For Great Neck resident Yaffa Lukash, Canasta is a family affair. Forced to take lessons by her son’s mother-in-law, whose daughters also play, she has come to enjoy a game she once dismissed.
“I’m the fourth,” Lukash said. “This way we have a game together when we go on family trips.”
Imported from Uruguay in the 1940s, Canasta is a complicated, four-person card game where couples compete to reach 8,500 points.
On a rainy Monday afternoon, more than two dozen women are seated around four person card tables at the Cumberland Adult Center on 30 Cumberland Ave. Bottles of water, iced coffees and the occasional soda scattered around the room are ignored as beginners and master players duke it out.
Instructor Judy Umansky walks around the room taking questions and offering advice to members of her Canasta Club. A passionate card player, club members agree she is the best in the business.
“I’ve had many jobs but none that I have loved as much as this,” Umansky said. “This has been the most heartwarming because it brings people together.”
Participants agree, seeking out games for fun, and to keep their brains active. Semi-retired teacher Vicki Nietor credits Canasta Club with giving her “a great social life.”
“I was seeking out like-minded women and a social life,” she said. “I’ve met great people here.”
The bubbly Bayside resident started playing again after a decades long break. She played as a teenager, but gave it up after the tragic death of her best friend, who was only 21-years-old at the time.
These days, Nietor’s partner is fellow retired teacher Carol Rosner.
“The great think is you don’t need to come with a partner,” Rosner said. “And then [Umansky] tries to move you around so you can play with other people.”
Cards are laid out on the table in arrangements that would perplex the uninitiated – but not the 36 women in the Canasta Club, which requires basic knowledge of the game. Umansky offers three Canasta classes for beginners each year at the Adult Education Center, and leads games at the Great Neck Senior Center.
Among her first students were Great Neck residents Rita and Adrian, whose last names were withheld by request. The two have been playing for at least five years, and paused their play only long enough to explain the benefit of Canasta Club is a regularly scheduled game.
“It was hard getting a game together,” Rita said, while peering intently at her cards.
Neither rain nor shine can keep Loretta from her game.
She enjoys the partner aspect of Canasta, having played with her husband against another couple “many, many years ago.” The Great Neck resident also plays Mah Jongg with a group, but prefers Canasta.
“There’s more strategy,” Loretta said. “There’s more ups and downs.”
Like many of her students, Lukash has Umansky’s number programmed in her cell phone for those Canasta emergencies.
“I’ve been called at Hearst Castle,” Umansky said. “I get a lot at Pathmark. ‘What do I do with a seven.'”
