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Your Stories: Euchre Tales

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A black-and-white photo taken from above shows several people gathered around a rustic wooden coffee table, playing cards. Two sets of hands are visible — the people themselves are mostly cut off at the torso. Playing cards are spread across a small table in small groupings, and one person is in the middle of dealing cards.
Anthony DeLorenzo
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Wikimedia Commons
Just euchre

In last week's episode, we dug into the history of euchre and whether the quintessential Michigan game was actually created in the mitten. Turns out, not quite. The trick-taking game came to the Midwest — including Michigan — through farmers who visited New Orleans and Pennsylvania and came in contact with Alsatian immigrants, from a region along the Rhine River where France and Germany meet. The Civil War also helped spread the game across the country.

From the 1700s to today, the way we play euchre has evolved in countless ways and we heard from some of you on how you've managed to make the game your own.

Today, we’re sharing your euchre stories.

GUESTS:

  • Keith Kim, an Ann Arbor resident who in college managed to skip doing the dishes countless of times by winning a few rounds of euchre
  • Eric Farnum from Grand Ledge is one of the masterminds behind what he and his friends liked to call "Bastard Euchre"

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Michelle Jokisch Polo is a producer for Stateside. She joins us from WKAR in Lansing, where she reported in both English and Spanish on a range of topics, including politics, healthcare access and criminal justice.