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Willie
Nelson considered himself a world-class domino player until one day
in Luckenbach
a couple of cagey veterans cleaned his clock in the unofficial Gillespie
County Domino Championship.
Willie had been playing dominoes since he was a kid on the cotton
farm near Abbott,
Texas—a wide spot in the road between Waco
and Hillsboro. Playing
dominoes, in that part of the world, was an acceptable alternative
to cards—a sinful game associated with gambling and drinking.
The popularity of dominoes really took off during Prohibition.
There are a number of popular domino games like Moon and 42, but straight
dominoes is the game usually played in domino parlors, pool halls
and courthouse basements all over Central Texas. Straight dominoes
is Willie's game.
While Moon and 42 are trick and trump games, straight dominoes is
played by laying dominoes (called rocks) end to end. The dots on the
touching ends must match. If after a play the dots on the exposed
ends total any multiple of 5, that player or team is awarded that
number of points. The player or team with the most points at the end
is the winner. |
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Dominoes is
a noisy, blue-collar, workingman's game. It seems fairly straight
forward. I'm told there is strategy involved, but darned if I know
what it is.
The game has a language all its own. The "spinner" is the game's first
played double. The double blank is "a bar of soap." The double 5 is
the "Gold Nugget." Any domino with 5 dots on either end is a "dancing
girl." "Man overboard" is the term for a player unable to play and
must draw a rock from the "boneyard."
Willie Nelson is no red-headed stranger to high-stakes domino games.
He once played Amarillo Slim in a game of dominoes for charity. They
played in the poker pit in Las Vegas.
The first year Slim beat Willie 5 games to 3. The next year Slim won
5 games to 2.
"I'm closing the gap," said Willie, the eternal optimist. The man
could see a silver lining in a funnel cloud.
Willie especially enjoyed a game of dominoes with old friend Carl
Cornelius, owner of Carl's Corner, a convenience store and truck stop
on I-35 not far from Willie's birthplace in Abbott.
They played for money but the big prize was bragging rights.
It was no game for the faint of heart. The trash talk was brutal.
"Carl thinks he can play dominoes," Willie said, "but he's been the
source of my income for years."
"This time I'll let Willie keep his clothes," Carl replied. "I've
already got a closet full of bandanas and tennis shoes."
Willie
would go just about anywhere for a good game of dominoes. Back in
August 1976, he called Oliver Ottmers at Luckenbach
and asked him to line up the two best domino players in Gillespie
County. Willie and his partner, Zeke Varnon from Hillsboro,
were looking for a game, and they were in no mood to take prisoners.
And so on a warm Sunday afternoon Willie and Zeke took on Louis Gerhard
and Calvin Steubing in a game of dominoes under the shade trees behind
the Luckenbach store. The Gillespie County guys were quiet and confident.
Willie and Zeke talked big but couldn't back it up.
In the end, it wasn't even close. The Gillespie
County champions drubbed Willie and Zeke 4 games out of 6.
At the Luckenbach store they tell another story about that game. They
say that when the contest was over, Willie and his entourage were
relaxing around the table, doing their best to soothe the agony of
defeat.
Meanwhile, a man and his wife stopped in to take a look at the most
famous small town in Texas. While strolling through the grounds at
Luckenbach
they saw a group of men sitting under the trees, surrounded by a cloud
of smoke.
The wife told her husband that one of the men looked familiar. It
was the guy with braided hair. He had a long neck in one hand and
a cigarette in the other.
"That's Willie Nelson," the man said, "and that's no cigarette." |
Related Articles:
Abbott, Texas
"Old-timers still remember Willie carrying his guitar to school..."
Willie by Dorothy Hamm
"Nelson is a red white and blue American who has never forgotten
his small town roots."
Wild
Willie's Picnic by Murray Montgomery
July 1976 in Gonzales County |
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