My Retirement Bucket List: 1. Become a Competent Bridge player.

My earliest childhood memories are of doing the military crawl under card tables to reach, undetected, the Bridge Mix candies my mother set out for her Bridge group.  She was in love with Bridge and was, of course, a math teacher. Note: she did not teach any of her 7 children how to play.

After her death, I set out to learn bridge as a way to connect with her joyful bridge spirit and others. However, learning bridge in my 60s is more challenging than I anticipated!  A friend and former colleague, Paula Matteson, agreed to help me learn and wrote an E-mail letter of introduction to Ann Smallen and Betty Youman of the Mohawk Valley Bridge Association (MVBA).  Betty invited into her Monday night Bridge lessons at Acacia Village and shortly thereafter helped me into the “deep end of the pool”: MVBA duplicate bridge.

Betty and her brother Richard Hartz have been gracious in providing lessons before our MVBA Thursday game.   Mike Mihevc, Bonnie Vanderlan,  Penny Emerick, Paula Matteson and a host of others are more than patient with me when I play with them, all the while assuring me that they are not doing community service in lieu of jail time.  They just love the game and want others to learn!  The MVBA community is welcoming, kind, and generous of heart; they teach bridge and life lessons: play the cards you’re dealt, take prudent risks, and sometimes it is better to keep quiet (and pass.)

Many thanks to the plays of the MVBA!!