Back in the 80s I had a bridge game program for my computer, but I don’t think I ever played in real life.
I have been in places where Hearts and/or Spades were popular (both of which are distantly related to Bridge).
I was in college at about that same time; it was pretty close to a non-entity at Wisconsin. Saw other card games (cribbage, sheepshead, etc.), but I don’t recall ever seeing people playing bridge. YMMV, clearly.
Playing bridge in Gatlinburg brought this whole age/money thing to the forefront for me. Gatlinburg is a horrible tourist trap. Everything about the town itself is depressing. And yet it sits next to one of our country’s most beautiful and sacred places, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
When I last played in this tournament two years ago my partner ( an old friend a few years younger than I) and I spent half our time walking trails and the other half playing bridge. This year I partnered with a nice 80-year old man from our bridge club who is physically unable to hike. I talked with many bridge players at the game and found two things in common among most players: (1) Most are vastly more wealthy than I am AND (2) Most had no interest at all in visiting the Smoky Mountains park.
Most of the players had travelled a long way to be in Gatlinburg. One person told me they were looking forward to really “doing Gatlinburg” this trip by going to Dollywood and later to a Dolly’s Stampede dinner. Several others told me they used to hike when they were younger. Hardly anyone there was not a senior.
The Park mountains this week were gorgeous in the misty cool wet weather. Jaw- dropping beautiful. The park is slowly recovering from Helene with many trails open but difficult because most trail stream crossing bridges were washed away and I cannot imagine the more remote bridges being repaired any time soon. Other areas with landslides or extreme downfalls are especially challenging now.
If I was 20 years younger I would have sturdier legs for fording deep streams. I would be able to carry a pack in and camp for several days and could find compatible contemporaries to engage in such activity. 15 miles on a steep rugged trail a day? No problem. The park right now must be truly special in its remotest areas. Spring wildlife and flora with few humans. Downed trees of course from Helene and some mountainsides stripped by landslides. And yet twenty years ago, before the stroke, before my back and legs aged I could and would have done it.
The woods are my escape from the frightening world right now. And there were those mountains, just there calling in front of me. And I am too old to get out deep anymore. Too damn old.
I do not have much wealth but I would give away half of what I do have to be young and able to immerse in the far backcountry GSMP for just a week.
The Scout Moms & Dads used to have card nights once a month, where a lot of drinking and smoking and gossiping went on- they did play some bridge, but then switched to Pinochle.
My parents played bridge. I played a lot od spades in college. Unfortunately, my partner would often sandbag.
I play bridge most Sunday evenings. I’m one of the younger people in the group, but not by as much as when i joined it.
It seems to me that spades took the place of bridge. I know when we were in the field there was always a spades game going. No one knew bridge.
I played a lot of hearts and spades in college. Several people attempted to teach me pinochle, but it went in one ear and out the other. Someone once attempted to teach me whist, but that utterly confused me.
I always wanted to learn bridge, but never had the opportunity.
When I was in my twenties I had a lot of friends that played cards regularly. Usually it was hearts, spades, or pinochle(I really like pinochle) in addition to more pedestrian things like poker, gin, and 500 rummy. Then I learned a game called 500 (NOT rummy) that is similar to euchre. I loved that game! My bf and I once went with the very elderly parents of another friend to a 500 tournament held at a VFD in rural Maryland. The youngest person after me was easily seventy-five. The grand prize was a home-cured ham, and one sweet old lady won a chicken. I was surprised at my own success and ended up in eighth(?) place and won a roll of paper towels 
I haven’t flown in so long that I don’t know whether I even can still get a boarding pass printed on paper.
But I sure hope I could if I needed to, because my phone doesn’t do that sort of thing. Maybe I could get the ipad to do it, I don’t know.
Didn’t vote.
ETA:
Live, dead and raw, or cooked?
You could do on an Ipad. Also, paper is always an option in my experience.
I have flown recently and depending on the airline they will print out a boarding pass for you at the check in desk. I’ve had a couple airlines do this for me the last few times. In fact one airline insisted on doing it - I can’t remember which one it was though. They are a bit flimsier these days. Not the hard paper of yesteryear.
The past few years I’ve had both a digital copy and a paper copy.
Are you asking about the chicken or the sweet old lady?
mmm
I fly a lot these days. I can’t even remember the last time I used a paper boarding pass. A couple of years ago, I wast forced to actually go to the counter to check my bag because the kiosks weren’t working, and the attendant handed me a boarding pass without my asking. I stuffed it in my pocket and used my phone to board anyway.
I’ve had that happen when my itinerary involved more than one airline, like the first leg was on American Airlines and the second is on British Airways. I checked in on aa.com and got my boarding passes for each leg in the AA app, but at the connecting airport BA insisted they needed to print a boarding pass for me; I couldn’t use the one AA issued me.
And yes, I’ve also had that happen when I needed to go to the counter to check a bag, they printed a boarding pass for me even though I didn’t ask for one and already had a boarding pass on my phone.
I receive them for international flights more than anything else.
The chicken, the chicken!
– though sweet old ladies are occasionally also hard-boiled when necessary.
– @Procrustus and @Ellecram, thanks for replies.
For a long time I insisted on using a paper boarding pass, because I was worried about my phone crashing or the battery dying right when I was in the boarding line. But the last few times I’ve flown I’ve just used a digital boarding pass. I guess I’m ok with doing it that way now.
In the unlikely event that happens, I’m sure they can print a boarding pass for you at the gate. That’s why I feel completely confident just having it on my phone.
It’s not crashing & dying for me but it is being unusable that I don’t like.
I have my rollaboard in one hand & seat stuff in the other hand - book, water bottle, food, maybe a jacket in the other hand. Invariably, the screen times out on me between when I’ve last unlocked it & when they need to scan it, which requires me putting in a code (by design) to unlock it when I don’t have enough fingers to do that while holding everything else.