Wednesdays with Mahjong

I look forward to Wednesdays. I go to one of four of my friends houses each Wednesday and I am assured of fun and laughter… friendship…and very good food!
I first began playing Mahjong in my twenties. The girls I played with were some of my closest friends and with their husbands and mine, often socialized on the weekends.
I have started playing again forty years later and I am enjoying it immensely. We start at eleven and end at three. We stop for lunch and all the girls are very good cooks. I would recommend this game to you no matter what your age and for those who live close, I would love to teach you how to play. I think you would love it.
Mahjong is a game for four players that originated in China. As explained by Wikipedia, the game was imported to the U.S.in the 1920s. The first mahjong sets sold in the U.S. were sold by Abercrombie & Fitch starting in 1920. It became a success in New York, and the owner of the company, Ezra Fitch, sent emissaries to Chinese villages to buy every set of mahjong they could find. Abercrombie & Fitch sold a total of 12,000 sets.
Also in 1920, Joseph Babcock published his book Rules of Mah-Jongg, also known as the "red book". This was the earliest version of mahjong known in America. Babcock had learned mahjong while living in China. Babcock's rules simplified the game to make it easier for Americans to take up, and his version was common through the mahjong fad of the 1920s. Later, when the 1920s fad died out, many of Babcock's simplifications were abandoned.
While mahjong was accepted by U.S. players of all ethnic backgrounds during the Babcock era, many consider the modern American version a Jewish game, as many American mahjong players are of Jewish descent. The National Mahjong League was founded by Jewish players and is considered a Jewish organization. In addition, players usually use the American game as a family-friendly social activity, not as gambling.
In recent years, a second organization has formed, the American Mah Jongg Association. The AMJA currently hosts tournaments all across North America, with their signature event being at the Trump Casino Resort in Atlantic City.