HER SMILES A SURE BET FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
Bingo was over. It was time for the girls to get down to business. Florence Tuckman slid a deck of cards into an automated shuffling machine A shuffling machine is a machine for randomly shuffling packs of playing cards. Because standard shuffling techniques are seen as weak, and in order to avoid "inside jobs" where employees collaborate with gamblers by performing inadequate shuffles, many casinos employ and smiled. Music to her ears. She used to shuffle the cards at this daily poker game by hand, but when you're turning 104 in a week, sometimes it's just easier to let machines do the work for you, she says. ``What's it going to be today, Biola -- blackjack blackjack, one of the world's most widely played gambling card games; also known as twenty-one or vingt-et-un. Despite contesting claims between the French and Italians, its origins are unknown. , poker or crazy eights?'' Florence asks. ``Blackjack,'' says Biola Barton, who's got a year on her friend. Biola turns 105 in March. As a young woman, she played piano at silent movies, and still plays. Both women nod as Thelma Wildman pulls up a chair and sits down at the table. Thelma's 82. Around here they call her ``the kid.'' Welcome to Elms Convalescent con·va·les·cent adj. Relating to convalescence. n. A person who is recovering from an illness, an injury, or a surgical operation. convalescent 1. pertaining to or characterized by convalescence. 2. Hospital in Glendale, better known to many of its 50 residents simply as the club. ``That's all my mom's ever called the place since she moved in four years ago,'' says Joyce Griffith, Florence's 66-year-old daughter. ``We'll go out to a movie or shopping, and after a few hours she'll tell me she's got to get back to the club; the girls are waiting to play.'' Her mom was born Jan. 31, 1903 -- the year Henry Ford sold his first Model A for $850. Theodore Roosevelt was president. With a mind still sharp as a tack, Florence can tell you exactly how she felt as a 9-year-old picking up the morning newspaper and reading about the Titanic sinking. ``I remember crying with my mother and thinking how horrible it was, all those people dying,'' she says. A minute later, she's smiling and talking about how great it was standing with her late husband, Leo Leo, in astronomy Leo [Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. , at Santa Anita Santa Anita may refer to:
``What an incredible race horse,'' Florence says. ``Leo and I won a lot of money on that horse. Then we'd go over to one of the card clubs in town and play poker to all hours.'' Standing a few feet away, Patty Schwade smiles, watching the queen of the club hold court. ``Everybody gravitates to Florence because she's so sharp -- always up, always smiling,'' says the social services social services Noun, pl welfare services provided by local authorities or a state agency for people with particular social needs social services npl → servicios mpl sociales director at the club. ``I remember checking her chart when she first arrived because she was so happy all the time. I figured she had to be on some medications. ``I was stunned stun tr.v. stunned, stun·ning, stuns 1. To daze or render senseless, by or as if by a blow. 2. To overwhelm or daze with a loud noise. 3. when it said she wasn't on anything but life,'' Schwade says. Florence's poker buddy, Biola, chose to shun Shun In Chinese mythology, one of the three legendary emperors, along with Yao and Da Yu, of the golden age of antiquity (c. 23rd century BC), singled out by Confucius as models of integrity and virtue. the limelight Wednesday. It was hair day at the club and Florence had been in line early to get her hair done, while Biola was late, getting an afternoon hair time. There was no way a photographer from the newspaper was going to get a picture of her without her hair done, she said. Go take a picture of Florence with her hair. She's the birthday girl, anyway. Florence's long life is in the genes, her daughter says. People in their family live a long time. Her mom's aunts both made it past 100 and her brother died at 97, so it's no great surprise that her mom's coming up on 104. It's how she's coming up on it that's the story. ``My mom never goes anywhere without her makeup and jewelry on, always looking and eating good. I've never seen her in a pair of pants In mathematics, a pair of pants is a simple two-dimensional surface resembling a pair of pants. In hyperbolic geometry, pairs of pants are sewn together, leg to leg, or leg to waist, to create Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus. . She always wears dresses. ``But it's her attitude that keeps her young. She never holds grudges and is always smiling.'' True, Florence says, dealing two cards to Biola and Thelma before turning over a face card in her own blackjack hand. ``I think one smile attracts another and people smile around me,'' she says, turning over her down card, a jack, for a 20 to beat both Biola and Thelma. They're not smiling. ``I just love people, love studying them,'' Florence says. ``They bring me joy.'' And what better place to smile, study people and feel joy than at a blackjack table raking in their chips? Still playing the cards life dealt her at nearly 104. dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3749 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Florence Tuckman of Glendale still enjoys playing cards playing cards, parts of a set or deck, used in playing various games of chance or skill. The origin of playing cards is unknown, and almost as many theories exist as there are historians of the subject. , even as she approaches her 104th birthday. The centenarian remembers the sinking of the Titanic. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer |
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