Ball 00 · 1900

housie: the deck of a ship at sea

The device here: nickname. Your caller: Kelly.

The ball said 00, which Ama said was not a number at all — and then they were on the swaying deck of a big ship, with sailors and soldiers sitting on coils of rope, playing a game they called housie with little paper tickets.

The caller, a cheerful sailor called Kelly, had a nickname for every number. Nobody minded that you had to know the nickname — that was half the fun. “Snowman!” Kelly called, and everyone circled 8.

“A nickname is a picture of a number,” Kelly said. “Once you have heard a good one, you never forget it.” She asked Ama and Tam to make up new ones.

Kelly’s nicknames

1 — “a candle on a cake”
2 — “a swan on the lake”
4 — “a chair turned upside down”
7 — “a walking stick”
8 — “a snowman”
10 — “a bat and ball”
11 — “two lamp posts”
13 — “a baker’s dozen”
22 — “two little ducks”
24 — “hours in a day”
60 — “minutes in an hour”
88 — “piano keys”

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