Judy and three of her guests have just sat down for their weekly Saturday mahjong game. Already, the air is filled with anxiousness from all four players. Judy’s friend, Joe, makes a remark that he hopes to win back some of the money he lost last week. The other players laugh and smile as they mix the tiles around the table. Finally, the tiles are stacked to form four walls and Judy rolls the dice to begin the first round.
In the 1920’s to 1940’s, mahjong games like the fore mentioned occurred on a daily basis. Not only were friends getting together regularly to engage in this game, but neighbors, strangers and relatives gathered to partake in this game as well. Day or night, weekday or weekend, there were always mahjong games to be found. From the clubs of Washington, D.C. to the club houses in Newport, mahjong players were yelling "chow," "pong" and "kong." A whole new culture came to be associated with mahjong.
In one community, in particular, mahjong was played on a regular basis. Israel Markfield, a resident of the Greenbelt community, recalls the time when his wife Peg played mahjong. According to Mr. Markfield, his wife would get together on a regular basis with her friends and her sister to play a game of mahjong. The group of friends were usually the same people because one needed to learn all the rules of the game before he or she was able to play. Learning the rules took some time and patience. Mrs. Markfield and her friends would always play during the day and it was usually for an hour or two. Mr. Markfield seemed to indicate that the game was usually played at their home in Greenbelt because they had a folding bridge table to play on. Families that could not afford to have bridge tables, often used the dining room table. When a mahjong game was played, it was always for fun and never for money, as some games of the time were. Living in Greenbelt, gambling was not looked highly upon. Also, no one could afford to gamble away what little they had. Getting together to enjoy the company of friends was the main objective.26
Elsewhere in the country, mahjong games were also being played. In an article in The New Republic, Charles Merz wrote about a neighbor inviting another neighbor for a game of mahjong. Father and Mother, as they were referred to, invited the two Sandersons who lived around the corner. The two children were sent to their uncle’s place because mahjong was not a game that young children usually engaged in. Both Father and Mother had played the game before but the Sandersons had not. They sought to teach the Sandersons the rules of the game. Therefore, mahjong served as a medium in which neighbors could form neighborly bonds with each other.27
In yet, other parts of the country, the social situation was a bit different. In Newport, Rhode Island, a club was formed for the purpose of housing mahjong games. Both young and old, poor and rich, especially women seemed to be submerged in this game, suggesting that mahjong did not discriminate among players. It was so popular there that parties were often arranged with a mahjong theme, meaning there was nothing but mahjong games at the parties. The many mahjong parties given finally led to the formation of a club, the Black Point Fishing Club house. The club met once a week, on Monday afternoons for two hours of play. Play began at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and lasted until 5 o’clock, when husbands of the mahjong players came and picked their wives up. Initially, the club intended to keep the membership to four tables, but the tremendous popularity of the game forced them to expand their membership. Mahjong enabled perfect strangers to have something in common.28
No matter where people gathered together to play mahjong, there was always a certain atmosphere that came along with it. Part of social atmosphere of mahjong was its noisiness. Many players thought that the noisy atmosphere was essential to the game. A typical game consisted of numerous spirited remarks, continuous gossip and most important of all, the chattering of tiles.29 Like a bridge game, mahjong provided for a social gathering amongst friends, family and relatives. Therefore, tea, cookies and other such foods had to be served by the host as a polite gesture. Lastly, the gathering for a mahjong game was usually that of a spirited one. Mahjong let people forget their worries and concentrate on enjoying a game with their friends. This was especially important in the days of the Great Depression. As Erin Kelman30 mentions in his paper, leisure activities, specifically Monopoly, allowed people to be relieved from the troubled times of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Mahjong did much the same.
Mahjong allowed friends to get together on a regular basis and discuss the events in their daily lives. It enabled neighbors to get together and share in something that would create a neighborly bond. It provided the means by which an entire community of strangers could get together and enjoy each other’s company. Most importantly of all, mahjong enabled people to enjoy people. Who would have ever thought that a simple game, like mahjong, would serve such important social functions?