pagat.com/kt5/rook.html

We had regular cards around the house so do not think Mom thought they were evil.  I remember playing Canasta for hours with Marilyn and other kids...Interesting also, to me at least, that the Rook sure looks a lot more evil than the picture or number cards in a regular deck.....