Page 16 - Discover Summer 2021

Winning

Streak

By Kate Hofstetter

A recent discussion on TV, that, we kept in touch by email. Then
regarding the importance of she challenged me to a game of “Words
“underlying causes” in the death of a With Friends”. It is an electronic game
person, got me thinking about an old that is very similar to Scrabble.

friend of mine named
I readily accepted
Gail. We were best
her challenge, as I love
friends all through
word games, especially
middle school and
Scrabble.
most of high school.
Then, her parents Although there
moved to another state was little doubt in either
the summer before our of our minds that she

senior year. was the smarter of the
two of us, I beat Gail
We kept in touch
handily several games
for a time, even after we
in a row. She concentrated on building
both started families. Finally, over the
great words; she had a good vocabulary,
years the amount of letters and phone
but she ignored the high point squares
calls dwindled, and we lost complete
and left openings for me.
touch with one another. I “found”
her again a few years ago through an The worse of a beating that she

online app. It cost me a $35 finder’s fee, suffered, the more games she seemed to
which I happily paid. want to play. At times, we had as many
as four games going at once, and there
She was living on a lake in
were never fewer than two in progress.
Indiana, near my hometown in
Plus, I’d no sooner send her a word
Michigan. So, when I went back to
than one would be fired back. She was
visit family, I stopped to see her. After

14 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SUMMER 2021