It’s nice to see you, to see you……… You just said nice didn’t you. Bruce Forsythe had such an illustrious career spanning 70 years. He was a dancer, actor, singer and much more but the thing I loved him for was his game show hosting. From The Generation Game to The Price is Right, I loved them all. My favourite was Play Your Cards Right. His Dolly Dealers would turn over the cards one at a time while the contestant tried to predict whether the card would be higher or lower than the previous one.

I always thought that it seemed fairly easy, but I can tell you now from experience that it is definitely more luck than judgement. 

Play Your Cards Right is my favourite game to play here at Layston Grove. We take in turns to deal the cards and turn them over; it is great fun but so frustrating to get to the last card and guess incorrectly. We don’t win the sort of prizes that Bruce would give away but we do win chocolate and who doesn’t want to win chocolate.

Everyone remembers Brucie’s catchphrases, whenever anyone gets a pair, someone will instinctively call out “You don’t get anything for a pair.” And everyone joins in “Not in this game.”

It’s quite a thrill to play games like this, we watched contestants play every week and now we are playing it ourselves.  

The nice thing about this type of activity is that not only is it a fun game that gets us all laughing, but it also evokes memories that lead to some lovely conversations about our families and about our lives and our experiences. We often discover things that we have in common, it makes us feel connected and secure.

We do many things at Layston, crafting, knitting, quizzes and outings and I enjoy them all but none as much as Play Your Cards Right and that’s because, as Brucie would say, it’s a good game, good game.