LEWISTON – Emma Baillargeon had the jokers in an album, but not in a very flashy way deserving of the 400-plus decks of cards she took them from.

For her 88th birthday, granddaughter Amanda Baillargeon set about fixing that. She started a scrapbook filled with theme pages, stickers, colored paper and careful notes that showcase her joker collection – three or four sets on each page. There are more envelopes filled with cards waiting to be placed.

“See how slow I am? You’re 91!” Amanda said to her grandmother last week, flipping through the album. “The intention was to get it done quicker, but we underestimated how many playing cards she has.”

So, it’s been three years and she still isn’t finished? Emma isn’t in a rush.

“All I do is sit here and let her do the work now,” she said. “I’ve done them, she’s undone them.”

Emma started collecting cards in 1971 when two daughters brought a deck back from a trip to Washington, D.C.

After that, “Anyone that went out of town would bring me a pack. Anyone who would go on a honeymoon would bring me a pack,” she said. “I always tell them, ‘Mark down who went, where you went, the date and the year.'”

The jokers would always get pulled out and the rest of the deck would be tucked away in one of several cardboard boxes.

On one page in the scrapbook Amanda’s made: Three different sets of jokers from packs of Sea World playing cards. On another: Three Disney Worlds. There’s three Hershey’s sets (one from the park, one of Kisses and one shaped like a can of syrup). From the Amish country: five sets of jokers.

The cards have notations like “Colorado, Jan. 18-25, 2002, Dick” and “Boys Town, Omaha Nebraska, June 1976, Alice and Alphee.”

Emma’s acquired some herself. In 1983, she sent away for a deck from Scott Tissue. When she couldn’t make it to the Rainbow Federal Credit Union annual meeting last year, and later found out they gave away playing cards, a friend gave Emma the ones she had picked up for herself.

Amanda said she has lots of memories of her family playing cards at get-togethers as she was growing up. As they got older, the grandkids joined in.

Her grandmother still plays, mostly on Tuesdays with friends and family. Sometimes nickels or quarters ride on each hand.

“We play Scat, we play Crazy King, we play Showdown,” Emma said. “It’s fun, it passes the time, keeps you young.”