In small towns across the country, and whether or not it was true, some in small towns feel the business of the town is run from the coffee table in the local cafe. Every small town has one, some have several, the local café. Each one has a group of regulars that hold court, some have hearings in the morning, some in the afternoon, some participate in both.
Ada, Minnesota is a dwindling agricultural town in north-central Minnesota. The town and county are both losing population as farms get bigger and fewer people are needed to work the land. With fewer farmers, there are few support businesses and fewer jobs in the area.
Our group had the big table in the back room of Bob’s Café in Ada. Coffee always started with a gathering – some coming in early, others always straggling in late. We often got our own coffee, water, pop, cookies, rolls or donuts. Orders for toast, breakfast or juice in the mornings were given to the waitress, along with a dose of good natured ribbing. The world’s problems were solved, city/county business discussed, good old days were reminscised, the costs and prices of farming reviewed and harassment given. At any one time you had a town mayor, city councilman, volunteer fireman, county fair board member involved, sometime several. Generally the tone was fun and jovial, rarely did the conversation become heated.
After about 10 minutes, the regular business of the group started, someone has to pay. The standard procedure was to shake dice. The game called horses is played with five standard, six-sided dice. We always has “our” dice cup in the cupboard under the coffee maker. We also had our own basket of jellies for toast. My father generally sat at the head of the table and started the game. Our version of the game started with everyone getting one shake per round, rolling the dice out of the cup onto the table, clockwise around the table. The highest hand goes out, aces are wild, and five sixes are the best you can get, odds of 1 in 46,656. Five aces will get the table laughing as that is an automatic buying hand. After everyone had one turn, the person with the highest shake goes “out”. The last person in a round starts the next round, tying of a high roll means no one goes out. This goes on until only two people are remaining. These two are in the finals and shake the best of three rounds, trying to get two “horses” on the other. In this part of the game, you get up to three rolls per round. The person starting out can take up to three rolls to set their score. If they use less, their competitor only gets that number of shakes. The competitor must beat the lead players score in an equal or lower number of rolls. In this part of the game, ties are broken by a one shake tie-breaker. The loser pays for coffee.
In an effort to help the loser get his money back, he gets to start one of two games for quarters. The first game is always 6-5-4. In this game you get three rolls to get (in order) a six, a five and a four and the highest score with the two remaining dice. You need to get the 6, 5, 4 to qualify and the best score to win the pot (up to 12). Some groups play a version where the goal is to qualify and get a low score (2 is perfect). Others will have the first 12 be an automatic winner. Ties, will require a new round, with another quarter per player; every tie increases the pot by 25 cents. The winner of this game gets to name the third and final game. “Lowball” or “threes out low” was generally the last game. You generally get up to five rolls of the dice. Each roll requires you to take out at least one dice. Threes have no value, each other dice counts for the value shown. You can take out multiple threes, but only want to take one, in the hopes of getting more threes. A perfect score is zero. Like 6-5-4, ties up the ante by another quarter. Although lowball was often the third game, others were sometimes chosen: pick your own (like lowball, but you picked the number that counted as zero), quit anytime or others could follow 6-5-4. By the end of the third game, it was close to the end of the ½ hour and most guys headed out and back to work. In bad weather or a slow work day, some would hang around longer, maybe playing additional games or debating other local issues.
