I inherited my love for puzzles from my Mom. She was a crossword expert. I could only manage to solve crosswords of moderate difficulty but my Mom? She solved them all, including the expert levels. She also loved anagrams, logic puzzles, math puzzles, and word searches. We spent many occasions rummaging through secondhand bookstores, like Booksale, looking for these puzzle magazines (our favorite brand was Dell).
On special occasions, we gifted each other with these puzzle magazines. She taught me how to solve logic puzzles and eventually, it became my favorite type of puzzle. Whenever her crossword puzzles had logic puzzles, she would skip these, tear off the pages and send the puzzle to me. On my part, I would skip the expert crossword puzzles in my magazines and send these off to her. It was a symbiotic arrangement between mother and daughter!
As a kid, I learned to play Solitaire from her too. I remember summers when we took the boat from Mindanao to Manila to visit relatives. At that time, the boat trip took all of FIVE DAYS! My Mom had to keep her 4 kids entertained and she came ready. We had comic books, coloring books, puzzles, and a deck of cards. I remember spending hours inside the boat cabin playing Solitaire with that deck of cards.
Now that she has passed on, I miss our time together solving puzzles. November is when I remember her most. This is the time our family usually troops to the cemetery to visit her and dad. It is also her death anniversary month. But she left with me a love for puzzles and brain-twisters and whenever I come across puzzles, she is the one who comes to mind.
A few weeks ago, I came across this new game site, Solitaire.org, that made me nostalgic once more and missing Mom.
Classic Solitaire was the first Solitaire type I learned and there are actually two ways of playing it — by turning 3 cards at a time or turning one card at a time. I also used to play about 2 or 3 other types of Solitaire with the deck of cards and happily, they are all available as well at solitaire.org.
With Golf solitaire, the suits don’t matter. Only the numbers do. Your starting card is the one on the pile in the lower right (in this illustration, it is the Jack). The next card can go up or down one level from Jack, — a Queen or a 10 from the cards in the front row. You continue choosing a card from the first row of the deck that is a level up or down from the top card on the pile. Your goal is to clear the open-faced deck.
Another favorite of mine was Pyramid Solitaire. You needed to clear it by matching two free cards that add up to 13. Ace had a value of 1 while Jack, Queen and King had values of 11, 12, and 13, respectively. Here’s what the initial setup looks like.
A big surprise was that beyond the Solitaire versions I knew, there is actually a loooooong list of Solitaire types that solitaire.org offers — over 20 different variations!
And wait, there’s more. If you think you will ever tire of playing all these different Solitaire games, you will be happy to learn that this site actually offers other kinds of puzzle games like Mahjong Solitaire (pairing game), Hidden Objects games, and another favorite of mine in crossword magazines – Word Search!
These are only some of the HUGE collections of games at solitaire.org. You should check them out yourself. As for me, I use this site whenever I need a mental break from all my writing projects or just need a mom break, period! What’s great too? Unlike my phone apps that take up so much real estate on my phone, these games at solitaire.org can be played on your desktop computer or phone via a browser. No app downloads needed!
I still have a stack of paper crossword and logic puzzles to burn through – a legacy from time with my Mom – but it is good to know that in times when it is not practical to bring stacks of these with me, I can always fall back on good old solitaire.org for some of those games my Mom and I enjoyed.