NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A lot of us have that one family member who is as competitive as they can be with a deck of cards. They have a lot of fun too. There are some important benefits from those cards.
"I don't like to lose," said Cesar Harris, sitting with a deck of cards. "Me and my partner Gwen, I plan to send everybody home!"
"She's a good Spades player?" I asked him.
"Yeah, she's good!"
"You must make a good team, then," I told him.
"We're gonna see!"
Harris was at Elizabeth Park Community Center as Bicycle Playing Cards hosted a Senior Spades Tournament.
Harris is someone with a whole lot of Nashville memories. In a segregated Nashville, Harris was part of the 1966 graduating class of Pearl High. The place was family and community. He remembers attending all the school's basketball games.
"That was the first year of a Black team playing a white team for the state championship," Harris explained.
Memories are something especially precious to Pamela Cowley of the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer's Center.
"One of the things that keep our brains strong is challenging it," she said.
Also at the Elizabeth Park Community Center for the event was Jamaine Davis, biomedical scientist at Belmont University.
"I have a research lab where I pursue causes of Alzheimer's and dementia," he explained. "The number of people with Alzheimer's is projected to grow."
For this event, Cowley and Davis were both volunteers, but they were around for anyone with questions about brain health.
"The more information the public has, the better the outcomes will be," Davis said.
Cowley and Davis both said this game that's especially big in many Black families, is good for brain health.
"Spades help you strategize!" Harris said.
"Socialization is important," Cowley added.
"It helps you think!" Harris said.
"You go in knowing it's competitive!" Davis laughed.
It's good for brain health, no matter how you're doing in the game. Earlier, Harris told me no one could beat him and his partner.
"Oh, that's natural," he nodded. "They understand that when they walk in the door!"
It turned out, the other team playing against him was pretty good.
"It ain't fair!" Harris laughed. "They're sisters, so they play day and night!"
In Harris' story of many memories, this day's another really good one.
"I wanna protest!" he laughed. "Get me a referee!"
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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