The "Domino College (JB)" Story

Playing Dominos at the Ferry Dock in St. Martin

It was an ordinary day.  Going through some of my photo CDs, looking for just the right photo for one of my stories when I came upon a couple of photos I had taken while on vacation on two different islands.  Photos both showed small groups of men gathered on city streets around a wooden table using small pieces of wood engraved with black dots.  Game they were playing is known as Dominos.  I assume you have heard of the game before.  The game was first played in the Caribbean by noblemen and plantation owners, but was quickly adapted by workers and slaves, since it was an incredibly easy game to play and was fairly inexpensive to make a set of Domino tiles.  The game featured small wooden tiles marked with dots made by perforating the wood with a sharp tool or by burning the dots in place with a hot iron.  These tiles lasted considerably longer than a deck of playing cards.  You didn't need anything other than the wooden tiles to play the game and any flat space would suit for a game of Dominos.  While vacationing on many of the Caribbean islands during the past fifteen years, I have noticed game after game of Dominos being played just about everywhere.  

A group playing Dominos in Barbados. Fellow with the
brown hat asked me to join them for a game, but I declined.

During one trip to Barbados I approached a group of men along a street in the capital of Bridgetown to take a photo while they played.  The rhythmic beat of tiles being slapped on the table was mesmerizing.  It seems the more force you could use to slam your tile in place without moving the other tiles made the game more exciting.  After a game, and the customary swig of rum, one of the players looked at me and with a smile, offered me a chance to sit in and play a game.  I was honored, but declined his offer.  To this day I regret that I didn't take him up on his offer, since playing a game which carries this much history and of this magnitude in the Caribbean was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.  Another time I found an exciting game with plenty of banter and slamming of tiles in an outdoor restaurant on the island of West Caicos where I stopped for some ice cream.  My camera was barely noticed as I snapped a few shots of the four gentlemen playing the game with passion and enthusiasm.  Along the boardwalk in Philipsburg on the island of Sint Maarten, I have encountered games of Dominos by the water's edge under the seagrape and palm trees at the east end of the town.  And, the list of places goes on and on.  The game is usually played by four men who at times play as a team.  Strategies for playing are at times similar to poker with calculations, bluffs and intimidation part of the game, but it does not matter who or how many play, it's the slap of the tile on the table that is the most memorable part of the game to me.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.