Crack, boom, bang

Although I do still claim to know nothing more about Chinese culture than my Jewish-Italian background would suggest, I do have fond  memories of watching and listening to my mother play the old world game of Mahjong. Every week she would sit at the kitchen table with her female friends, and from the other room you could hear the crack and rustling of the ceramic tiles on the kitchen table.  Sometimes she would let us sit and watch, and I was mesmerized by the swirl of the Chinese characters and pictures of dragons on the tiles.  The women would call out different sayings and flip their tiles over with such speed and precision, it was breathtaking.  I always envisioned one day being "grown up" enough to be taught by a master and play a round beside her.  Something that was never meant to be, but a lovely memory all the same.