Pearl Handled Deck

[Chili Palmer]

In the song Carmelita by Warren Zevon he sings " So I'm sittin' here playing solitaire with my pearl handled deck".
I'm being dense here, but what is a pearl handled deck? Is that a poetic way of saying he's playing Russian Roulette with his pearl handled gun because the county won't give him no more methadone and they cut off his welfare check?

 

[Pestleman]

In the song Carmelita by Warren Zevon he sings " So I'm sittin' here playing solitaire with my pearl handled deck".
I'm being dense here, but what is a pearl handled deck? Is that a poetic way of saying he's playing Russian Roulette with his pearl handled gun because the county won't give him no more methadone and they cut off his welfare check?

 

[Pestleman]

Yes ... absolutely...very intuitive of you. Besides myself, you're the only one I've know to suss it out on their own but when I've mentioned it to my other Zevon loving friends they picked up on the truth and brilliance in the metaphor instantly... As a matter of fact, I had a friend Roger, who was truly a fine brother and we lived in Tucson during the very same years as written in this song. I didn't know Warren Zevon but always wonder if i had but just didn't remember it later. I sat at the Piney Chicken on Alverado Street waiting for my connection many times. We were desperately strung out on heroin too. One day when he'd broken up with his long term lady and was doubtlessly jonesing on heroin, he played pearl-handled solitaire and lost. In his case, it was a pearl-handled semi-auto .380 so I'm sure he knew how long the odds were... It's a creul tragedy when people, especially young people, we weren't even out of our teens, do that. It may get the user out of his unhappy game but it leaves those behind carrying a permanent dark spot in their hearts... Admittedly breaking a heroin habit is a hard thing to do, it took me a year sentence to a cross-bar hotel with enforced sobriety to finally successfullu, permantly lose that habit. It's been almost 50 years and I can still clearly see Roger's face with his heartbroken eyes... but in a stellar guy... intelligent, warm, giving to a fault and simply hilarious in his off-beat, sardonic, self-deprecating humor... He'd come up with a side-splitting funny crack to make, in an otherwise gawd-awful situation, then while we were loaughing oursels stupid he'd maintain a very droll, straight face. butquite pleased with himself on the inside. The most awful part is none of us in our tight clique of deeply loyal friends saw it coming. He was often a forlorn kind of guy but he was also chock-full of genius... and hell, everybody living on the dark rough road of brownish-black mud Mexican heroin in those days was no beacon of sunshine and hope when we were out of heroin... and that was all too often. But out of our old clique of half-dozen guys, 3 didn't make it past their mid-20s but the rest of us have been off drugs, clean more or less, for at least 40 years, and amazingly remain dear friends, although we live in distant parts of the country with our wives and families so reunions are few.

 

[Chili Palmer]

Wow! This is the second posting of mine that in the last month that’s been buried for about 7 years that’s been brought back up to the top.

It’s gotta be tough always looking for your next fix and it usually takes precedence over food, clothing, or a place to stay. Damn, it sounds like your 20’s was a hell of a rough time for you, glad you were able to make it through them.