Durwood and Joyce Miller were living in Balikpapan, Indonesia when they first learned how to play Hand 'n Foot. Durwood was an oilfield drilling consultant, and the Millers were often uprooted and transferred from country to country.
The
outpost in Balikpapan was without luxuries of daily television programs and movie theaters. But that did not stop Durwood and Joyce from finding ways to entertain themselves.
Card playing became their favorite pastime, and one game,
Hand 'n Foot, seemed to be the most popular among those in the area. The ony problem with the game was that each group the Millers would play with had their own set of rules. Incredibly, many times the rules would change in the middle
of the game!
"It finally came to the point when we had to ask for the house rules before we started to play" said Joyce. "We continued playing Hand 'n Foot when we moved, and people began to write us and ask for the rules," she
continued. "That is when I decided to write out the rules to the game myself." The first set of rules was completed on a yellow legal pad while driving across the United States.
We condensed and rewrote the rules several times before
they were satisfied they were as simple and as self explanatory as possible. It was then they searched and found the game had never been trademarked or copyrighted.
The Millers wrote for a trademark and began the lengthy process of producing the cards in 1989. They have been marketing them and playing Hand 'n Foot ever since.
