Earlier in my career, I did a fair bit of traveling. I’d get sent to company data centers or training classes for a week at a time. This would happen about 4 or 5 times a year. When I was on these trips, I’d try to come up with souvenirs for the kids. At first, I’d try to find some kind of toy for them. I looked for something that had the name of the city or state where I’d been sent. Most offerings were shot glasses or ashtrays or something equally inappropriate for kids. I settled on playing cards after a while. Later, when Morgan and Beth started getting serious, I added Beth to the playing card list.

It didn’t really matter to me that the kids didn’t have a use for playing cards. For me, it was my way of saying that I thought about them when I was away. I figured that the cards could wind up being a collection or something when they got older. Beth tells that she has 3 shoebox size tubs full of playing cards in her basement.

When Morgan returned from his 6 month stay in Texas, he got me a set of “Don’t mess with Texas” playing cards.

I like them.